Lines & tips ride

[Bnonn]

In light of the recent talk of a mentor ride, I thought it would be sensible to start a new thread so that we can discuss and organize without getting lost in the Friday Night thread.

To start things off, I'd like to offer the following suggestions for said ride:

• It should be recurring on a several-monthly basis. I say this because, when learning new skills, it's helpful to get feedback from time to time, and to see yourself improving. So a ride every three or four months would seem like a good idea.
• It should take place on a Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning is fine with me too, but afternoons would just be a bit more convenient. Either way, it ought to be during the day; it's no good riding at night for this sort of thing.
• The route should be fairly standard, so that each time we do the ride it is the same. In my view, that would help developing riders to see their improvements better. On the other side of the coin, you could argue that we might only get good at riding that one particular road. Discuss.

[Daza]

Count me in as a noobie rider who wants to take part!

Wouldn't a ride every 3 months be a bit too long apart? opposed to say monthly. And of course new riders who might want to come along in due course, won't have to wait as long til the next one.

How many riders do you think would be the min and max?

I guess you will plan a Sat where everyone can attend. I'm on holiday for two weeks at the moment, but when i'm back at work, i only have every 2nd weekend free.

Also you could include another mentor ride for wet-riding for immediate learners who wants to learn to ride safely in the wet too, since winter is upon us.

Here is a cool website where you can view detailed maps and plan waypoints for rides/trips etc you can save it and give the link for people to view the planned ride on the map. Ideal for people to make some suggestions as to good riding routes to use for this. http://www.tinymap.net/

As for using the same route each time, i think is a good idea and of course riders can put to practice what they learned on other types of roads too.

Will the route be short (2ks? or less) so it can be lapped around several times in a session? Easier to remember what corners are coming up...Obviously riders could practice anytime on that route once its fixed. Which is another good reason to keep the route the same, so come mentor day, you are a little familiar with the corners and can relax a little more.

[Bnonn]

I said every three months because this sort of ride requires some effort from the advanced riders who are coming along, and they are volunteering their time gratis. I didn't want to impose by suggesting too frequent a schedule. Once a month would be great, of course, but I'm not sure how willing the "tutors" would be. There is also the Friday night meet, where a lot of practise seems to happen in car-parks and so on. I'll be there this Friday, so feel free to stop by. I'd like to get some maneouvering and braking practise in.

I would tend to go for a longer route than 2 km. That's really short. You would want something in the country where you have more leeway in terms of speed, and you want a good surface, not too far from home, with good corners and straights. That narrows things down a lot. I agree that a couple of laps would be good, but I'm not sure how feasible it would be. But there are people here who know the roads around Hamilton much, much better than I do. I leave this sort of thing to them (:

[TerminalAddict]

I'm keen

10 ......

[Hellraiser]

Maybe we could run one from auckland as well and maybe meet somewhere in the middle?

[deeknow]

Out-and-back on Scotchmans valley would be good, so would the Whitehall loop behind Te Miro, and maybe the road from Whatawhata to Pirongia along the western side of the Waipa?

[TerminalAddict]

deeknow: te pahu road.

would be quite good .. nice easy corners, and plenty of places to stop and chat.
Bnonn: just let me know where and when ..

[Bnonn]

Te Pahu Rd sounds good, but I can't really see where it goes. Is there a circuit we could organize that would take us back to Whatawhata or something? I've created a Lines And Tips Route on motowhere, which is currently just shy of 10 km. I think 15-20 km is probably a reasonable length, but I can't see where the route should go from where it currently ends, except just straight back (which is kinda boring, but could have merit).

You know these roads; can you help?

Edit: I'd like to avoid gravel, if possible. Check the tags I have created for the map for what I think are good conditions for the ride. The reason I'm not keen on gravel is simply that it's very hard on tires. I had to replace my rear tire after hitting a few km of gravel on that mythical ride Jamie and I took the weekend before we came on the first Wednesday ride. It just ripped the tire up. Sport/touring tires really aren't meant for gravel riding, so although I agree that gravel is a must-have experience for new riders, I'd prefer to keep it off this particular route.

[TerminalAddict]

whatawhata-->te pahu road (ends at sh39)
turn left .. follow sh39 back to whatawhata

might be 20 kms maybe.

if you're keen on saturday arvo, we could do a couple of laps or sumthin
(and if the weather gods approve)

[Bnonn]

Okay, like this? I followed the road pretty closely with the waypoints so as to get the most accurate km reading possible (what a laborious task; you'd think they'd have a "follow road" function or summat), and it says 43.6 km. Seems a bit on the long side, but I'm keen to test it out on Saturday if the weather is good. It's not ridiculously long. How highly-enforced is SH39? I'd like to keep the route away from likely snake holes if possible.

[TerminalAddict]

crikey .. I wouldn't have guessed 43kms :|

sh39 is barely policed .. but even still .. if we're doing a lesson . .there won't be much speeding

[Bnonn]

True. I'm not too worried; just don't want to attract any attention, since some of us *cough cough* are riding 600 cc motorcyles on our restricted licenses.

[ZeroIndex]

We should pick out a 'race-track' type route... something like an open-road version of the Nurburgring... That section somewhere south of Hamilton that ended 4km from Tokoroa had some really awesome twisties, but something closer to Hamilton would be awesome... Thanks Deeknow (sp?) for showing us that route...

Possibly something a little like this to begin with...

[Warr]

For sure Rob, Thats part of Old Taupo Road.
I would go for somewhere tightish and light in traffic. Also need to be long enough to get dialled into the road a bit.
My vote goes for Waingaro Road.
TePahu road is on the whole open with only a little windy. I'd suggest it as being not enough. And if you head out on Waingaro road there is always a better way home after a stop at the bar !!
Shanes favourate road out past Maungatautari in daylight comes to mind also
Or Whitehall Rd, Scotchmans Valley is a bit too open and has more traffic so not so ideal

[TerminalAddict]

crikey is there internet in hicksville warr?