sil3nt
10th June 2011, 17:17
Had my full licence booked for today at 1:45pm. Of course it has to be the day where its constantly raining. Couldn't find my winter gloves so had to use the leather summer gloves that have holes in the fingers to let air in :facepalm: Also forgot to anti-fog the visor the night before :facepalm::facepalm:
I jump on the 250 to go pick up the hire bike. Barely starts and splutters on down the road. Stalls at the end. Hmm this isn't good. Turn around park it in the carport and jump on the 400. Get to Boyd's where my GZ250 is waiting to be picked up (My GPX is running like a sack of shit hence the hire bike). Never ridden a cruiser so picked it up with plenty of time to spare to have a ride around and get used to it. Very strange putting my feet forward not tucking them up by my arse!
After riding around i go sit the test. Same dude who took me for the restricted :woohoo:
We ride around the streets then out on the open road. Hard to judge what speed i was doing the speedo is in MPH with little kph numbers and the water made it very difficult to read. We then pull into this narrow piece of country road (http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Tramway+Road,+Hamilton,+Waikato&aq=0&sll=-36.793711,174.691302&sspn=0.011736,0.022724&g=tramway+road&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Tramway+Rd,+Hamilton,+Waikato&ll=-37.748074,175.294524&spn=0.023177,0.045447&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-37.748074,175.294524&panoid=AiMbWdbZMGJBpehnWIMqcA&cbp=12,257.44,,0,6.88) and he asks me to do a u-turn. I wonder how the hell thats going to happen and it did require a foot down to get around. Really didn't fancy hitting the grass on the sides! After putting the foot down i thought i stuffed the test up. We ride on back to the testing station but thankfully carry on past. Carry on up the road around the roundabout and then back to the testing station where he says park it and meet me inside.
Now i am thinking he's seen enough of my crap riding and its all over :(
Getting inside he says "i thought i better save you from the weather" and as i sit down he says congratulations :blink: Asks if i had any questions..
"yeah about that u-turn..."
"what about it? You did the head check and got the bike around. If you didn't put your foot down the bike would have gone down"
Thank fuck!
Didn't do any hazard identification which i am guessing is because he didn't want to get out of the car and get drenched.
Rode the whole time with minimal visibility. Either fogged visor or rain on the inside when clearing fog. I was absolutely soaked. Well my crotch arms and feet were. About 2 hours outside in the rain.
As for the GZ250...well its a nice bike but nowhere near as comfortable as i thought it would be. Would much rather have the GPX any day. Does have good balance and tight turns were easy (even the u-turn would have been i just messed it up by not wanting to touch the grass). Pretty bloody slow though! Really needs to be thrashed to get to 100. I think i will stick with sports and sports/tourers for now cruisers aren't my thing yet!
I jump on the 250 to go pick up the hire bike. Barely starts and splutters on down the road. Stalls at the end. Hmm this isn't good. Turn around park it in the carport and jump on the 400. Get to Boyd's where my GZ250 is waiting to be picked up (My GPX is running like a sack of shit hence the hire bike). Never ridden a cruiser so picked it up with plenty of time to spare to have a ride around and get used to it. Very strange putting my feet forward not tucking them up by my arse!
After riding around i go sit the test. Same dude who took me for the restricted :woohoo:
We ride around the streets then out on the open road. Hard to judge what speed i was doing the speedo is in MPH with little kph numbers and the water made it very difficult to read. We then pull into this narrow piece of country road (http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Tramway+Road,+Hamilton,+Waikato&aq=0&sll=-36.793711,174.691302&sspn=0.011736,0.022724&g=tramway+road&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Tramway+Rd,+Hamilton,+Waikato&ll=-37.748074,175.294524&spn=0.023177,0.045447&z=15&layer=c&cbll=-37.748074,175.294524&panoid=AiMbWdbZMGJBpehnWIMqcA&cbp=12,257.44,,0,6.88) and he asks me to do a u-turn. I wonder how the hell thats going to happen and it did require a foot down to get around. Really didn't fancy hitting the grass on the sides! After putting the foot down i thought i stuffed the test up. We ride on back to the testing station but thankfully carry on past. Carry on up the road around the roundabout and then back to the testing station where he says park it and meet me inside.
Now i am thinking he's seen enough of my crap riding and its all over :(
Getting inside he says "i thought i better save you from the weather" and as i sit down he says congratulations :blink: Asks if i had any questions..
"yeah about that u-turn..."
"what about it? You did the head check and got the bike around. If you didn't put your foot down the bike would have gone down"
Thank fuck!
Didn't do any hazard identification which i am guessing is because he didn't want to get out of the car and get drenched.
Rode the whole time with minimal visibility. Either fogged visor or rain on the inside when clearing fog. I was absolutely soaked. Well my crotch arms and feet were. About 2 hours outside in the rain.
As for the GZ250...well its a nice bike but nowhere near as comfortable as i thought it would be. Would much rather have the GPX any day. Does have good balance and tight turns were easy (even the u-turn would have been i just messed it up by not wanting to touch the grass). Pretty bloody slow though! Really needs to be thrashed to get to 100. I think i will stick with sports and sports/tourers for now cruisers aren't my thing yet!