Pete is joined by retired rider, Ian who talks about his love of motorcycling, the financial pressures caused by increased levies and his decision to ride dark

Pete closes with news of MAGNZ's affiliation scheme for motorcycle clubs and groups and shares information about an exclusive tubular scarf offer for Keep It Twisted listeners

Keep It Twisted has got a new web address - https://www.keepittwisted.co.nz

Visit www.keepittwisted.co.nz to book your slot to appear on the show

Visit magnz.org.nz to learn more about club affiliation

Visit https://buy.stripe.com/bJedR85Wyex2c1h7YH4c800 to buy a limited edition Keep It Twisted tubular scarf

Takeaways:

• This episode delves into Ian's personal journey with motorcycling and the financial pressures from rising ACC levies, showcasing the impact on riders' choices.
• Ian shares his thoughts on the inequities of ACC levies, emphasizing that motorcyclists shouldn't subsidize riskier behaviors of younger riders.
• The podcast underscores the importance of providing a platform for motorcyclists to share their stories and advocate for fair treatment in the face of increasing costs.
• Ian expresses his frustration with the one-size-fits-all approach of ACC levies, advocating for a system that considers individual rider history and risk levels.
• The discussion highlights the need for transparency and communication between ACC and motorcyclists, as listeners await further developments from recent court decisions.
• Listeners will gain insights into the new affiliation scheme by MAGNZ, aimed at building a stronger community voice for motorcyclists across New Zealand.

Are you tired of the ever rising.

Cost of motorcycle registration here in New Zealand? If you're nodding your head, you're not alone. I'm Pete and this is Keep It Twisted, the official podcast of Mag nz.

My guest this week is Ian, a retired rider and a magnzed follower from north of Wellington.

Ian messaged me just after he listened to last week's interviews with the riders in Waitangi park and outside the High Court and he was the first listener to book a recording session through my online link. We recorded our conversation last Thursday and we had a good chat about why he wanted to have his say.

In this episode, Ian will talk about his love of motorcycling, the impact of higher fees and his decision to ride dark. He also explains that he doesn't pay any ACC levies to take part in his other hobby, hang gliding.

Before I introduce him, please make sure you stick around until after the interview to hear about magnz's new affiliation scheme for motorcycle groups and clubs. And I'll also be sharing details of how you can buy a limited edition Keep It Twisted tubular scarf.

But for now I'll hand over to Ian so we can Keep It Twisted.

So I'm joined today by Ian, who's messaged me and booked a slot to come and appear on the podcast. Ian, welcome to Keep It Twisted.

Thanks, Hutchie. Not quite sure what I've signed up for, actually.

I listened to all the podcasts yesterday of all the different guys that you spoke to, and I sort of been following it for a while, but I tend to live a fairly quiet life with my head in the sand most of the days. And I saw this opportunity to be interviewed and I thought, well, okay, I'll say my 2 cents worth.

The whole idea was that we tell the story of the impact of the ACC Levy increase on motorcyclists. The main reason for starting the podcast was to do that.

Everyone who rides a motorcycle is affected by this and we should be letting them come on and tell their motorcycle stories and tell about the impact of the ACC levies on their motorcycling habits. And if they want to share their ideas and what they think should be happening and where we go from here, we've got a platform that we can do that.

We're not swallowing the bullshit that ACC are pumping out and we're not having to rely on TV news saying there were 50 riders when there were clear over 100.

Yes, yes, we're quite happy to let.

You tell your story, Ian.

Good. Okay, like everybody, I've been Affected. And I feel I should say, well, look, I'm another bloke and this is how it's affected me.

Yeah. I set aside an hour. You can talk for as long or as little as you want. The best podcast episodes are anywhere between 15 and 35, 40 minutes.

I doubt if I'll be talking for that long.

You don't need to. I've said from the very beginning that this is a show about motorcyclists by motorcyclists.

And we'll start with the obvious question, are you a motorcyclist?

I am a motorcyclist. I've been a motorcyclist for the last 53 years. I think a long time.

Road bikes or a bit of everything?

Yeah, mostly road bikes. Started off with road bikes and then got a bit of an off roader and then got into adventure bikes and basically that's what I do now.

But I'm pretty tame with my riding. I like getting down the back roads, the gravel roads and the peace and quiet of the countryside.

I like a bit of the gravel. I'm not super hardcore when it comes to off roading and going over tree stumps and things like that, but I don't mind a gravel road.

Yeah, exactly. You're probably a bit like me now. I've got a bit older and I find if I fall off, I hurt myself. Yeah. Takes a long time to fix myself.

So I'm pretty tame nowadays.

And what are you riding these days?

I've just bought myself a nice new CF Moto 800 MTX, which is a lot of motorbike for the price. Pretty happy with it.

Well, I have a friend coming over from the UK in January and we want to do a big lap of New Zealand and I'm looking at a WECF Moto as the ideal bike for him.

The 450s that they've put out, they've got a really good reputation and there's so many of them are sold, I'm sure you could find one on the market second hand at a reasonable price.

Oh. Best selling bike in New Zealand last year, apparently, the CF Moto 450.

Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, done good with them.

Are you a member of any motorcycling clubs or organizations, Ian?

No, no, I'm not. I actually prefer one of those guys. I prefer to ride alone. I find a few times I have ridden with groups, I find it doesn't work for me.

Generally I end up riding a lot faster than I want to and I'm always stopping where other people Want to stop. Much as I love the camaraderie, I find that riding at my own pace, making my own decisions, sort of works for me.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. I've said several times on the podcast I'm not a fan of big groups.

I enjoyed the protest ride in Wellington on Monday, but I enjoyed the solitary ride home from Picton even more.

Making your own decisions along the way is nice. Yeah.

Having said that, I guess if I found a couple of blokes that I got on really good with and we had the same sort of ideas, it would be always nice to have some company.

Well, it's a big community and, you know, each to their own. You just ride the way that you're most comfortable with and you're safest on.

Assuming that we can continue to do it.

Well, the crux of the issue is how have you been affected by the ACC levy increases, Ian?

I sort of, over the years that the prices have gone up and up and up. I've used my bike less and less.

I was almost going to give it away last year, but I got on my bike and a road and I thought, you know, I really do enjoy this. I don't want to give it away. So I bought myself a new motorbike, first time ever, which I've really enjoyed.

But now with the ACC levies coming up, I'm now starting to rethink my decision. I'm now retired with a pension, a small income sort of added to it. And of course everything's going up.

Rates are going up, insurances are going up, food's going up, fuel, of course, expensive at the moment, and ACC are checking their little bit and saying, well, we want more out of you as well. And there's got to come a time when you go, I can't do this anymore. There's no more money to pay for this.

And it might only be another three or four hundred dollars a year, but if everyone wants another three or four hundred dollars a year, it's not long before you've got to cough up a few more thousand and it just doesn't work. Something's got to go and with the.

800, You'll be well into the $816 a year bracket.

Well, that's a sad thing. It's. If I was 50, I'd be a little bit cheaper, wouldn't I?

Yeah, that also seems to be a little bit unfair that they, they basically just draw a line like that. There's got to be more to it than that. Of course, it's all based on the motorbikes rather than the riders.

And I believe that somehow it should be coming back to who's the person, you know, who's driving the car, who's riding the motorbike. That's where the issues are.

I think that that's one of the tenets of the case at court, that there isn't a logical or a rational basis for the bandings. Not that we can see and so far ACC haven't explained that to Mark.

Let's hope with the directions from the judge on Monday that that information starts to become apparent. But at the moment we're all scratching our head.

Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure as you've discovered, most of the people that are riding the big motorbikes nowadays are of the gray haired variety.

Most of them are pretty sensible.

Perhaps as young guys they might have cost a little bit of money for the government and you know, with accidents and ACC and so on, but nowadays they're pretty tame and they just wander along and of course these are the ones that are having to pay the biggest price for it subsidizing everybody else. It's not right. It's a flawed system.

Did you think about putting your bike on hold over the winter months, Ian?

I have. It is actually on hold and I rode it yesterday. I just thought, well it's on hold, I'm going to keep riding it. I'm in just north of Wellington.

Weather's obviously not always that great for riding anyway. But the days that I want to go out, I'm just going to go out and I'll take the risk just because.

Yeah, I can't keep coughing up the sort of money that it is.

Well, it's just wrong that a government policy has forced people to make those decisions. That can't be good policy by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't think so. I mean they will say, well it's your personal choice, you know, you can choose whether you want to do that or not.

I mean you choose how you want to spend your money. If you don't think it's a high enough priority, well that's up to you.

It's almost like they keep changing the rules because a few years ago I qualified to run my bike all year round and, and then, you know, when it went up to the 580 or whatever it was, I can't remember how many years ago did that. That was a bit of a jump and that certainly made me start to put it on hold for a few months. Of the year. Now it's on hold and I'm not quite sure.

We'll see what happens about when I can actually re register it again.

You were telling me in the Preamble Inn that you've got another hobby.

I fly hang gliders, which again, in Wellington we don't get to do that very much.

Now, I'm interested to hear what sort of levy you have to pay the ACC to participate in the sport of hang gliding.

Well, nothing directly, of course. I'm a member of a club and we pay fees to be a member of the club and the national organisation.

I'm sure the national body has some insurance that would have maybe an ACC levy or something in it, but to my knowledge, I don't know if there's any direct fees.

Now, the common observer might think that hang gliding is an extremely dangerous sport, but my take on it would be that you hang glide in much the same way that you ride your motorcycle and you do your proper safety checks and you've done training and you're constantly monitoring the environment and you don't do anything unless you're absolutely sure that you're going to come out of it safely.

And that's very true. I was actually a pilot for 15 years and so I sort of learned those skills early on.

But, you know, there's a lot of people that we've got hang gliding, we've also got paragliding, and paragliding is a lot more popular now than hang gliding. I think there's only about 10% of the members of the club in New Zealand actually fly hang gliders. The rest will fly paragliders.

But it's like anything else.

You've got people who are really conscientious and careful about their equipment and the conditions and the weather and how they carry out what they're doing. And you get others that are a lot more relaxed about it and a lot higher risk takers.

And of course, those people are always going to potentially cost the country more money if they have an accident. ACC has to cover it. I really believe that rather than saying, well, motorcycles are dangerous, let's charge them more.

It's about time we started saying, well, okay, who is this guy? Okay, he's 20 years of age or whatever, he's considered high risk. Maybe we should be charging him a little bit More. This guy here, well, he's 65.

He hasn't had any accidents for the last 40 years. We should actually cut him a bit of slack. He can't afford it anyway. Let's keep his costs low.

Well, that's how a commercial insurance company.

Would work, isn't it?

I think so, yeah, it is.

They would measure the risk that you pose.

Yeah, I agree and I think ACC really need to be looking at that. And I think one of the guys on one of earlier podcasts made the comment about how you've got an ACC levy on every vehicle that's registered.

So if you've got a couple of cars and a couple of motorbikes and it's just you ACC are getting four bites of the cherry now, I guess they're unlikely to determine and give that away, but ideally a fair away would just be, there's this one guy, sometimes he rides a motorbike, sometimes he drives a car. We consider what sort of risk he is and we'll charge him accordingly. One charge, that's it.

It's very difficult to get your head around that from a just a fairness point of view. It's tiresome, to be honest. It's just draining.

Yeah. So I really appreciate what the guys are doing and, you know, I don't get my head too well around legal documents and bits and pieces.

Some people seem to understand that stuff a lot better and I appreciate the fact that they're stepping up for everybody and doing a job that needs to be done.

Well, we appreciate you taking the time to come and talk on the show. As we said at the start, the podcast is about motorcyclists and it's by motorcyclists. So we're always keen to listen to other people's perspectives.

I've enjoyed talking to you. I don't know if there's anything else you want to add in there, Ian.

No, no, it sort of said my bit and I wish the guys luck. Look forward. What ACC come back with?

I. I believe now they've been sort of instructed to give us the information that we're asking for, so hopefully it'll come back and we can work together and come up with a better solution.

Yeah, I think there were three parts to the judge's decision on Monday. One was that they need to release the data in a form that we can open and interpret.

Secondly, that they were asked to appoint a liaison officer to work with Mark to help him understand that data, and thirdly, to work with a mediator to act as a conduit between MAGNZ or Mark and acc, so they're all positive steps in our favor and the timetable's been agreed through to the hearing later in the year and we look forward to finding out what happens next.

That's fantastic. Great talking to you and you.

Thanks for your time in.

Thanks for the opportunity. Cheerio. Bye.

I'd like to thank Ian for taking time to join me for this episode. While Mag NZ doesn't condone riding on the road without valid registration, I totally understand his decision to ride dark.

The new Levy structure is punitive and the three month minimum hold period is completely inflexible. On top of that, there's no way that motorcycling can be $816 a year more dangerous than hang gliding.

Sharp eyed listeners who follow the podcast on social media will have noticed that we've got a new web address.

The show is now available at KeepItWisted Co NZ and if you'd like to appear on the show, just head to the website, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Guest Booking. Alternatively, go to KeepItWisted Co NZ booking or follow the link in today's Notes. I said at the start that I've got two important announcements.

The first is about magnz's free affiliation to motorcycle clubs, riding groups and other motorcycling organisations who want a direct connection with our national advocacy work. Affiliation creates a formal relationship between your organization and MAGNZ so we can communicate and cooperate.

The idea is to build a stronger and more coordinated national voice for motorcyclists.

The more clubs and groups we can communicate directly with, the better our ability to understand what is happening across the motorcycling community and respond quickly when action is required. Your club or group will remain completely independent.

Affiliation will not place your organization under magnz, it won't require you to adopt every MAGNZ policy, and it won't interfere with how your organization is run. And best of all, there's no fee.

I'll be sharing more details about affiliation in a future episode when I meet with MAGNZ Chief Executive Richard Towho, but if you'd like to know more now, join our Facebook group or visit magnz.orgnz again. There'll be links in the notes. Before I close, I also want to tell you about a special deal for Keep It Twisted listeners.

You see, I'm raising funds for magnz by selling custom printed tubular neck scarves. These are made from black stretchy fabric and they feature the Mag NZ Keep It Twisted podcast logo.

They're perfect for keeping your face and neck warm under your helmet. The scarves cost $20 each, including postage within New Zealand, and this production run is strictly limited to 100 units.

Orders placed now will be packed and dispatched on September 1, but the shop will be open until midnight on 20 October, or when stock runs out, whichever comes first. If you want one order now before they disappear, and if they sell well, a new design will drop before Christmas.

All profits from the sale will go to magnz. That's all I've got this week. Thanks for listening. Remember to subscribe so that you get the next episode delivered straight to your device.

Until then, ride safe. Stands up, visors down and keep it twisted.

We're not gonna pay it no, we ain't gonna pay it we're not gonna pay it anymore.