This week 14-20 February - Ride and practise?

[Terminated]

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

This week’s review will cover rides from Wednesday 14th to Tuesday 20th February 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 Week’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 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 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

[Nasty]

What a week of riding .. I got my bike back so am loving being in the saddle again. Apart from riding to work each day and praciticing not getting to close to cages on those trips, we had an evening ride on the 14th where rather than riding straight home from the club after dinner we rode around the inlet. For this it was in the dusktime so practice where to look on the road when cars with lights approaching (left hand and the white line is good) ... and cornering on roads I don't know well. Trying to work through the issues I have with my left hand side and moving further into that side of the lane.

Sunday we had a great rip to the Wairarapa. Top of the hill ... one small stop on way up to re-focus and sort my shit when I realised my head was NOT in the right place. I then remembered what one of the guys at work (old rider) told me when working on something you hate ... find a gear stick to it .. and learn the lines for the corners that way eliminating one of the things to worry about .... and it worked ... great trick ... thanks Henry! ... made it to the top .. Hawkeye was there and came for a coffee in Caterton ... Once finished there it was the backroads to Martinborough .. which was great .. quite a few riders ... and just lovely open spaces ... main thing to watch was my speed .. and position on road .. which when going long and straight was great!!

Stopped over at the pub for a drink and then a slow and interesting ride home ... I learnt one thing of note .. always take sunglasses .. its a shit to get sunstrike .. and interesting when you can't see the corners so good .. but slowed down and made our way ... to rimutex got glasses and rode home ... overall an awesome learning week on the bike ... oh to add a very happy one too :)

:scooter:

[quallman1234]

Got my bike on Thursday night and rode around for a couple k's then called it a night.

Friday - Went to school as normal and was waiting all day for it to be over!!!, i didnt get off the thing untill about 8-9pm :D.
Saturday - Rode everywhere and anywhere i could up the western hills as pratice but havent entered on to the motorway yet.

Got a total of 220+km in my first couple days of riding including lots of city riding, im slowly learning :).

Sunday - I followed my brother on his gf's scooter tho to rimtuka forest park (no where near the actual rimtuka hill).

Monday - Rode to school and back aimmed not to stall at all so far so good :), im about to ride to do some emergency braking practice at the car park, if you a DT175 (Your hear the 2 stroke engine :P), gimme a wave :).

p.s Bought the bike @ 520km Currently on 870ish :) and i would love to go for a ride with a fellow KB if anyone's up for it :).

[mstriumph]

York - rellies - 'nuff said
rode the bloke's XJR1300 along the back roads and marvelled at the differences between the two bikes --------- it can sure get up and boogie when it wants to but so caaaaaaaalm and stable and downright likeable for normal road riding! Difference between its relatively low CG compared to the Fazer methinks...

Takes much more .... thought, i guess ..... thru the corners too.... I didn't feel as though the bike was doing most of it for me [as i sometimes do on mine] and sounds wunnerful, even on its standard pipes [Fazer sounds like a sewing machine - gotta DO something about that!!]

We are hoping to go down south a little next month ..... i have been a bit worried as i tend to start getting achy after 500kms on the Fazer ..... if I can get round the fella to swap back and forth a bit i'm sure the change in riding position and style will extend my range ...... [:innocent: ] I think mebbe we have the best of both worlds for the riding we plan to do.

[Steam]

I did the practical part of my Defensive Driving / Street-Talk course, with A1 Driving School in Wellington.

I met up with Andrew from Roadsafe (who does the practical on behalf of A1) and we basically went through a practise of the Full License test.

We went over hazard recognition, which they ask you about at the test, and we went for three small rides around the city, practising the three stages of the Full test.
He gave me some tips about safer riding and some things I could to do polish my riding for the test, and that was that, an easy and interesting hour.
The only thing he really had to say is that I was going too fast for the tester to follow easily in traffic (although not over 50).
And that I looked confident and comfortable.
He said I was above average for someone about to take the test, and I would pass easily! Chuffed, Me! :first:
I have booked my Full Test for 14th of March!! Exciting!
600cc Dual-Purpose bike here I come!!

On Sunday I went for a ride around the bays with Buckbuck and Drum. It was a beautiful day and unfortunately everyone else had the same idea, we were stuck behind cars going 40kph for almost the whole way.
I set out to practise Delayed Apex cornering, rather than taking the race line, and I did this even though we were going too slow for it to matter.

I got frustrated at one point and overtook dangerously, and for this I apologise to the gods of motorcycling.
Still, it was nice to be out in the sunny sun. Hot!
On the way home I split jammed traffic like a demon, that new bypass in the city was gridlocked from the basin to the tunnel. Not for me it wasn't, the lanes are nice and wide, leaving room for us two-wheelers down the middle.

This coming week I intend to find somewhere to practise emergency braking from 100kph. I have never done that before, should be interesting.

[Dodger]

Today I learnt to remove the front disc lock before setting off :shit: turned into a very short trip, but I managed not to bin it. <_<

[zuk]

Today I learnt to remove the front disc lock before setting off :shit: turned into a very short trip, but I managed not to bin it. <_<

LOL been there done that-sucks in front of lots of people when you are trying to look cool

[Lissa]

Ok...

Wednesday 14th Wednesday Night Ride... left home at 5pm with kinje to met up with the Welly Crowd at the famous duck (once called the Elephant) pond. Good ride over the hill, practiced smooth cornering... I am absolutely LOVING the Rimutakas. I love cornering, something that scared the crap out of me just a couple of months ago, I now throughly enjoy. Got to the duck pond just in time to take off again back over the takas. Managed to keep up with the leading group, until was taken over on the hill by a few people. Again practicing smooth cornering and changing my gears, although should have changed down again when I tried to overtake a car on the hill... but lesson learnt!

Saturday 17th First ride in Wellington. Place scares me, esp coming from a small town with NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS... what a pain in the ass. Anyway, set off in the morning with elle, with a quick stop at the top of the takas... where we were beseigned by a group of unistudents? Not sure who they were, but they loved our bikes.

Wellington... we made our way to WMC. Practiced full concentration, with so many cars about. Had a quick look around WMC... nice shop! Then made our way for a coffee at starbucks. Leaving Starbucks, another ginny rider pulled up beside me... had a yarn about how great our bikes are, then proceeded to get lost in Wellington. Finally after riding around a big block, I made my way to the top of the hill and waited for elle. 40 mins later... there she was... time was 4pm. The most important lesson learnt that day was to EAT... hadnt eaten all day, and was starting to shake, so made our way to the tin hutt for a meal. Practicing smooth cornering again.

Monday 19th Went for a quick blat out to Gladstone. Practiced smooth riding, and trying not to cut corners. On the way back a friggen ute full of people drifted over to my side of the road, had to brake and slow down and move to the left..... A$$holes. Learnt that I was completely helpless in that situation, and if a car is going to cross over into my lane, I'm at their mercy.

[Rosie]

Clint and I went for a bit of a ride on Sunday morning - SH 30 towards Kawerau, then down various backroads past Manawahe to Matata, down the coast to Pukehina beach for an icecream, lunch at Paengaroa, and home via SH 33.
It was a good ride, with, once again, two things to focus on - looking where I want to go around corners, and frequent, smooth gear changes.

Corners generally went well, downhill corners are still hard work, they tend to sneak up on me a bit and end up seeming a bit tighter than I expect, especially on the Manawahe road which doesn't have any speed recommendation signs for corners over 25km/h, so you never quite know what the next corner will be like. Good for improving my corner-tightness judgement.

Throttle use during gear changes isn't always as smooth as I might like, but I'm practising, and will improve over time. I'm trying to keep the revs above 6k all the time (7 is the low end of the powerband), so I can get the most out of my little bike. And not foul the sparkplug.


Overall it was a pretty good ride, but there were a few things I wasn't happy with:
Forgetting to look in my mirrors regularly, so a (bright red) car snuck up on me, and I didn't see it until it started to overtake me.
Not concentrating on the twisty downhill section of Manawahe rd, finding myself going into a corner a bit faster than I should have. I braked carefully, and leant more, and was ok, but I wasn't happy about it.
Getting a bit stressed out about route finding and being in charge of finding a nice place to stop along the way. This removing some of my concentration from the road and leading me to not notice the bright red vehicle mentioned above.
Often when I have a faster vehicle behind me I get a bit nervous and struggle to find a suitable place to pull over. So that may be a focus of future rides - identifying suitable places to pull over to let people past, or to stop for a break.
And, checking my mirrors more often.

[placidfemme]

Saturday 17th: Rode from Auckland to Taurnaga... didn't practise anything other than keeping up with a gixxer thou that was riding slow so I could keep up lol

Sunday 18th: Rode from Tauranga to Waipu, down a side road to Whangamata, did really badly in the downhill twisties and nearly lost the front and only just managed to save myself from lowsiding. Left Whangamata and had a kind lady on an Aprilla show me some great lines through to Paeroa (don't know the name of the road), so I practised my lines and tried to get better at corner entrys. Don't know if I improved or not, but I certainly feel a bit better and my lines feel a lot smoother...

Mon 19th: Rode from Tauranga back to Auckland. Didn't practice anything.

[Squeak the Rat]

Whangamata, did really badly in the downhill twisties and nearly lost the front and only just managed to save myself from lowsiding.

I found this article on downhill cornering for a friend because he wasn't understanding what i was saying. Thought it was simple and straightforward.

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto/riding_motorcycles_downhill/

Sorry for the sidetrack, as you were.....

StR

[placidfemme]

I found this article on downhill cornering for a friend because he wasn't understanding what i was saying. Thought it was simple and straightforward.

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/howto/riding_motorcycles_downhill/

Sorry for the sidetrack, as you were.....

StR

Sweet thanks :) One thing I did learn about the downhill twisties was to not use the front brake when entering the corner unless I absolutley have to... keeping the weight off the front helps apparantly...

[Rosie]

Sunday we had a great rip to the Wairarapa. Top of the hill ... one small stop on way up to re-focus and sort my shit when I realised my head was NOT in the right place. I then remembered what one of the guys at work (old rider) told me when working on something you hate ... find a gear stick to it .. and learn the lines for the corners that way eliminating one of the things to worry about .... and it worked

My choice this week is Nasty, for recognising when she isn't in the right frame of mind, stopping for a break and figuring out a way to deal with the situation.
Sometimes I'll get myself stressed about something when I'm riding, but I'll keep going, hoping that the problem will 'just go away' (bad idea, I know), and later I'll be talking to Clint (who had no idea I was stressed at the time, he isn't psychic, bless him), and he will have some good ideas about what I could have done differently at the time - had I stopped to explain what the problem was.

[hitch]

Interesting read thankyou. I have learnt that little bit more. Cheers

[chanceyy]

I did the practical part of my Defensive Driving / Street-Talk course, with A1 Driving School in Wellington.

I met up with Andrew from Roadsafe (who does the practical on behalf of A1) and we basically went through a practise of the Full License test.

We went over hazard recognition, which they ask you about at the test, and we went for three small rides around the city, practising the three stages of the Full test.
He gave me some tips about safer riding and some things I could to do polish my riding for the test, and that was that, an easy and interesting hour.
The only thing he really had to say is that I was going too fast for the tester to follow easily in traffic (although not over 50).
And that I looked confident and comfortable.
He said I was above average for someone about to take the test, and I would pass easily! Chuffed, Me! :first:
I have booked my Full Test for 14th of March!! Exciting!
600cc Dual-Purpose bike here I come!!

On Sunday I went for a ride around the bays with Buckbuck and Drum. It was a beautiful day and unfortunately everyone else had the same idea, we were stuck behind cars going 40kph for almost the whole way.
I set out to practise Delayed Apex cornering, rather than taking the race line, and I did this even though we were going too slow for it to matter.

I got frustrated at one point and overtook dangerously, and for this I apologise to the gods of motorcycling.
Still, it was nice to be out in the sunny sun. Hot!
On the way home I split jammed traffic like a demon, that new bypass in the city was gridlocked from the basin to the tunnel. Not for me it wasn't, the lanes are nice and wide, leaving room for us two-wheelers down the middle.

This coming week I intend to find somewhere to practise emergency braking from 100kph. I have never done that before, should be interesting.



sorry for the late selection .. got a wee bit excited last nite about the RZ being legal & taking her for a spin ..

my pick this week is steams post getting the brush up for the full test & furthering the learning curve .. also recognising bad overtaking pass ... & being frustrated & making bad choices could end badly .. whats the rush .. your on a bike enjoying the ride ;)

[Terminated]

This thread 14-20February Ride and Practise is now closed.

Thank your Rosie and Chanceyy for your selections - Nasty and Steam respectively.

Congrats.
Nasty good to catch up with you and Grub on the ride over to the Tin Hutt tonight.

Steam, also to catch up with you last Sunday on the Around The Harbour & Bays Ride. Also take a bow for completing the Defensive Driving/Riding course.

Heads Up and Enjoy