Did you guys have excessive fatality rates at one time? Or are all the hoops just money grabs?
I can't speak for all Aussies, but I lost 8 of my schoolmates in bike crashes before I turned 19. This was in a small country town, and the only common denominator was they were all riding big bikes, mostly CB750's and Kawasaki 750 triples or Z1 900's. Back then we all learned to ride on dirt bikes and as there were no 250 laws or LAMS laws then, we bought CB750's or Z1's.
I hit a "Give Way" sign pole 4 feet above the ground on my F1 after clipping the gutter and flying thru a small tree at 90MPH on a suburban street, and walked away with busted ribs and bruising. (and pushed my bike home) A few weeks later I centre punched a car on my brothers BMW R75 and landed 30 feet away, and once more, walked away with a broken finger and more broken ribs. I laid the F1 down thru a set of bends on "green" tires when braking to avoid a car that came out of a side street (the back brake was way too powerful on those buggers) and slid under the car when the driver stopped the car in the middle of the road. (and tore all the skin off my left arse cheek down to the flesh)
After all that, the Army doctor banned me from riding for the rest of the year, so I sold the F1 and bought a car. Next year I got posted to Sydney and bought a Yamaha DT250 dirt bike, and only dropped it once, (wet manhole cover) with only a few bruises and no skin on my left knee. The 250 was great fun and was much more forgiving than the F1. If I'd bought it first, I probably wouldn't have had as many injuries as I did in 1978, but I was much luckier than my 8 schoolmates.
