1st World Problems

I've been contemplating another motorcycle tour of epic proportions. I have a permission slip from the wife and I was thinking of doing a North Island New Zealand motorcycle tour in 2016. Talking with my friend the 2 minute man recently he was saying he's never ridden Tasmania. Now there is a tough choice to be made here.

All I have to do is decide which one.....

A Chiller update

It's been awhile since I've posted anything up, there's a couple of reasons for that. I've been so busy of late with both work and with also things going on with my partners family there's not been much time for riding or even blogging so I thought I'd just do a quick up date.

Last outing was to Sydney Motorsport park which was a fantastic day out, I've not been out on the bike since then but I did manage to take the slicks out and put on a brand new set of Michelin Pilot Power 3's. Yes I know I had some problems with them on the last set with the uneven wear on the side of the tread where the 2 compounds met, but after I punished them hard at Phillip Island whilst they had 6300kms under their belt I was pretty impressed on how well they worked. Perhaps the last tyre was a bad one for the wear problem, I don't know but I'll find out when these one's wear out. I had no problem with grip even at the end of the life of the tyre. I took them off with 7070km's on them. Superb wear on a sports tyre with a track day as well.

If I get the same wear out of these then I'll be a happy boy that's for sure. Just need to get out for a ride soon.

New and old

I've also been trying to be a bit more health conscious lately, well as far back as October last year to be honest. With the upcoming Phillip Island ride day I made a effort to eat healthier, drink less alcohol(NOOOOOOOOOO are you fookin daft man?)and do a bit of exercise to which I dusted off the old exercise bike for some pedalling which I've stuck with so far. The main motivator to start with was to get into some sort of shape so I didn't kill myself at the track because I was to fat and lazy to get the bike punted around. Now I can see other benefits so I've tried to stick with it as best I can. I now eat fruit every day and try and have more veggies, but I still love my beer and steak, don't get me wrong I haven't gone all mental(I'll never be a vegan, sorry Brandy). I usually try to do at least 4 days a week on the exercise bike. The net result of this since October last year is that I've lost about 14kg(30 lbs). Woo hoo, I feel much better now than I did six months ago that's for sure. I'm now down to the mid 90's which I haven't been since I left school.

There is a down side to this though, if there is a downside I hear you say, and that is that I've dropped 1-2 sizes in clothes and all of my current clothes no longer fit. I have some shirts that were given to me as Christmas presents a couple of years ago that I've never worn as they were 1 or 2 sizes too small, I now fit into them. Now my problem here is that my new set of Tiger Angel leathers are also, now way over sized and baggy. They no longer fit, they are big around the chest, belly, rear, arms and legs. Hell the whole suit is now too big. They are great leathers but I couldn't have timed that worse I guess. My mate Geoff says just to eat more pizza and drink more booze and problem solved but I don't think I want to do that.

So what to do, what to do........ I have pondered for a while and there's only 2 options that I can see. Either I send my leathers back and get them down sized, I've no idea how much that will cost or do I just go buy myself a new Jacket to fit my new size and then a set of draggin jeans......I'm thinking it would be easier to just get a jacket in case I put the weight back on at a later date I can always use the Tiger Angels again.

What do you guys think?

The pics below show my now baggy leathers, the pic on the right there's at least 2-3 inches extra each side of the zip. My left hand is flat on my stomach.

Here's a pic of me back in February last year in New Zealand below on the left with a photo of me tonight on the right. Yes I've still a bit to go yet, realistically I'd like to lose another 5kg(11 lbs) then I'd be pretty stoked.

Fat bastards anonymous

Medium fat bastards anonymous

Australian Speeding Fines, wheelies and more.....

Whilst wheelies might look cool and can be considered to be a bit of fun, the local constabulary doesn't necessarily agree with you or with this behaviour. Vicpol are more likely to tazer you then ask why your pulling a monster wheely. Have you ever wondered what that wheelie is going to cost you if you get busted by the fuzz. Depending on what state you live in there are different fines and associated points loss and even vehicle impoundment laws in place. It might be a good time to take a look at these and remember them so you don't have a brain snap and do something stupid that you'll regret later.

Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200

The laws vary quite a bit from state to state. Lets take a look at what some of these things will cost you if your doing the wrong thing. I deliberately have not put anything in about drink driving fines for obvious reasons.
The penalties listed in the tables below are for light vehicles(cars/motorcycles) only and there are separate fines for heavy vehicles.

NEW SOUTH WALES

In NSW a full drivers license has 13 demerit points.

Speeding Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Exceed limit by less than 10 kmh	1	$109
Exceed limit by 10 kmh - 19 kmh	3	$254
Exceed limit by 20 kmh - 29 kmh	4	$436
Exceed limit by 30 kmh - 44 kmh	5 *	$835
Exceed limit by 45 kmh or more	6 **	$2252
Exceed limit by less than 10 kmh in School Zone	2	$182
Exceed limit by 10 kmh - 19 kmh in School Zone	4	$327
Exceed limit by 20 kmh - 29 kmh in School Zone	5	$545
Exceed limit by 30 kmh - 44 kmh in School Zone	6 *	$1053
Exceed limit by 45 kmh or more in School Zone	7 **	$2400

*   Minimum 3 months License Disqualification

** Minimum 6 months License Disqualification

If police catch you speeding by more than 45km/h over the limit you may have your licence immediately suspended and confiscated at the roadside for 6 months.

In addition to this NSW has Double demerits where on advertised long weekends like Easter, Christmas - New Year, Australia Day, Anzac Day etc the fines for speeding, not wear a seatbelt, riding without a helmet attract double the demerit points for that offense.

Negligent Driving/Riding

There are a couple of different types of neg driving charges you can get in NSW. There is the basic negligent driving. This is the lesser charge that can be used for lots of different purposes such as bad driving/riding, wheelies, stoppies etc. The greater of the two charges is called Driving in a manner dangerous and if you get done for this you are really screwed and will have to attend court where the costs could be much higher.

Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Negligent Driving	3	$415
Negligent Driving - Burnout	3	$623
Drive without proper control of vehicle	3	$415
Ride motorcycle whilst lane splitting at over 30 kmh	3	$623
Use vehicle with obscured/defaced/illegible number plate	3	$415
Driving in a manner dangerous	*	$2200 1st

* 12 Months minimum - no maximum license Disqualification - Up to 9 months jail term. A second offense will draw in $3300 2 Year minimum license loss and up to 12 months jail.

NSW has various 'HOON' laws in place that can be used for offences such as

• Street racing
• Aggravated burnout
• Engaging in a police pursuit
• Speeding by more than 45km

With these you can have your vehicle impounded or your license plates confiscated on the spot for a fixed 3 month period and your license suspended on the spot. If your plates are confiscated then the police will affix a number plate confiscation sticker to the vehicle. If you get one of these you will be walking or getting towed as if your caught using the vehicle again its a $3300 fine and vehicle forfeiture. If your stupid enough to be in a police chase you can be charged under Sky's Law with a minimum jail term of 3 years on a first offense.

So if your pulling wheelies it will probably depend on where your doing it and how the copper feels at the time but if you are doing it on a deserted country road then you'll probably just get a neg driving charge, but if your pulling monster wheelies down Pitt St Sydney then you can expect them to throw the book at you and you'll be facing a ban and a huge fine. You've been warned.

VICTORIA

In Victoria a full drivers license has 12 demerit points. Victoria otherwise know as the 'police state' for Vicpol's overzealous enforcement of everything and anything they can.

Speeding Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Exceed limit by less than 10 kmh	1	$185
Exceed limit by 10 kmh – 24 kmh	3	$295
Exceed limit by 25 kmh – 29 kmh	4 *	$406
Exceed limit by 30 kmh – 34 kmh	4 *	$480
Exceed limit by 35 kmh – 39 kmh	6 **	$554
Exceed limit by 40 kmh – 44 kmh	6 **	$627
Exceed limit by 45 kmh or more	8 ***	$738

*     Minimum 1 month License Disqualification
**   Minimum 6 months License Disqualification
*** Minimum 12 months License Disqualification

Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Careless Driving	3 *	$295

* If charged with careless driving you may be required to undertake a safe driving program.

ANTI HOON LAWS

The anti-hoon laws provide that if police have reasonable grounds for believing a driver has committed a hoon-related offence, they have the power to seize that vehicle and impound or immobilise it for 30 days. A vehicle may be impounded or immobilised, regardless of who owns it and whether the driver is the registered operator.

Your vehicle could be impounded if you commit offences such as:

• speeding at 45 km/h or more over the speed limit (or 145 kilometres per hour or more if the speed limit is 110 kilometres per hour)
• deliberate loss of traction(burnout)
• street racing
• refusing to stop when directed by police
• a repeat offence of unlicensed driving
• driving at 70 km/h or more over the speed limit

If a person is found guilty of three hoon-related offences inside three years, their vehicle can be permanently forfeited by the court. The vehicle will then be sold or crushed.

Who's up for Hoon pancakes?
Link

If your caught popping a wheel in Victoria then you will be charged under the Hoon legislation and will then have your pride and joy seized for 30 days + the fine + the towing fee and possible court costs. A wheelie could cost anywhere up to $3000 and a month off the bike.

Vicpol tactics, hiding in the bushes with radars and camouflage

Link

QUEENSLAND
In Queensland a full drivers license has 12 demerit points.

Speeding Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Exceed limit by less than 13 kmh	1	$151
Exceed limit by 13 kmh – 20 kmh	3	$227
Exceed limit by 21 kmh – 30 kmh	4	$379
Exceed limit by 31 kmh – 40 kmh	6	$531
Exceed limit by 41 kmh or more	8 *	$1062
If a second speeding fine is committed within 12 months of the first fine then the points for the second fine will be doubled. The fine stays the same.

*   Minimum 6 months License Disqualification - second offence vehicle will be impounded for 7 days, 3rd offence vehicle will be impounded for 90 days

Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Careless driving	3*	$4000 #
Dangerous operation of a motor vehicle	*	$4000 @
Racing or speed trial	*
Wilfully making excessive noise or smoke(burnout)	*

* 90 day vehicle impoundment for first offence, if a second offence occurs within 5 years the vehicle will be forfeit.
# Maximum penalty is $4000 and 1 month to 2 years license disqualification - Type 1 Hoon offence
@ Maximum penalty is $4000 and up to 5 years jail, minimum 6 month license disqualification

ANTI HOON LAWS

Queensland also has some of the harshest anti hoon laws in the country. There are 2 types of these with different severity's.


A type 1 offence is considered the most serious while type 2 offences are less serious. The Government classification of serious and not so serious does however appear poorly drafted as doing a burnout is considered more serious than high range drink driving for the purpose of impoundment and forfeiture.

Type 1 hooning offences include;

• evading police.
• taking part in racing or speed trials
• wilfully starting a motor vehicle or driving in way that makes unnecessary noise or smoke
• dangerous driving
• careless driving

Type 2 hooning offences include;

• driving a vehicle that is uninsured and unregistered
• driving without a licence or when your licence has been suspended
• high range drink driving—with a blood alcohol level above 0.15%
• exceeding the speed limit by more than 40km/h
• driving a modified vehicle that does not comply with vehicle safety standards
• driving while under a 24 hour suspension order.

Special Mention : -

ANTI ASSOCIATION LAWS(Anti Bikie)

Queensland has some pretty harsh laws in place for anyone that is in a social motorcycle club(Hells Angels, Rebels, Mongels, Comancheros etc, all the 1% clubs basically). The Queensland government has introduced new laws to stop people from associating with others if they deem them to be in a outlaw motorcycle club. These laws can see people put in jail for just meeting together with 3 or more members in a public place. It's pretty farcical and hopefully shall soon be repelled. You can click here for more info on a previous post.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

 In SA a full drivers license has 12 demerit points.

Speeding Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Exceed limit by less than 10 kmh	2	$159
Exceed limit by 10 kmh - 19 kmh	3	$349
Exceed limit by 20 kmh - 29 kmh	5	$709
Exceed limit by 30 kmh - 44 kmh	7	$846
Exceed limit by 45 kmh or more	9 *	$952

*   Minimum 6 months License Disqualification

Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Misuse of a motor vehicle(Hoon)	4 *	Court
Drive without proper control of vehicle	-	$169
Reckless driving or Driving in a manner dangerous to the public	6 *	Court
Excessive Speed	9

* Police can wheel clamp or impound your vehicle

The best place to find one of these

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

In WA a full drivers license has 12 demerit points.

Speeding Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Exceed limit by less than 9 kmh	0	$100
Exceed limit by 9 kmh -19 kmh	2 *	$200
Exceed limit by 20 kmh - 29 kmh	3 *	$400
Exceed limit by 30 kmh - 40 kmh	5 *	$800
Exceed limit by 41 kmh or more	7 * **	$1000

* On advertised weekends double demerits apply to these offences. ie Easter, Christmas and long weekends etc
** 28 Day vehicle impounded for first offense, 2nd offense 3 months.

Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Willfully causing excessive noise, smoke(eg burn out)	3 *	$600
Driving at high speed or in a dangerous or antisocial manner		Court
Reckless Driving – 1st offence	**	$2000
Reckless Driving – 2nd offence	**	$3000

* 28 Day vehicle impounded for first offense, 2nd offense 3 months.

WA also has fairly hefty ANTI HOON laws in place for excessive speeding, street racing etc. For hoon offenses your vehicle can be impounded by the police for 28 days on a 1st offense and for 3 months on a 2nd offence. A 3rd offense will see your vehicle confiscated or impounded for 6 months. Examples of hoon behaviour are

• intentionally causing tyres to lose traction
• causing a vehicle to make excessive noise or smoke
• exceeding the speed limit by 45 km/h or more (e.g. travelling at more than 155 km/h in a 110 km/h zone )
• engaging in a race or speed trial on a public road or in a public space

Popping a wheelie could be considered hoon behaviour.

TASMANIA

Speeding Offence	Demerit Points	Fine
Exceed limit by less than 10 kmh	2	$80
Exceed limit by 10 kmh – 14 kmh	2	$110
Exceed limit by 15 kmh – 22 kmh	3	$150
Exceed limit by 23 kmh – 29 kmh	3	$250
Exceed limit by 30 kmh – 37 kmh	5	$450
Exceed limit by 38 kmh – 44 kmh	6 *	$650
Exceed limit by 45 kmh or more	6 **	$800

*     Minimum 3 month License Disqualification
**   Minimum 4 months License Disqualification


So after all of this I've learned that popping one sweet little wheelie could cost you big time  in Australia if you are caught doing it. We have so much become the nanny state of the world is embarrassing. So moral of this story is don't do it anywhere were you can get caught. That only leaves private property, as race tracks also don't let you wheely there either leaving you with few options. That also goes for speeding as well. Take that to the track where you can have some real fun and go as hard as you are capable of.

So you can see that  for Australia, Tasmania looks like it wins the best and fairest award and Queensland and Victoria pull out the Gestapo award for the biggest money grabbing asshats that you could ever hope to meet. Now lets compare some of this to some other 1st world countrys like the USA and Germany.

Germany

Germany is well renouned as leaders in car/motorcycle manufacturing with superior build quality and this also is translates over into their road systems and license testing. A drivers license in germany has 18 points

Speeding Offence	Suspension City/Country	Demerit Points	Fine *
Up to 10 km/h			15/10
11 – 15 km/h			25/20
16-21 km/h			35/30
21-25 km/h		1	80/70
26-30 km/h		1	100/80
31-40 km/h	1 month(City)	1	160/120
41-50 km/h	1 month	2	200/160
51-60 km/h	2/1 months	2	280/240
61-70 km/h	3/2 months	2	480/440
over 70 km/h	3 months	2	680/600

* Fine on the left is for within city limits and on the right is out of city limits

USA

Speeding fines in the USA can vary quite a bit from state to state, but for the purposes of this exercise I'm going to look at the state of Oregon. Thanks to Brandy from Trobairitz Tablet for some info for this article.

Speeding fines in the state of Oregon are classified as traffic violations. There are different classes of violations that appear to attract different fines.

(a)One to 10 mph(2-16kph) in excess of the speed limit is a Class D traffic violation. Fine $110

(b)11 to 20 mph(16-32kph) in excess of the speed limit is a Class C traffic violation. Fine $160

(c)21 to 30 mph(32-48kph) in excess of the speed limit is a Class B traffic violation. Fine $260

(d)Over 30 mph(48kph+) in excess of the speed limit is a Class A traffic violation. Fine $435

In addition to this the licensing system does not have a points system, so accumulating fines doesn't seem to make you necessarily lose your license. In Oregon your insurance company (there are dozens, not just one from run by the government) they can give you points in their system for tickets and raise your insurance rates or drop your insurance if you get too many tickets. So higher insurance rates may be the outcome but you still keep your license.

A court may order a suspension of driving privileges for up to 30 days if a person exceeds a speed limit or designated speed by more than 30 miles per hour and the person has received at least one prior conviction within 12 months of the date of the current offense.

If a person drives 100 miles per hour or greater when the person commits a violation, the person commits a specific fine traffic violation. The presumptive fine for a violation under this subsection is $1,150, and upon conviction the court shall order a suspension of driving privileges for not less than 30 days nor more than 90 days.

You can see that comparing NSW to Germany and the US
1. NSW       - 45kmh over $2252 6 points(half your license) and 6 months disqualification
2. Germany  - 45kmh over - €200 2 points and 1 month disqualification
3. USA        - 45kmh over - $260 No points

The Wrap Up

So it seems no matter where you live you will get bent over and shafted if your caught speeding or doing the wrong thing thats pretty universal, but it seems especially bad if you live in a heavily policed state like Australia compared to other 1st world country's like the US and Germany. Our fines and penalties seem to be severely harsh in comparison. With an ever diminishing road toll which is due more to the fact of safer cars and better built roads than drivers ability or policing/speed cameras it hard to fathom government thinking on this but it seems to be more than anything else a revenue raising exercise. I leave this thought with you and you can be the judge.

Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm recently addressed parliament with an almost word for word speech as the following video. David's speech has to be the most common sensicle approach I've ever heard from a politician anywhere and it was brilliantly put.



Thanks to the following government websites for the information required to put this page together. If you want more info click on the links below. I haven't put in any information on the Northern Territory as er........ well there isn't anywhere decent there to ride so I didn't waste my time filling it out. Prove me wrong NT riders :P. There is one notable exception with the NT. They have a section of road north of Alice springs where the speed limit is 200kmh but that's just too far away.......


Victoria Demerit Points
NSW Demerit Points
QLD Demerit Points
South Australia Demerit Points
WA Demerit Points
Tas Demerit Points and Fines
NT Demerit Points
BMVI - Germany
Oregon Laws.Org