Biking in Australia? (on holiday :))

[Josh]

So I am halfway through (nearly) my two weeks in Australia, having a good time, I am considering taking a good 6-12 months working stay here in the future and was wondering if anyone knows how the biking laws are here? and by that I mean laws regarding English(33bhp) licences and other such cross over laws for biking in Australia, although I have to say I have seen more cruisers than sports bikes and they have always been very.... obedient with the speed limits, as are most drivers here, is it tough approach to any speeding here or are they all just really restrained drivers/riders here?
The roads look so nice to ride on, so many smooth long sweeping corners and nice twisties with nothing but bush heather growing off the road so you can see the path of nearly every corner and to cut a long story short I really like the look of the roads here but the speed limits would be frustrating to say the least.
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[Ninja]

Not sure about the license applicability but:-

The speed limits are STRICTLY enforced - hence native drivers' apprehension with going over the limits - and hence the national social culture against speeding. They view speeding as we view drink-driving....

Don't go nuts on any apparently 'open' roads either - Kangaroos' favourite pastime is to jump into the road from the bushes at the very last moment giving you no time to react. Bear in mind they don't just do it from a few odd feet either thinking 'oh, I'll see them in plenty of time'. They are BIG, HEAVY SOLID LUMPS OF MUSCLE.

For your own safety, limits are best stuck to. You'll very quickly find yourself 'in the groove' though and wonder why you ever needed to go any faster - other drivers are courteous, laid back, theres no concept of frustration or aggression....no, really. When we got back 'home' I had the shock of my life driving away from the airport and into London traffic/ M25 traffic again - thinking everyone else was a murderous cnut hellbent on extinguishing my life....
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James
4 wheels transport the Body ... 2 wheels transport the SOUL

[Kickstart]

Hi

I spent 3 months in Melbourne back in 1996.

The Australian police are very much into making a large profit from people speeding (it is a major part of their budget) which is why people are so paranoid about getting caught.

The drivers I found were generally frighteningly unaware of what was going on around them. Might well have something to do with how slow they all drove, but for most of them sleeping tablets would have woken them up. If you get cut up then it is likely to be slowly and easily avoided, and because they just have not seen you. The exception to this was the taxi drivers who were far more aggressive than their UK equivalents.

Not sure about them regarding speeding like we regard drink driving. A closer approximation seemed to be that they regarded those enforcing the speed limits as something worse than a serial drink driver, screwing them all over. From talking to people it seemed that it is common for people to continue to drive even once they are banned for speeding.

Other thing is that some Australian cars would struggle to break the speed limit! The first thing we hired was a Ford Festiva (a Kia sold under licence I think) that was totally gutless, and the Ford Falcon we hired (3L V6 with an auto box) was pretty dog slow as well. When you looked at the accelerator it kicked down a gear, dared to press it and it kicked down 2 gears and just about broke you neck with the jerk, but that just meant it was now doing 5000rpm rather than 1700, making more noise but not really having any more power. The Daewoo Cielo (Nexia in the UK) was OK but seemed to be set up to run very lean (incredibly easy to stall), and the Corolla was OK as well.

A UK licence is OK for a while. Suspect you will be OK for a year but not certain. As a learner there you are limited to a 250, but with limits on power / weight (counts the RGV out for example). Insurance is dirt cheap and that is with a UK licence which counts you out from getting cover from the cheaper insurers, and petrol is cheap as well. Road tax (rego) is very expensive, but they seemed very laid back about renewing it (I pretty much got told not to bother by the licencing authority as I was heading home shortly after the rego ran out). Bikes were cheaper new but held their value far better (the old GPX750 we used to get round on cost about 50% more than it would have done in the UK), and the same seemed to be true for cars. Suspect as a UK licence holder you could do some form of accelerated or simple test.

In Melbourne watch out for the hook turns (where you use the left hand lane to turn right) and the tram tracks (which are lethal when wet, especially as the trams really don't want to stop for you).

If you are in the Northern Territories then there are no speed limits outside towns. In Victoria the out of town speed limit was generally 100kmh (62mph), even on motorway quality roads. Anything faster was rare (think there were the odd 110kmh limit).

All the best

Keith
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[BLOFLY 636]

[stinkwheel]

If you are going off the beaten track, remember to ask at the fuel station how far it is to the next one. A bike doesn't go so far on a tankfull as a hilux pickup and you may find yourself and your bike in the back of one if your planning is poor.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[CBRPETER]

YES, I live in Australia, if your in sydney tell me and ill give you a few mad riding spots, police are strict but theres not that many of them, wel around the city there are, the only places there are kangaroos is where they have warning signs posted as they are rare near roads. you CANT filter through traffic here, people still do it but keep an eye out for police!! As for what kickstart said evry road has a speed limit now, chances of you getting caught speeding is very small but keep an eye out for speed cameras, they will have a warning sign about 100 metres before when they are in the road. If you need to know anything else please pm me as i do live here!!


Oh as for restrictions learners are generally restricted to a 4 stroke 250, p platers a 600 and after that its open. You don't see many sports bike ay.. go to a good riding spot on the weekend and i gaurantee youll see a couple every minute, people generally ride their bikes on weekends and drive their cars during the week. Don't worry about the speed limits to much, you'll realise this when 4-5 bikes come wizzing past as 200 km/h. Just be cautious where you speed. On motorways and highways i havent seen many bikes that havent been doing double the speed limit, as for those places with long windy roads, and sharp tiny bends, just let loose theyre are generally no cops around there and other bikers will alarm of you of their presence.

BTW- Always nod to other bikers over here, if you don't they take offence.
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