Sunday 28 January - Where did you ride and what did you practise?

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This weekend Rosie and Riffer are your selectors and they will be looking at good new rider training practice and welcome input from senior riders and mentors.

This weekend review will cover rides on Saturday and Sunday reported here in this thread and selection will be made by Tuesday Evening.

Those selected will have their training comments copied to BuckBuck's Update - Newbie Training thread and they will in turn be the selectors for next Sunday's Where Did You Ride and What Did You Practise?.

I encourage all newbie riders to seek out a riding Mentor to review your riding skills and technique periodically throughout your graduated licence time. Go for mentor riding reviews and discuss the matters that have been identified, then practise, practise, practise.

When you go for your Sunday/weekend ride think about those things you want to focus on and review before you set off on your ride.

I invite any new riders to put forward their comments relating to specific training sessions they may have had recently and not necessarily just this weekend's ride.

The key benefit that I am encouraging is: for new riders/all riders - to 'key in' their training comments to this thread and by doing so, this is reinforcing a personal training discipline.

For those posting to this thread, a degree of humour is welcomed as are pictures of your weekend ride, however please note that the emphasis is newbie training awareness.

You take the time to train on the motorcycle, you take the time to make an entry to this web site, and hence you have indirectly reviewed your own personal training discipline. Well Done.


Heads Up and Enjoy
BuckBuckNo1

[bull]

Went for Ride: From Caltex Rimutaka, up SHW 2 and turned off at Te Marua to head around to Plateau, Maymorn, Mangaroa and down to Wallaceville hill.
My focus was to go a little faster than the last time around the same route and make mental notes of hazars along the way. Usual shingle in the road, shingle on a 90 degree left that i eased up before reaching.
Keeping a watchful eye out for cars appearing at the many driveways that adjoin the main road. Made room for evasion by moving into the centre of the road away from driveways.
Practiced countersteering - been tipping in later into corners to really get the lean over going and am slowly getting comfortable with a decent lean on.
Using the bikes engine braking to come down the hill at a consistent speed instead of throttling on and off at will.

Best thing was just enjoying the ride and loving having the road all to myself - tho noticed a riders light along way back before i headed up Wallaceville Hill road. Came out through Upper hutt and waved at a rider whom was coming into upper hutt. All in all a good quick blat around the back blocks and back through upper hutt up the river road. Even managed to beat a Ford Falcon V8 at the Totara park lights - tho think he may have given up too early.

[Fub@r]

Jeez don't do that to me!

Saw the thread "Where did you ride Sunday 28th"...............you had me rushing to check what day it was today (taking a 1 month holiday off work :) ) as I sit my restricted on Sunday 28. Thought I missed my booking :)

[Chisanga]

HAd an awesome ride today; from Bucklands Beach through to Maraetai, Clevedon, around through some roads McJim showed me and back through Twilight Rd and home again.

Main thing to practise was smoothness through corners and not turning in too early, keeping to the best and safest lines was also an important part.

Trying to remember to weight my outside foot when going through corners kept repeating through the twisties "Outside foot, outside foot" :)

Ingeneral I was very happy and had a great ride especially practised avoiding ignorant BMW SUV drivers who watch you indicate your move into the passing lane and then deliberately pull in front of you the moment before you are about to overtake them.

Oh, also practised sweating copiously in my Cordura :) Hot but worth it today... I really enjoyed the roads I took and with the sun shining I kept thinking how lucky I was to own a motorbike and live in NZ :)

[KoroJ]

Didn't parctice anything...just rode.

Met with Steve, DennisR, Alan and 6 other Ulysses riders at the Brown Owl Shops and departed at 10 for a quick blast over the hill and reqroup in Featherston.

Then off to Masterton, through the bypass to Eketahuna, off at the Mangamaire turnoff and through Balance for lunch at the Boots 'n Braces in Woodville.

Retuned via SH2 to Pahiatua where we diverted through Tane & Alfredton to Masterton then on to Martinborough for a Coffee before returning back over the hill. About 420kms all up.

Great day with the temp getting up to 27degrees (a real Summer ride...believe it or not) and a good crew.

[Matt]

Just had a quick ride out of Silverstream to practice cornering on the way to see an open home - up via Blue Mountains (some of those tight low speed corners on the way out of Pinehaven are great!), then across Whitemans Valley, before riding down into Wallaceville and back to Silverstream.

Matt

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Just had a quick ride out of Silverstream to practice cornering on the way to see an open home - up via Blue Mountains (some of those tight low speed corners on the way out of Pinehaven are great!), then across Whitemans Valley, before riding down into Wallaceville and back to Silverstream.

Matt

Matt next time take the right hand over the bridge instead of the left hand sweep to Wallacevile, and carry on up to Maymorn then back over the Mangaroa Hill and back down to Upper Hutt Wallaceville over the hill and back through Whitemans again. This is a good loop and you can vary it going or coming back.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[Terminated]

This weekend's ride focused on shifting my body position slightly on the seat setting up before the curve. No doubt about Golf November Two Five Zero, I felt cool, calm and collected, taking my time and giving a slight counter steering push on the inside grip, keeping a bit of pressure on the outside peg, identifying my two vision points before the turn, looking through curve, head level with the horizon, and then initiating the whole manouevre. Though the weight shift felt 'exaggerated' because I was conscious of it and moving at a steady non-threatening pace, I did feel a better technique developing. [A subject for the Advanced Refresher course next week.]

The other important item this week was braking practice. Following on from last Wednesday night, I spent an hour or so on Sunday practising emergency braking. An interesting bit of feedback: approaching the marker cones [without doing a braking run] and counting off 1000 and 1, 1000 and 2, at 50km then progressively upto 70km. The actual 'separation distance' when I stopped and went and looked back was quite surprising. My personal feedback was that I found that I was able to 'get off' the throttle quite well, previously when practising I still had a fair bit of throttle open when coming to stop.

The other thing I focused on was ensuring I was getting the shifter down to first gear by the time I stopped, in anticipation of an emergency acceleration. [Though I did practise the emergency stop and acceleration, a small part I left out, I think was important, that is during the practice - to actually look in the rear view mirror simulating the fact that I see the hazard approaching.]

A key focus next weekend on the course will be escape strategies I suspect.

Two rides this weekend, up to Sels1 [for the bbq - 'Bravo Zulu' Selwyn and Claire well done and thanks it was great to catch up with the KB'ers there] on the Kapiti Coast over the Paekakariki Hill and back. And Sunday up through Whitemans Valley, just enjoy that Blue Mountains Road ascent.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[chanceyy]

well sorry its not sunday .. and as i have today off ... tires are now inflated .. I thought since no one is about .... I would have a wee play with the new toy ..

what did I learn ... (remembering its over 20 yrs since i last road a bike .. & never a road bike)

well I am only doing circles on my back lawn .. through the carport .. (wearing a nice track already)

finding netural from first gear ... trying to find out how many revs i need to take off smoothly without reving her to high or two low & stalling ..

I am much more smoother on right hand circles than left .... must practice left more ... & look where i am going .. focus

getting sore arms .. must remember to use my knees more .. that took a bit of pressure off my arms .. & look where i am going .. focus

also how smoothly can I brake to slow & speed up slightly ....

ohh yeah breaking in new gear .. boots do make it easier to change back to neutral ... had issues finding netural but was being to strong & finding second instead ...

ok break time to take it all in .. but can ya tell i am smiling ... might take her down the cattle race in the week .. good track not too rough

[Terminated]

well sorry its not sunday .. and as i have today off ... tires are now inflated .. I thought since no one is about .... I would have a wee play with the new toy ..

what did I learn ... (remembering its over 20 yrs since i last road a bike .. & never a road bike)

well I am only doing circles on my back lawn .. through the carport .. (wearing a nice track already)

finding netural from first gear ... trying to find out how many revs i need to take off smoothly without reving her to high or two low & stalling ..

I am much more smoother on right hand circles than left .... must practice left more ... & look where i am going .. focus

getting sore arms .. must remember to use my knees more .. that took a bit of pressure off my arms .. & look where i am going .. focus

also how smoothly can I brake to slow & speed up slightly ....

ohh yeah breaking in new gear .. boots do make it easier to change back to neutral ... had issues finding netural but was being to strong & finding second instead ...

ok break time to take it all in .. but can ya tell i am smiling ... might take her down the cattle race in the week .. good track not too rough

Yeehaaa, you go for it.
Heads Up and Enjoy [I am sure you are.]

[chanceyy]

Yeehaaa, you go for it.
Heads Up and Enjoy [I am sure you are.]

ohhhhh that goes without saying Guy .. I have had the best weekend/ day off in a very very long time

seeing a dream closer to reality & spending time with a fantastic bunch of ppl what more could a person want ?

[maybe]

Rode with the Ulysses from brown owl didn't practice much but learnt that the Suzuki 1500 likes main roads better than back roads, well it's owner likes back roads so it better get used to them.:scooter:

[Steam]

I went to the first half of my Defensive Driving course, a "StreetTalk" course I think it's called. The rest of the class are 16 years old, which is very weird for me, being 29.

Buckbuck, it will be even weirder for you I predict. But it is useful already. I don't know about $145 worth of useful, but it will bring the restricted time down a little anway, from six months to three. I still have two nights to go and a practical, so I'll report on that in future posts.

As for riding, I just went to and from work. One day last week I rode my brother's bike which was stuck in second gear because the gear lever fell off, and I locked the back wheel up at 40kph when I tried to change gears. The bike stayed in a straight line and I pulled in the clutch, continued on my way, but it was a dicey moment.
Stay safe out there!

See you in the weekend Buckbuck, I am also booked on the Roadsafe course on the 3rd.

[Terminated]

I went to the first half of my Defensive Driving course, a "StreetTalk" course I think it's called.

See you in the weekend Buckbuck, I am also booked on the Roadsafe course on the 3rd.

Hey Steam, that is great news about your Defensive Driving course and also look forward to doing the Roadsafe course this weekend with you.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[Rosie]

I did some riding every day over the long weekend. My two main focuses were; in urban areas, identifying and reacting to hazards; in rural areas, smooth throttle/brake use while cornering. Also, I was aware of my following distance, trying to remember that at this stage I should have a slightly longer following distance on the bike, compared to the car, so aiming for a 3-4 second gap.

Being a long weekend traffic was a bit busy in built up areas, but not too bad on the open road.

On Saturday Clint and I rode to the Okere Falls store, on the main highway to Tauranga, we had breakfast there, and went back to Rotorua around the back of Lake Rotorua. I got a bit of a groove going on through the corners around Haumurana, and managed to keep an eye on all the things going on around me in the heavier traffic in Ngongotaha.

On Sunday we went a bit further a field, over the Rotoma's on SH 30, then through Galatea and on to Te Whaiti, where Clint's mum lives. The Rotoma's were hard work, we were going downhill for most of the twisties, and downhill corners make me a bit nervous. I was managing to cruise at highway speeds (100-110) on the long straight sections. My speedo is way out, but now I know that if I keep under "140" I needn't fear speed cameras.

I really enjoyed the ride from Murupara to Te Whaiti, the road is really twisty, but the surface is nice, and it's fairly wide. I made a conscious effort to not look at my speedo, just to try and line the corners up nicely, use the throttle smoothly, and try and follow car wheel tracks, rather than riding in the middle of the lane, as I apparently had been doing on Saturday. There was rain forecast on Monday, and the centre of the lane is more likely to be slippery in the rain, so I thought it was an important thing to practise.

I was a bit nervous about Clint's mum's 1km gravel driveway, but I just stayed in 1st, put a little more weight on my footpegs, and took it easy. Half the driveway was being grazed by calves, so I had the pleasure of riding with a large mob of nervous calves that keep trying to run in front of me and leap under my front wheel.

Monday morning it rained, and I wasn't entirely looking forward to the trip home, even though my gear would keep me nice and dry. There were a few spits of rain as we went down the driveway, and past my small bovine friends, but we never saw any more rain. The road was a bit wet in a few places, so I was being a bit careful.

[Lissa]

Then off to Masterton, through the bypass to Eketahuna, off at the Mangamaire turnoff and through Balance for lunch at the Boots 'n Braces in Woodville.

Retuned via SH2 to Pahiatua where we diverted through Tane & Alfredton to Masterton then on to Martinborough for a Coffee before returning back over the hill. About 420kms all up.Want to try riding that one day!! Sounds like a good ride KoroJ.

Went for a ride on Saturday... thought it was going to fine up, but with all the cloud we didnt get too wet. Picked up kinje from down my street, then rode to carterton to meet up with elle, and then biggles1 in featherston. Decided as the weather was pretty crappy just to ride to Martinbrough for Lunch... and then went home.

What I practiced was riding in the wet. I am pretty unconfident on my bike on corners when the road is slippery... dont really trust my GN tyres 100% esp since I have read a few threads about them here on KB. Just took it slow and smooth. Practiced watching the road for bad patches.

Monday I went for a short ride with my new smaller helmet... amazing what a difference a right fit makes. Cant believe I had been riding with a helmet way to big for me, and was completely unsafe. Every bump I went over my helmet would move and when going at speed my helmet would push my sunnies into my face... now with the new helmet there is no movement and visiability is 100 times better..... all I can say is, helmet's are very important and so is a good fit!

[merv]

Whats' with the stock GN tyres, do they have that slippery eel feeling when they are wet?

[KoroJ]

Want to try riding that one day!! Sounds like a good ride KoroJ.

It certainly was. I was brought-up in Masterton but I had never been on 3 of the stretches of road before. Not very adventurous I guess.

[Rosie]

well sorry its not sunday .. and as i have today off ... tires are now inflated .. I thought since no one is about .... I would have a wee play with the new toy ..

what did I learn ... (remembering its over 20 yrs since i last road a bike .. & never a road bike)

well I am only doing circles on my back lawn .. through the carport .. (wearing a nice track already)

finding netural from first gear ... trying to find out how many revs i need to take off smoothly without reving her to high or two low & stalling ..

I am much more smoother on right hand circles than left .... must practice left more ... & look where i am going .. focus

getting sore arms .. must remember to use my knees more .. that took a bit of pressure off my arms .. & look where i am going .. focus

also how smoothly can I brake to slow & speed up slightly ....

ohh yeah breaking in new gear .. boots do make it easier to change back to neutral ... had issues finding netural but was being to strong & finding second instead ...

ok break time to take it all in .. but can ya tell i am smiling ... might take her down the cattle race in the week .. good track not too rough

My pick for this week is Chanceyy, for practising the basics and taking the time to get used to her new bike in a controlled environment (ie away from traffic). I spent a lot of time doing this when I first learnt to ride, and it's something I should also be practising at the moment, now I'm back on the bike after a 7 month break.

[chanceyy]

My pick for this week is Chanceyy, for practising the basics and taking the time to get used to her new bike in a controlled environment (ie away from traffic). I spent a lot of time doing this when I first learnt to ride, and it's something I should also be practising at the moment, now I'm back on the bike after a 7 month break.

thanks Rosie .. just got in from practicing tonite .. note being a bit more tired am not as fluid as yesterday .. but its a fab feeling :D

[riffer]

My focus was to go a little faster than the last time around the same route and make mental notes of hazards along the way. Usual shingle in the road, shingle on a 90 degree left that i eased up before reaching.
Keeping a watchful eye out for cars appearing at the many driveways that adjoin the main road. Made room for evasion by moving into the centre of the road away from driveways.
Practiced countersteering - been tipping in later into corners to really get the lean over going and am slowly getting comfortable with a decent lean on.
Using the bikes engine braking to come down the hill at a consistent speed instead of throttling on and off at will.


I really enjoyed the ride from Murupara to Te Whaiti, the road is really twisty, but the surface is nice, and it's fairly wide. I made a conscious effort to not look at my speedo, just to try and line the corners up nicely, use the throttle smoothly, and try and follow car wheel tracks, rather than riding in the middle of the lane, as I apparently had been doing on Saturday. There was rain forecast on Monday, and the centre of the lane is more likely to be slippery in the rain, so I thought it was an important thing to practise.

Okay, here's my picks.

Both riders have practiced their techniques and have tried to push the envelope a bit.

While it is important to practice techniques and ensure that we cover the basics every time we get out there, I believe that it's also important to push the boundaries to ensure we improve. Not that I advocate anything stupid or dangerous, but I feel it's easy to get complacent and stay in the comfort zone once we think we have the technique down pat - so well done these two riders.

I've thought about the emergency braking practice bull, buckbuckno1 and I tried last week, and I've decided its missing one element - the element of surprise, and I'm wondering how you would integrate that into the practice.

Something to think about.

[Terminated]

I've thought about the emergency braking practice bull, buckbuckno1 and I tried last week, and I've decided its missing one element - the element of surprise, and I'm wondering how you would integrate that into the practice.

Something to think about.

Element of surprise can be introduced by independent person standing down and parallel to braking zone dropping an arm from horizontal or a flag/cloth.

Look forward to next session.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[riffer]

I've got the kids all weekend again (a nice 40th birthday surprise - not supposed to have all of them this weekend), but I'm thinking we need to do something about this emergency braking with the element of surprise thing.

Evenings work best for me. I'd like a few more than just two other guys to turn up this time.

What do you say guys? - give us a time...

[Terminated]

Thanks riffer have sent PM and suggesting Tuesday evenings carpark practice and harbour and bay rides.

This weekly thread is now closed for this week.

Sunday[Date] Where Did You Ride and What Did You Practise? will be posted later this week.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[bull]

I'm thinking we need to do something about this emergency braking with the element of surprise thing.

Evenings work best for me. I'd like a few more than just two other guys to turn up this time.

What do you say guys? - give us a time...

Was thinking that maybe 3 riders can stand along the path and you travel at constant speed and between them they decide who will indicate you to brake so could be first , second or third rider. Have the riders about 5m apart.
sound suitable?