Motorcycle riders around the world are in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, but there are many rider — some unlicensed — who are wantonly flouting the restrictions.

These “Covidiots” are giving the rest of us a bad name and when it comes time to start winding back some restrictions, authorities won’t be considering motorcycle riding too kindly.

But they should. After all, riding solo with gloves, a helmet and obvious distancing should be good reasons to derestrict motorcycling.

However, with riders speeding, congregating in groups and performing other stupid acts, we can expect little sympathy or latitude from the authorities.

We have published articles before showing some of the Draconian fines handed out by over-zealous police.

Lockdown lunacy

But there are also many examples of stupid rider behaviour during the lockdown:

• The top photo shows motorcycle and quad-bike riders racing through the unusually quiet streets of New York;
• In Manchester, UK, three dirt biker riders ripped up school fields;

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• In Melbourne, six members of a Motorcycle Club declared to be an “outlaw motorcycle gang” were fined for gathering in cars at Flinders Street;
• A 48-year-old man tried to mount a fully marked police motorcycle parked on the Great Western Highway on Friday night;
• A 23-year-old Wodonga was pulled over by police and found to be riding an unregistered and uninsured motorcycle and admitted to crossing the closed state border;
• A 42-year-old rider on a Triumph Daytona was travelling 180km/h in a 80km/h speed zone on the Warringah Freeway, North Sydney; and
• A 52-year-old rider travelling 140km/h on the M4 at Eastern Creek led police on a pursuit, ditched the bike and broke into a home’s garage to hide.

These are just a few of the incidents over Easter.

There are many more, but only NSW Police provide details. Police in other states don’t provide all the details, just the number of fines issued.

But what is evident from the NSW Police reports is not just the stupidity of the riders, but the fact that they had no “legitimate” excuse for being away from home.

And in many cases, they are given a warning by the police, but refuse to comply and cop a $1000 fine (more in some other states).

Note that the ACT is not fining people and there are few travel restrictions within WA, SA and NT.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com