KIWI RIDER 09 2019 VOL2 | Page 84

WORDS: ROGER MORONEY MORONEY’S LOOKING FORWARD TO THE ARRIVAL OF NOISELESS ELECTRIC BIKES… FOR OTHERS NOBODY CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM... C ould it be something in the water perchance? Or something in the air? On the subject of the latter there is a terrible cloud of pollen drifting through the air down this way so maybe pollen is the secret ingredient of whatever it is the road- racing lunatics inhale. Over the past few months there seems to have been an increase in the number of car chases hitting the front pages or the evening news… not to mention the general airwaves as I’ve personally heard two taking place on nearby streets. I’ve also grown kind of used to hearing the sounds of hard-revving engines which send out moving sound waves indicating the chassis containing them are doing a hell of a lot more than the speed limit. I don’t think I’m imagining it but it just seems to be more prevalent these days. So if it ain’t the pollen what is it that gets into the heads of some young pilots who see a journey in the car as an opportunity to have a competitive crack at the road rules? Or a race with some other brain-flawed pilot? I daresay the terrifying surge of stuff like meth’ (which has almost developed into a major industry across many lands) is part of the equation… as is having a few too many shots of something bought on the cheap from a bottle store. I dunno, but it has got worse. Only yesterday, while waiting at the lights, some fruitloop in some lowered piece of mechanical menace went charging across at what I reckon would have been about 80km/h… and this was about 150 metres from a school off a nearby street. It brought about the usual verbal reaction from me, which is now part of our motoring vocabulary. “Where are the cops when you need them?” Well basically, they can’t be everywhere of course, and they are down on numbers so