sefer
12th July 2005, 18:11
Well after spending the past week or so doing some general maintainace stuff on my bike I decided I really wanted to go for a half long ride, as I'd only been up and down my street (about a Km long).
I really enjoyed myself, I went around a few back roads where I knew there'd be bugger all traffic and slowly build up my confidence with riding with traffic by heading to slightly more populated roads, and then I hit the road to Lincon (about 14K from my place, mostly 70-100k zones with a few 50s).
On the whole I think I did pretty well, only one moment of 's*** I'm going to fast for that corner' (which I probably wasn't, but I'd rather be sure), but I handled it well, didn't panic, just eased back on the throttle a bit and I was fine.
Also I seemed to excape the 'biker curse', not one person pulled out in front of me or did any other silly thing to make me nervous, worst thing to happen was a van that was a little close behind when I was following a truck going 50 in the 100 zone, but I passed the truck when I could (woo hoo, I'm flying :ride: ) and that was all cool :)
A few things I have come to realise on my ride, I thought I'd share them for the other newbs around:
1. Wearing jeans in 10 degree weather going 50-100k is bloody cold :cold:
2. I really should at least try to avoid the potholes/manhole covers.
3. Bikes need gas to run.
That last point is perticularly important I feel, I was lucky as I got within 200m of my house before the bike started to miss, then die... I thought 'Oh s*** I killed it somehow..' and since it wouldn't start just pushed it home, got there and tried to figure out what was wrong untill my father said 'has it got gas in it.........??" :weird: Oh well I'll know to check how far I've gone next time :)
I really enjoyed myself, I went around a few back roads where I knew there'd be bugger all traffic and slowly build up my confidence with riding with traffic by heading to slightly more populated roads, and then I hit the road to Lincon (about 14K from my place, mostly 70-100k zones with a few 50s).
On the whole I think I did pretty well, only one moment of 's*** I'm going to fast for that corner' (which I probably wasn't, but I'd rather be sure), but I handled it well, didn't panic, just eased back on the throttle a bit and I was fine.
Also I seemed to excape the 'biker curse', not one person pulled out in front of me or did any other silly thing to make me nervous, worst thing to happen was a van that was a little close behind when I was following a truck going 50 in the 100 zone, but I passed the truck when I could (woo hoo, I'm flying :ride: ) and that was all cool :)
A few things I have come to realise on my ride, I thought I'd share them for the other newbs around:
1. Wearing jeans in 10 degree weather going 50-100k is bloody cold :cold:
2. I really should at least try to avoid the potholes/manhole covers.
3. Bikes need gas to run.
That last point is perticularly important I feel, I was lucky as I got within 200m of my house before the bike started to miss, then die... I thought 'Oh s*** I killed it somehow..' and since it wouldn't start just pushed it home, got there and tried to figure out what was wrong untill my father said 'has it got gas in it.........??" :weird: Oh well I'll know to check how far I've gone next time :)