unregistered-uninsured

[vandy010]

so who's been busted?
a mate fronted up to work with the news he's been caught giving his CR a test run out front of his own house. less than 100metres of test run has cost him almost $500 QLD dollars and then he also has to appear in court.


i remember {but not too well apparently} an article in one of the magazines a few years back, fines 'V' joining a club. in this case, club membeship,rec liscense and practice fee wouldn't of tally'd the fine.
so thats QLD,
anyone from the other states care to comment?
and any other thoughts you may have folks?
go for it...

[Graeme M]

I've never been fined for that, although I have been caught riding unregistered a few times. Each time I was told to push it home, which of course I did only until the copper was out of sight. Nowadays I just wouldn't take the risk, living in the burbs of a reasonable sized city. Like your mate found out, just too expensive if you get caught. Mind you, the guy over the road doesn't worry as he rides his Harley up to the shop and his 8 year old son rides alongside on some sort of mini Harley electric bike...

[Doc]

wow that really sucks vandy but it is the law I guess. Needs to be steep to deter the younger riders on minibike/pit bikes and the likes. I have to admit I'm guilty also but not recently. It's hard when you get your bike together and simply wish to run it up a quiet road or footpath to test brakes, gears and get a feel for what else needs tweaking or what you may have forgotten to tighten that falls off Problem is, if you/I ride it around your/my own backyard you and I get in the shit too! We must fight for our freedom and hold our large heads high! Then we best join a club before we all get our asses busted! tough break for your mate   

[Gerard De Ruyter (Twistandshout)]

i was done twice for riding unrego'd uninsured as a teenager growing up in mt kuring-gai (northern outskirts of sydney).  each time hurt my then-tiny wallet bigtime and pissed me off even more.  all that petrol money down the drain!!!  you just never knew when you'd turn a corner on the trail (ok, or backroad/street) to find a cop waiting there with a grin on his ugly mug ready to bust you.  they take their time telling you what you done wrong, what law its against (make you answer their pratty question, 'did you realise it was against the law to ride without a licence etc etc etc?' - such a drag.  then they make you push miles home.  i hated cops for a long time after that, for their bloody vindictiveness to us little sprogs just trying to put some fun in our outer-suburban 70s existence.

[cyclegod]

I got caught doing a plug chop on my Bultaco Metralla, the cop wasn't happy but he did concede that "at least your wearing a helmet"
It was at this point, as he began to take out his notebook, that a dickhead in a V8 ute pulled into the round-about and arced it up the full 180 around only to see the cop with his hand up saying "STOP" the ute roared off and the cop hopped back on his bike and took off after him, I simply started the bully and rode the 60 metres home without the summons 

[maicopunk]

A bunch of us used to go trailriding at Lue (now called Louee) in the early eighties and one of the blokes had a pantec truck that would take about 12 bikes, so we had to drop the bikes off in the week leading up to the ride then pick it up afterwards.  One time after a ride I got my mum to drive me the 4 or 5 kms around to his place then I would just ride the bike home.  Bike at the time was a KDX250 with all the road gear and a number plate still on it... no problem.

Wouldn't you know it, a highway patrol car just happened to pull up behind me, followed me for about two blocks and just had to find something to get me for. No mirrors.  He pulled me over to give a warning but scored the trifecta ... unregistered, uninsured and unlicenced.

Probably didn't help when mum pulled up started telling him what a good boy I was and this was the first time I had ever done anything wrong.

Didn't bother riding on the road again after that.

[Wombat]

I scored a 2nd hand DT 175 bush basher and took it for a blat around a new estate back in '79.
As it happens a mate was working on a new house in the estate so I gave him a turn on the 'new' bike.
At the exact moment he handed it back and I threw my leg over the bike, a Cop car flew around the corner and sprung me (at the speed and urgency they arrived I'm sure we were dobbed in).
Bloody Hell! what crap timing.

I think it was an $80 fine for 'unregistered bike on public road' or words to that effect.
I still have the summons in a photo album.

The funniest part of the 'arrest' was this gem from one of the Coppers:
"There's been lots of pistons stolen from bikes around here - that's why we're cracking down".
WTF; I don't think he knew much about bikes... 

[Noel]

$900.00 in NSW,
Son took the unrego postie down to the pizza shop on the foot path because he figured he was to drunk to
drive ::)lucky he didn't get breath tested as well,
Noel

[Nathan S]

Never been fined. Something to do with not riding in/near the 'burbs making a big difference, no doubt.

Got caught riding on water catchment once about 10 years ago, but it was a genuine mistake on my part, and I only ended up with a warning.
It was a bit funny actually - I was riding under a power-line easement when I went past an unmarked ute that was parked off to one side. Weird, but no worries.
About 200m further along, an unmarked Landcruiser pulls out in front of me.
WTF! My first thought was that he was some nutbag hillbilly, so I was about to make for the bush, when I heard him yelling something about being a cop-type-person.
I was actually relieved that he wasn't a random nutter, and stopped.
Ended up having a perfectly amicable chat with the bloke - including him explaining that the ute was there to stop people who try to do a runner - and he wasn't interested in pursuing it further...

The fine for riding in water catchment is (was?) $10k....  I also vaguely know a bloke who was riding a then-new KTM520 and had a head-on with another bike. They both got choppered out, and both bikes were rooted.
And they both got stung with the $10k fine.

[Wombat]

$10K Nathan??!! How lucky are you?!

[VMX Andrew]

seen our local copper the other week take his kids who were riding pw50s across the road from his house to another dirt road with no houses around it..weirdest part about it.....the kids were wearing thongs  ....

[Nathan S]

$10K Nathan??!! How lucky are you?!

Well, pretty lucky, but it's not a scary as it sounds - their policy is/was to give people warnings, and only fine them on the second time or if they were total dicks.

Bike was rego'd and I was licenced, FWIW. I don't know, but I don't think that unreg/unlicenced would have made any difference in this case.

[mx250]

$10K Nathan??!! How lucky are you?!

Well, pretty lucky, but it's not a scary as it sounds - their policy is/was to give people warnings, and only fine them on the second time or if they were total dicks.

Bike was rego'd and I was licenced, FWIW. I don't know, but I don't think that unreg/unlicenced would have made any difference in this case.

Trespass on catchment was $10,000 max back in the 70's but $1000 was generally the first offence fine (which would be $10,000 today given relative purchase power/wages). The max fine is $100,000 today and with that magic word 'terrorism' 'they' are much more active.

During the 70's and the trail riding boom it was common practice to have a light plane flying over the catchment on week ends and guiding rangers to the 'bad boys'. I've always kept off catchment for this and other 'social conscience' reasons.

Proving 'trespass' in law is fairly difficult. 'They' have got prove intent and/or that you refuse to leave when asked (being a total dick) - that would explain the 'warning'.  Once a warning has been given proving intent is a lot easier second time around.

Be careful, there's a new offence called 'enter upon enclosed lands' - it is much easier to prove in law - caught doing the deed and offence commited - no fuss no mess in court for the rangers and no excuses for you . 

I got done unreg'd etc when I unwittingly drove a company ute unreg'd etc - $1300 first offence in NSW (the company paid ). I've test ridden the occasional race bike in the street on the occasional saturday night last minute prep, but minimal and never sprung  .

[dkupf]

You have to love growing up in small outback towns. A couple of mates and I got busted riding around the town common on unregistered bikes back in the late 70's. The solicitor got use off for a first time offience. Then we had to take our bikes out to the solicitor's sheepstation and muster  sheep all week-end instead of paying him for getting us off the hook  Darcy

[firko]

Back in the early 80s two mates and I snuck into the Burragorang Valley, Warragamba Dam catchment area and had one of the most amazing fire trail rides I've ever had. We were attempting to ride through from the old Oakdale Colliery to Oberon but were busted by Water Board employees and park rangers in a well orchestrated ambush just after Yeranderie ghost town. One mate attempted to escape through the bush but the Water Board helicopter tracked him and he was soon rounded up. We went to court a few months later and shit ourselves when a couple of blokes who had been searching for ancient Aboriginal cave drawings in the same area copped a 5k fine each. I don't know why but by the time the magistrate got to our case he must have softened up a bit and we only copped a $50 fine each. We went straight to the pub after getting out of court and sunk quite a few schooners to celebrate our unbelievable luck.