Cheesecutter Protest Ride

As a result of a horrific accident in Auckland where a young biker was killed after crashing and hitting a Wire rope barrier the NZ biker community (particularly on the Kiwi Biker website) has been pretty vocal in their condemning of the wire "cheesecutter" barriers and a number of protest rides have been organised.

Today was Wellington's turn and so I had to be there. Mark & Shelly were keen and I managed to talk Brian into stealing his brother's bike and bringing Linda down for the ride too.

I left home pretty early and went around to pick up Brian & Linda and we then headed off down to meet up with Mark & Shelly on the Opiki road. on the way down we saw quite a few bikes heading out and about but unfortunately not in the same direction - to the protest.

After a quick gas up & drink in Otaki we continued on down towards Plimmerton where one of the two groups of riders was to depart from. We caught a few spits and eventually some fairly decent rain before finally pulling up outside the Sandbar.

Here we signed the petition, put on some red armbands and chatted with a few of the assembled bikers (hi Chancey/NZSarge)while we waited for the rest of the riders to arrive and the rain to stop.

Just before 11 we were given our briefing and we mounted up to head into town. The lead riders took us slowly on up the highway and we got another drenching but all the riders behaved themselves and formed up behind the leaders well. It looked quite impressive in the mirrors!

When we got into Wellington we hooked up with the other group of riders and made our way to park up outside the parliament buildings before heading into the parliament grounds for the speeches.

First up was "Colapop" who had done a lot of the organising for the ride and he spoke very well about why we were there and what we were hoping to achieve - a top guy. Secondly we had Marian Hobbs explaining how our petition might help us get a voice at any select committee looking into road safety etc. Lastly, another Kiwi Biker who's name escapes me read quite a long speech but was once again very well spoken and made some very good points.

All up the organisers think that around 200 bikers turned up with some coming from the Hawkes Bay and Wanganui.

After the speeches etc we tootled into town for some lunch before heading home into weather that just kept getting better.

More of my pics here.

Other Kiwi Bikers' pictures here.

Ride discussion thread here.

And the Cheesecutter website here.