But Green Party transport spokesman Gareth Hughes said the focus needed to be on making roads safer. He also said more money should be spent on rider training. "It's just not enough raising ACC levies as a silver bullet to combat crash rates. One of the key parts of motorcycle safety is redeveloping the roads. But what we've seen under the Government's 10-year funding plan is the vast bulk of money going on roads of national significance and less on local roads and road safety," Mr Hughes said.
"It doesn't make sense that people are being pushed away from these fuel-efficient modes of transport."
Seasoned rider Ward Fischer, who runs the Hamilton Motorcycle Riding School on Avalon Dr, said the increased levies should have been phased in.
"If ACC were a private company and continued on like it was, it would have gone bust," Mr Fischer said. "So the costs had to be passed on but the Government could have done it progressively rather than one big hit. What it has done is caused people to be dishonest in terms of not registering their bikes. They are also swapping numberplates between bikes which is fairly common."
Mr Fischer, who has ridden bikes for 51 years, owns several bikes but recently sold one because of the registration cost.
Registering one of his bikes with an engine size over 600cc has gone from $280 to $528 a year.
"My two big bikes were costing about $1200 a year to register, so I had to look at it and say this is ridiculous," Mr Fischer said. "I also know a lot of people who only register their bikes for a short period of time and the rest of the time they sit in the shed."
Ulysses Club vice-president Howard Mansell said although the motorcycle club's nationwide membership had dipped only slightly from 3000 to 2800 riders, fewer people were turning up for organised rides. It was increasingly common for riders not to register their bikes in the winter months. "We all recognise ACC will say they're not getting the money they need and their answer is probably to increase levies again," Mr Mansell said. "But motorcycle training is the answer. Quite honestly the training for riders is terrible right now. Advanced training is what's needed, not punishing people for getting hurt."
Heath Boddie, owner of the Hamilton Motorcycle Centre, said the crash statistics used to justify the levies hike were biased against riders. He said crashes involving motorbikes were typically caused by other motorists not seeing a rider. Hikes in levies hadn't provided ACC with a funding windfall, Mr Boddie said, with riders choosing to register their bikes for shorter periods.
"ACC levies haven't helped bike sales but to be honest sales were in decline before that.
"Most people's turnover in this industry has halved over the last three years.
"The levy increase has hurt the people who have three or four bikes," Mr Boddie said.
"What we are finding is that before when people used to get a registration bill once a year they just paid it.
"Now most people put it on hold through winter. So ACC is probably getting less money that what they were before they put the levies up."
