Pathetic Highway

Hi all.

Has anyone travelled north from Sydney on the Pac. Hwy lately? Last night I
drove (yes - cage travel...) to Port Macquarie and experienced some of the
worst and most dangerous truck driving in my 30 or so years of highway
travel. There were dozens of the big buggers - no wonder we take back roads
all the way on the bike.

As one example, during the trip, we overtook 2 fully laden semis slogging up
a long incline at about 60 in the 100 zone. Over the rise and a few k's
into the flats pretty much doing the limit and these guys were soon up our
dates - I mean within 2m at 100. We had traffic in front and when they had
the chance to take us, they did at what I estimate to be about 140+,
showering us and everyone else with rocks. This was about 20 kms short of
Buladelah.

Not much later, and our stream of traffic overtook them again up a long
incline in the 100 zone. A little later, we were out on our own and
entering a 60 zone for roadworks when one of these heavy morons approached
at such a pace that had we stayed at 60, he would have pushed the boot into
the engine bay. We had to accellerate to about 100 to prevent a hit up the
strawberry dacquiri.

Around Buladelah, you don't speed - ever - as the copper there will nail
your sorry ass for 5 over. (I don't speed anywhere on the Pac Hwy... as for
the Thunderbolts however.... hehe). Doing 100 in a 60 roadworks zone with
a truck 1 to 2 m off your ass on loose gravel IMHO is not fun, especially
when you have a car-load of relatives and hungry police around the next
corner. Anyway, I soon pulled over and let this dickhead and his mate
continue, to wreak havoc on some other poor bastards, as they did. This was
not long after driving past the overturned tanker heading north on the Hexam
bridge...

This was one of a number of similar experiences, and I was hating having all
this pressure to fly through areas where the coppers are pretty tough and
haven't got anything else to do. I know it's not all the driver's fault -
they are doing it tough, but they do it all at the risk of everyone else's
lives.

So it's Bucketts, Thunderbolt's and Oxley for me in the future! Easy to
justify to the wife now...

Cheers,
Dave ZZR600 => ST2 (stolen) => '03 XX

 

[...]

There _are_ times when a M16 and a few spare clips in the hands of the
passenger side would come very handy indeed. And a few people like yourself
should have the authority to make corrections to anomalies in the gene pool.

Pretty scary story. What bloody dickheads. License plate? I'd call the cops
and file a formal complaint if I was able to get them.

j

 

I've had similar experiences on the same stretch of road. Late at night its
even worse.

 

A group of 5 of us left Sydney last Friday night to ride up to Port so we
could ride the Oxley on the Sat. morning. Anyway, our first stop was Karuah
for a late dinner around 9.30pm. As we rode into the right hand turning lane
that takes you into the roadhouse, a huge truck came right up the back of 2
of us and roared past us at a major speed. He must have been only a few
metres from the back of my bike so I hate to think how close he was to the
bike behind me. Scary stuff. The guy riding behind me is an extremely
experienced bike rider and even he commented on how crazy the truck driver
was.

Apart from that incident, we managed to overtake all other trucks. Didn't
arrive in Port until 12.30 but then had 2 fun filled days of riding the
Oxley, Thunderbolts and Putty back to Sydney. There's some idiots on those
roads too.


Sharon