While no-one can really dispute the good intention of the North Wales police force it has left motorcyclists in the region feeling a little under siege and nationally it has really started to hit home that when a police force decides it does not want motorcyclists in their region that this level of extensive stopping is just a stepping stone to other agendas.
In stepped Motorcyclenews.com with their reclaim North Wales campaign which asked bikers throughout the UK to descend on the region for one day to make our presence felt and show the police that we want to use the local roads and that not all bikers are the perceived outlaw serial law breaking high speed lunatics shown courtesy of the idiots caught doing silly speeds recently.
The aim was simple, as many law abiding riders turn up and show the local police that we can behave, not cause excessive accidents and have a peaceful and pleasant day out riding round the region, we went along and were expecting to see first hand the reported levels of stop and searching going on, some say between 350 and 400 riders per weekend are stopped with only a handful of those being pulled over being booked for an offense.
Speaking to some of the locals seemed to confirm this story and also showed a lot of support for the cause too with feedback by one petrol station owner being "I hope they take note and stop bothering you guys" and "I dont know where they all are today, normally though they are flying around all weekend, they must be set up somewhere"
That in itself really made me think, we had not seen any police action since entering the region and had gone to the Dragons rest to meet then had a nice ride up toward Betws-y-coed, when we got into the town two Bikesafe cops on bikes rode past which seemed a bit odd considering the sheer amount of bikers parked up, getting parked or milling around. It seems that rather than a normal weekend the North Wales police decided to do nothing and it was a rather nice gesture - though what would be nicer is if they employed this approach every weekend and stopped the descrimination against those of us that ride legally and safely to allow us to enjoy what I must say are some of the single nicest roads I have ever ridden in the UK coupled with breathtaking scenery. On the day it is estimated that over 10000 like-minded motorcyclists turned up to support the cause and among those numbers accident levels stayed low and thankfully minor to boot - proof that you do not need heavy handed tactics to police motorcyclists.
