Whanganui Green Bikes' John Milne (right) and Lyneke Onderwater with the upgraded memorial bike. Photo / Peter Russell
The white bike on the side of State Highway 3 north of Bulls has been fitted with a plaque and given a fresh lick of paint.
It serves as a memorial for Mia Pusch, a German backpacker killed after being hit by a truck while cycling in 2010.
The bike was installed the same year by Whanganui Green Bikes.
Member John Milnes said he was still trying to figure out how the crash happened.
"It was at the end of a passing lane, and I wonder if the driver got distracted by someone overtaking him.
"I still have no idea, really."
The issue of vehicles passing cyclists too closely still concerned him, Milnes said.
"I live on Somme Parade and there are a lot of cyclists up there.
"It would be hard to think of a time when a car passed a cyclist and left enough room."
Visibility of cyclists at night was another worry.
"Sometimes you just don't see them because they are so badly illuminated," Milnes said.
"If you're trying not to be seen you're wearing camouflage, and that's effectively what they are doing.
"By the time a driver sees them it might be too late."
The truck driver that hit Pusch was eventually convicted of careless driving causing death.
He was disqualified from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay $5000 to Pusch's family.
The final entry of Pusch's online blog spoke about the dangers of passing trucks.
"When one is a cyclist on New Zealand roads, one is not only torn from one's daydreams by dive-bombing magpies but is more often threatened by a more nasty species that really requires more attention: truck drivers.
"They swerve past the cyclists, who are struggling under their own steam, at a break-neck speed mainly within only a half-metre to a metre ..."
Milne said Pusch hoped New Zealand would be "a peddler's paradise", and those words now adorned the white bike.
"I hope the little plaque makes people stop and have a little look and a think. It could have been your daughter."
Green Bikes were "very much" about raising awareness of cyclists and encouraging them, Milnes said.
"I think the worst thing is drivers who seem to think a cyclist is in their way.
"Really, it's one less car that's out there.
"If everybody else was cycling it would be a breeze for that single motorist, wouldn't it?"
The NZ Track and Field Championships will be in Dunedin from March 6-9.