im dissapointed because of the amount of memeber from here that turned up for the kill spills rally
i know abbey j and python were away but they did sponser 2 riders
i know shewolf was going to come then couldnt because of work but gave to bevelangenst
elad, me,jimc and bevelangest were the only londonbikers i saw there so where were all the rest of you was it the £25 pounds or was it that you just couldnt be bothered, kills spills is there to help all of us and it would have been good to give them our support aswell,
RAnt over
ps sorry afro i forget you but you were there racing with rasta so i know where you were
I was busy at home working on the car nad house, so i could not do it. I do alot of other rideouts to help less fortunate kids out there, so i can miss this one.
Sorry guys was a bit distracted after my bump - we should put a good showing in for things like this - but unless we organise stuff like this in advance then it doesn’t happen - as a group we’re very good for turning out for stuff - think BCW? But unless someone takes responsibility for telling people about it and organising where people are going to meet etc then it generally doesn’t happen by magic
So Ginger - sorry you’re disappointed but perhaps next year as a Host for londonbikers.com you could organise something before hand? Rather than complaining after the fact?
at the end of the day no one is disagreeing its for a good cause. i think you’ll find that most people have just voted with their feet in that they thought it was a very poor alternative to the rolling protest of previous years. everyone else seems to be able to do protests in london and shut the thing down, why shouldn’t we. not unsympathetic to the probs they face in organise it, but why they thought a few hundred bikers rolling down the motorway to donnington would have struck a cord with anyone i dont know
hopefully now they’ll push harder to return to the previous rally and have everyones full support as before
yeah but at the end of the day maybe no one wanted to give it their support but like last year 7000 bikers turning up and some causing havoc on the ride and health and saftey issues may have made then have to think of another idea like the 617 ride
depends what you mean by havoc but it is supposed to be a protest after all - protests are disruptive (as long as its peaceful)
the only accident i’m aware of from last year is some old git that jumped out in front of a bike and tried to stop him. he found out the hard way its not a bright move
what is the health and safety risk of bikers rolling at 20mph? so there is a small risk that someone ‘might’ have an incident amongst all the bikers. a hell of a lot more people are going to bin it on diesel. been on the previous 2 rallies, never saw any problems myself, and i’m sure all the cars stuck watching the bikes go past would have been at least a bit curious as to the reason for the rally.
you’re quite right ging - sorry just didn’t see them at all But reading through those threads it does appear people here have voted with their feet - perhaps the campaign isn’t achieving what it needs to - shame because it’s an important topic, but if the protest organisers can’t come up with a way to make this stand out as a protest rather than just a yearly slow ride-out - then what can you do?
We need a decent lobbying group for bikers - especially in London - the cycling groups have a very powerful lobby group that are heard all the way to the top. With the best intention of both the BMF and MAG - I don’t think we’re really being listened to
Having said that with papers like MCN showing people what us bikers think (think about people seeing the front page at Garage Forecourts) - then we don’t have a chance.
Ginger, its not the money its the way they have gone about it this year that has DISSAPOINTED me, go anywhere in west london and ask anyone about last year kill spill they will all remember it very well, we were noticed big time
to come out with this years ride and say chuck them bikes up the M1 so no havoc is caused to locals that nobody is going to remember tomorrow, is what has pi–ed me off, sorry i think it is a shambles what they have done this year, up to a few weeks ago they could not even get 617 bikes [ think about it ] compared to 6,617 + last year, i and i am sure others feel let down this year.
KillSpills wanted an event that could be easily accompanied by a press release and that would keep the police onside.
Obviously the police feel a lot more comfortable with something like this than unknown thousands of bikers decending on London.
In terms of raising awareness of diesel spills with an event like this, KillSpills need to do a lot of work. I was on the ride, had looked on the website, read the literature, got the t-shirt and even caught a bit of the speech at Donnie. I still can’t tell you why they picked 617. Number of biker deaths caused by diesel spills? Injuries? Total deaths/ total injuries? Number of spilt litres / gallons of diesel? Number of KillSpills marshalls it takes to screw in a lightbulb?
Journalists are lazy. They want a simple story that they can sell to a simple editor who makes a guess at what his simple audience can digest. They even want you to email them stuff to cut and paste (friendly dig Matt).
KillSpills is a victim of its own success. Once it had attracted thousands the establishment found it scary so they co-opted the campaign.
It goes something like this: Organisers get invited to meet Chief Inspector Big Bollox, Ken and Minister for Transport, Steve Ladyman (who reminds us at every opportunity that he rides a bike). Organisers enjoy the hospitality but are also reminded that they can be prosecuted if the event goes ahead without clearance in its current form. KillSpills bottle it and agree to do something different. In return the Dept. for Transport / TfL / Bikesafe / petrol companies etc. chip in to pay for a website / leaflets / whatever.
I fancied a ride to Bikefest and £25 for fuel, t-shirt, breakfast and entry seemed reasonable. I had also read that they were struggling for numbers, I reckon about 250/300 turned up at Westminster, and felt that the media wing of KillSpills deserved a chance.
I look forward to seeing what, if anything, the militant wing has planned.
But reading through those threads it does appear people here have voted with their feet - perhaps the campaign isn’t achieving what it needs to - shame because it’s an important topic, but if the protest organisers can’t come up with a way to make this stand out as a protest rather than just a yearly slow ride-out - then what can you do?
and meet some new friendly faces 
