Stratford's Murray Heal, President of the Bikers Rights of New Zealand (BRONZ), says the bikers were asked to form an escort of honour for one of the two bikers who died in an accident near Normanby on Saturday while on a charity toy run round the mountain.
Kelly Reardon (40), of Waitara and Gordon McKay (68), from Bell Block, died when they crashed into a northbound van. Murray says he was already in Hawera when he was notified and retraced his trip to see if he needed to find help.
It was horrific. It is a horrible tragedy.
Meanwhile police arrested two other bikers (who were not part of the toy run) at the Mountain/Kahouri roads intersection on Saturday for driving at a dangerous speed.
Police say the two males, who were clocked at more than 150km/h, have had their licenses suspended.