Did We Do Any Good? 25/9/11

[weimieman]

As I mentioned when I first joined this club, I've never been one for the meetings and ride outs together. After reading Nev's Barmy EU plans thread, I thought for the first time in my life I'd better not do the British thing of just whinging about poor treatment and continue to do bugger all about it. For the first time in my life I wanted to contribute to something I felt passionate about, my bikes.

I was aiming for the 1pm slot at the Holiday Inn on the M6 Junction 34 and from what I had gathered most people were going to gather there about 1230. I didn't want to get there too early and risk looking like a protest noob and arriving first so I though I'd land just before 1pm to avoid any awkward questions from proper bikers with their choppers and pimped trikes! (Just my view of a proper biker, I think I'm either socially backwards or maybe just shy!!)

Jesus, how wrong was I. I was worried about pulling into the car park and being greeted by an angry manager saying well if you're not using the gym or hotel facilities then you can't park here. The truth of the matter was that I couldn't even get INTO the car park for bikes. The police were there to escort us out of the car park and through the traffic lights. The motorway exits were blocked so we could all get on together. I had to wait a good five minutes to even get to the back of the queue to even join.

I can honestly say I'd never seen anything like it. People waving off motorway bridges supporting us, people with video cameras, even the cars that were stuck in the outside lane were smiling and grinning despite being held up (I dare say not all of them felt that way). For the first time in my biking life I was part of something and it felt fantastic. One word summed it up, comradeship. We were all there for the same reason.

My only regret of the day was that I didn't plan my it better. I thought it would be a couple of bikers plodding down the motorway as token gesture of how we felt about the proposed victimization. How wrong was I. God willing that we have been heard and there is another proposed protest day, then I'll certainly be allocating a full tank of fuel and more than a couple of hours to it.

[mervin]

From what i hear i think one or two rides blocked the whole motorway leading to a few motorists getting irate , the plan was only too block 1 or 2 lanes and leave the outside one for cars too filter past, and it was done on a sunday so as not too upset the people going abut there daily work

,but the BBC obviously did not show any interest as it was not on the news at 10, some unheard of middle eastern idiot blowing themselves up etc of no interest to me makes the news, but they make it every day, and foreigners wrecking their towns as well as teenage dirtbags wrecking their areas in the uk make front line news, a big majority of bikers protesting is not worth reporting ,

but as someone on faceache put it

You might want to share this to all your profile pages....

To all the irate car drivers abusing bikers nationwide today, may I paint you a picture? Imagine being told that you had to use OE parts every time your car needed attention. Bye bye Halfords, Kwik Fit, etc. Imagine being regularly stopped by the police when you were out driving perfectly legally, for them to check you hadn't tampered with your vehicle or fitted any non-standard parts. Imagine being told that you were forbidden to drive unless you were wearing a certain colour clothing. ... Imagine having the control of your vehicle taken out of your hands and trusted to a computer. Imagine being told that your 7 year old car, your pride and joy, was now forbidden from entering towns and cities. This is the reason you were held you up for 20 minutes today. Be under no misunderstanding, the bikers are the first in line for draconian EU interference. If we fall, it will be a domino effect. Support us now, Bikers are fighting so that you wont have to.

[DirtyDT]

more bikes than I expected so it was good on that front. what annoys me is that the focus of what they plan to do seems lost. media wise, and I haven't seen a lot seem to be focusing on fluro jackets when what it really means is that you may not be able to service your own bike, you can be pulled over on a roadside check whilst the cars go whizzing by, you may be forced to have abs and the cost and you will have to scrap any bike over 7 years old if you live in an urban area or trailer it. 7 year old cars will be fine. I would happily ride up and down the motorway at 30 mph every Saturday for months if it would help. glad you enjoyed the day, sounds like you were buzzing.

[Noise]

FANTASTIC DAY! loads of bikes (prob bout 300-400 ish) o and one rather big V8 blower trike! lol had a good day out with Auzz and a mate from work and a nice slow ride down the A303 few un happy car drivers but a few where happy to see the variaty of bikes out.

i think another few rallies are needed as there was no media involved so im not 100% sure how our voices will be heard?

Yes a 1 mile long rolling road block is a pain in the arse and will grip most car drivers shit but with out even the smallest bit of media then how is it gunna go un heard?

Well we will see i guess.

[neversaydie]

Protest was reported on East Midlands news programmes yesterday evening, with film of the event from Leicester south i think.

[oldtimer]

sadly unlike the fuel protest where bikers did a similar thing but mid week and not only on the motorway but in to city centres and recieved full media coverage,this one was a complete failure as it was ignored by the media and other road users were left wondering what the f**k was going on.

if the eu plans did come in what happens with your 7 year old pride of joy! overnight it wont be worth a light,you cant px it nobody will want it,compensation ?not a chance,perhaps if we had taken a leaf out of the french way of protesting and brought cities to a standstil,it might have got the media coverage it deserved.

sorry but for me it was a waste of time.

[Noise]

Well i have just spent my lunch break trying to find pics of this protest (if you wanna call it that) and any thing on the news about it and i gotta say that its pretty poor.......yes all the big places like kKent and that have there pics etc but what about the rest of the country? i cant get MAG's web site to work and there is only a snipet on BBC news of it along with one worthless cage driver moaning that we heald them up and the fact that we all should wear high viz all the time as they didn't see a biker and T boned them! Dont get me wrong High viz is great and if the weather is shit then i don on the gear but if its clear weather E.G sun shine and clear conditions then im afraid i aint wearing it just because some car driver is too dim whitted and cant look through a pain of glass past there f**king snout.

I agree that there should be MORE protests for a longer distance and on a Saturday when they are trying to enjoy THERE free time. I dont care as i will be enjoying MY free time on my toy, couldn't give a crap if they wanna be stuck in there cars with the screaming kids, as i will be out in the fresh air enjoying the cool breeze with the lads. ;o)

All the best

Keith

[Paulwhite]

think they need to do something more dramatic to get media atention and also include learner riders! iv got a 7 year old fully custom bike and would like to suport , but i cant cause im on L's

[DirtyDT]

A bit of a let down with the coverage. Even MCN doesn't seem to be bothered. It seems that car drivers didn't have a clue and any, limited, media coverage seems to contain quotes from the most knuckle dragging stereotypical "biker" moaning about fluro jackets and tyres.

In my opinion a bad showing from MAG. Where were the media and communication people and the consistent message press release hand outs for the local rag people?

[NEV]

I think the main problem was in the promoting of it all, MAG UK took full control, and so they should have done, seeing as they are suposedly the official mouthpiece of the biker, yes the bikers all did their bit, on Motorways and A roads alike, although I doubt it was actually viewed by other motorists as a protest, as such, but it did go a long way to show solidarity,within the biking community, with full licence and learner riders all joining together. There were a couple of failings within all this though, in my opinion, and judging by the many forums I've read, I really don't think I'm alone here, firstly I think Paddy Tyson the campaigns co-ordinater for MAG UK, did a great job of setting it all up, but MAG UK were deffinately lacking in the PR department, a stint on national breakfast news sofa, or national radio, would have gone a long way in informing the general public what was going to happen on the 25th, possibly informing even more bikers to the cause too, as no doubt there's a few technophobes without computers, out there not having the benefit of biker forums. Secondly, and I think this is where MAG UK shot themselves in the foot, by not seizing the opportunity of taking bikers signatures at all of the start off points, MAG is a national organization, and I would have thought they could have sent a couple of their members to each of the denoted starting points to organise a petition, for members to sign, gathering up all signatures, and killing two birds with one stone mainly, one to get an official count of actually how many bikers gathered together and rode out, and two to gather up all signed petitions nationwide, and possibly bikers nearer to London could do a ride en masse, and hand in said petitions to either official EU lobbyists, or 10 Downing street, or whoever.

Brussels will be voting on 17th October, that leaves 3 more weekends available for another massive rideout, I reckon the next two are a tad too soon to organise another, but hopefully if this was going to be done again the weekend of the 15th, 16th would be an ideal opportunity to repeat last Sunday, and possibly with a bit more clout.

Thats my ten bobs worth anyroad.

[DirtyDT]

Some good points in that Nev.

I just read an article where one non biker said we should all of donated the petrol money we used and got a Lawyer.

[Yamdab]

We did some good to the few on the motorway, but the guardians of the news chose to edit this peaceful protest out off the media, so they just go ahead with the europe thing anyway regardless of what we think