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For those of you who are interested and didn't go (Or for the few of you that did), there was a midnight to dawn ride on Saturday night for the variety club of WA.
Around 100-125 bikes (By my rough approximation) showed up for the ride which started at the BP servo on Abernethy Rd in Kewdale. The run was a 'shaker' run - designed to keep everyone together as a group and ride through all the upper class suburbs as a group and wake everyone up.
Ride went well and everyone was mostly well behaved. Only downer being the attitude of the police.
DC and I went down together and stuck together for most of the ride. On the first stage however we pulled up at a set of lights (~100 of us) turning left and there just happened to be a copper turning right at the same intersection. We're all grinning at this guy who has promptly shit his dacks and got on the blower and within 2 mins PolAir is over us blasting us all with the spotlight. At this point DC and I were around the rear of the main group. I notice a cop right on my rear wheel out of nowhere which nobody else has noticed, so I slow right down, losing ground on the main group in the process - the idea being not only to give him nothing to do me for, but to block the main group from an unwelcome tail.
Anyways, I crest a hill and head down towards a stop sign, ~20-40 metres behind the main group, some of whom roll the stop sign, some of whom don't. I make sure and stop thanks to the smurf humping my rear wheel, and when I make the right he decides I'm obviously not going to be a source of fines to pay for the wasted fuel PolAir used chasing us and boosts it past me and turns the lights on - pulling over the last rider in the group who was DC who had hung around to wait for me as he had noticed I dropped back.
At this point I've lost alot of ground on the main group and roll past to see the man hassling DC, I consider stopping but figure I'll only inflame the situation so I ride on, catching up to the group after a few minutes. We end up at a BP servo all gasing up, me waiting to see what has happened to DC and chatting to another few blokes in the process. DC eventually pulls up and promptly yells, "FUCK!" (If anyone was there they'll remember that) as the man had decided to book him for rolling the stop sign - despite the fact that as I was cresting the hill the last bikers went through and at best he would've caught a glance at a few tail lights making their way around the bend - 3 points and $150 thank you very much. I'll let DC finish that particular story off.
After having written out the notice to DC the cop sat and watched him - hoping obviously to follow him to find out where we were. But DC sat there and did bugger all until the cop got the hint and fucked off - big respect to DC for that move - before rolling off to find out where we'd ended up.
The cops did try and chase us for most of the night but because of the way our route meandered around in a seemingly random fashion most of the time we dodged them or they were stuck going the opposite direction and couldn't catch up. We also had a few security cars getting on the blower though, especially when we stopped at servos.
At the end of the night nobody binned their bike, though a few guys on cruisers clipped or ground bits and bobs of their bikes on median strips and round-abouts and the like. The contact that we had with the public was always guys out on their lawns waving to us as we went past which was cool, and the only thing that put a downer on the evening was the harrassment by cops who surely could've found better things to do after midnight on a Saturday - as I assume the burglary problem hasn't sorted itself out yet. :roll:
If anyone from the board was there, they'll know DC from the commotion at the first stop and they would've probably seen me on my black/silver gixer too. Next time feel free to come up and say ello.
Top night, DC intends to fight the charge of running the stop sign and any advice etc which anyone has for the situation would come in very helpful and would I'm sure be much appreciated.
8)
Around 100-125 bikes (By my rough approximation) showed up for the ride which started at the BP servo on Abernethy Rd in Kewdale. The run was a 'shaker' run - designed to keep everyone together as a group and ride through all the upper class suburbs as a group and wake everyone up.
Ride went well and everyone was mostly well behaved. Only downer being the attitude of the police.
DC and I went down together and stuck together for most of the ride. On the first stage however we pulled up at a set of lights (~100 of us) turning left and there just happened to be a copper turning right at the same intersection. We're all grinning at this guy who has promptly shit his dacks and got on the blower and within 2 mins PolAir is over us blasting us all with the spotlight. At this point DC and I were around the rear of the main group. I notice a cop right on my rear wheel out of nowhere which nobody else has noticed, so I slow right down, losing ground on the main group in the process - the idea being not only to give him nothing to do me for, but to block the main group from an unwelcome tail.
Anyways, I crest a hill and head down towards a stop sign, ~20-40 metres behind the main group, some of whom roll the stop sign, some of whom don't. I make sure and stop thanks to the smurf humping my rear wheel, and when I make the right he decides I'm obviously not going to be a source of fines to pay for the wasted fuel PolAir used chasing us and boosts it past me and turns the lights on - pulling over the last rider in the group who was DC who had hung around to wait for me as he had noticed I dropped back.
At this point I've lost alot of ground on the main group and roll past to see the man hassling DC, I consider stopping but figure I'll only inflame the situation so I ride on, catching up to the group after a few minutes. We end up at a BP servo all gasing up, me waiting to see what has happened to DC and chatting to another few blokes in the process. DC eventually pulls up and promptly yells, "FUCK!" (If anyone was there they'll remember that) as the man had decided to book him for rolling the stop sign - despite the fact that as I was cresting the hill the last bikers went through and at best he would've caught a glance at a few tail lights making their way around the bend - 3 points and $150 thank you very much. I'll let DC finish that particular story off.
After having written out the notice to DC the cop sat and watched him - hoping obviously to follow him to find out where we were. But DC sat there and did bugger all until the cop got the hint and fucked off - big respect to DC for that move - before rolling off to find out where we'd ended up.
The cops did try and chase us for most of the night but because of the way our route meandered around in a seemingly random fashion most of the time we dodged them or they were stuck going the opposite direction and couldn't catch up. We also had a few security cars getting on the blower though, especially when we stopped at servos.
At the end of the night nobody binned their bike, though a few guys on cruisers clipped or ground bits and bobs of their bikes on median strips and round-abouts and the like. The contact that we had with the public was always guys out on their lawns waving to us as we went past which was cool, and the only thing that put a downer on the evening was the harrassment by cops who surely could've found better things to do after midnight on a Saturday - as I assume the burglary problem hasn't sorted itself out yet. :roll:
If anyone from the board was there, they'll know DC from the commotion at the first stop and they would've probably seen me on my black/silver gixer too. Next time feel free to come up and say ello.
Top night, DC intends to fight the charge of running the stop sign and any advice etc which anyone has for the situation would come in very helpful and would I'm sure be much appreciated.
8)
) , but this event is a PR disaster for WA's biking community. Despite being for a great cause, riding through the influential suburbs of Perth in the middle of the night and waking everyone up does fuck all to boost our already tarnished image in the eyes of Joe Public. Remember too, that those same influential suburbs house the judges and politicians.... Hope nobody who rides a motorcycle had a court date Monday with any of 'his honours' who might have had a bad night's sleep because 100+ bikes rolled past his door in the middle of the night. :evil:
help out the Variety Club kids.
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