Donor
16th March 2007, 22:14
The KB family is a rare, dysfunctional and close thing.
Lately, I have seen many tips, tricks and hints being given. The most prolific for a while was emergency braking.
Personally, after my handling cert, I hadn't given emergency braking much thought. (That whole 10ft tall and bulletproof newbie thing...)
But then, I thought what the hell, I had a new bike with awesome brakes, so while I'm learning how to brake properly, why not slide some emergency stopping practice in there to boot. And I'll tell you what, it bloody well paid off today!
Coming home Great South Rd this afternoon, I was nipping along at about 60kph through Manukau. I was approaching GSR/Redoubt Rd intersection, though probably a good 600-700 meters away, when I saw a guy pull out of the Finn McCools driveway on the left and turn right.
"Ah" I says to myself, "That's right, there's a sodding driveway there coming up on my left, and sometimes people leaving it do stupid things".
However traffic was such that I could see from about 200m that there was nothing waiting to either leave the driveway, or enter it for that matter.
"Bloody brilliant" I says to myself (Talking to myself is the best way to get anyone to understand me in person mostly...) and reached to give Rosey the throttle she was gagging for.
But I didn't. Weird feeling, and I maintained my now reduced speed (~50kph in a 70 zone) with a cage closing in behind me.
I got to about 20 meters from the drive.
SURPRISE!
Some numbnuts piece of retarded flung monkey dung SHOOTS left out of the drive, crossing into my lane (2nd lane, left hand one heading to Manurewa), sees me, and HITS THE BRAKES STOPPING IN FRONT OF ME!
I fair shit myself.
Went to reach for the clutch to down change rapidly, but suddenly Phil from Riderskills (http://www.riderskills.co.nz) popped into my head, told me in a scary Irish drawl that he would haunt me til I was dead. So I grabbed a healthy dose of braking, felt the nose take a dive, and reacquainted myself with several deities whose names elude me except in times when I think I am going to be in need of a higher plain friend.
I stopped maybe 2 foot from this guys door.
I had a flash about various other retribution threads as well at this point, but opted for another approach. First of all, I screamed with my visor still down, that he was of questionable parentage, and suggested that his appearance was possibly not dissimilar to a female genitalia referred to in a vulgar state.
He proceeded to drive on and stop at the lights. So, I recommenced my ride, and found myself in the lane next to him.
I stopped about 3 foot from his window.
I leaned over toward his window.
I stared.
And I stared 'til the lights changed.
He took off like a cut cat. I took off very gingerly. And caught up to the sod at the next lights, where I leaned and stared again.
In fact, he suffered this for the next 3 sets of lights.
Finally, while going through Manurewa, he swerved all of a sudden, pulled over and ran into a shop. The call he was making after the first lights must have been the wife, probably wanted something from the travel agents he ran into...
So in summary.
Thanks to Phil for his most excellent teachings 4 months ago.
And thanks to the KB crew who selflessly share their life lessons, skills time an opinions, to keep dumb ass newbies like me, from making dumb ass mistakes more often than we need to.
Cheers.
Lately, I have seen many tips, tricks and hints being given. The most prolific for a while was emergency braking.
Personally, after my handling cert, I hadn't given emergency braking much thought. (That whole 10ft tall and bulletproof newbie thing...)
But then, I thought what the hell, I had a new bike with awesome brakes, so while I'm learning how to brake properly, why not slide some emergency stopping practice in there to boot. And I'll tell you what, it bloody well paid off today!
Coming home Great South Rd this afternoon, I was nipping along at about 60kph through Manukau. I was approaching GSR/Redoubt Rd intersection, though probably a good 600-700 meters away, when I saw a guy pull out of the Finn McCools driveway on the left and turn right.
"Ah" I says to myself, "That's right, there's a sodding driveway there coming up on my left, and sometimes people leaving it do stupid things".
However traffic was such that I could see from about 200m that there was nothing waiting to either leave the driveway, or enter it for that matter.
"Bloody brilliant" I says to myself (Talking to myself is the best way to get anyone to understand me in person mostly...) and reached to give Rosey the throttle she was gagging for.
But I didn't. Weird feeling, and I maintained my now reduced speed (~50kph in a 70 zone) with a cage closing in behind me.
I got to about 20 meters from the drive.
SURPRISE!
Some numbnuts piece of retarded flung monkey dung SHOOTS left out of the drive, crossing into my lane (2nd lane, left hand one heading to Manurewa), sees me, and HITS THE BRAKES STOPPING IN FRONT OF ME!
I fair shit myself.
Went to reach for the clutch to down change rapidly, but suddenly Phil from Riderskills (http://www.riderskills.co.nz) popped into my head, told me in a scary Irish drawl that he would haunt me til I was dead. So I grabbed a healthy dose of braking, felt the nose take a dive, and reacquainted myself with several deities whose names elude me except in times when I think I am going to be in need of a higher plain friend.
I stopped maybe 2 foot from this guys door.
I had a flash about various other retribution threads as well at this point, but opted for another approach. First of all, I screamed with my visor still down, that he was of questionable parentage, and suggested that his appearance was possibly not dissimilar to a female genitalia referred to in a vulgar state.
He proceeded to drive on and stop at the lights. So, I recommenced my ride, and found myself in the lane next to him.
I stopped about 3 foot from his window.
I leaned over toward his window.
I stared.
And I stared 'til the lights changed.
He took off like a cut cat. I took off very gingerly. And caught up to the sod at the next lights, where I leaned and stared again.
In fact, he suffered this for the next 3 sets of lights.
Finally, while going through Manurewa, he swerved all of a sudden, pulled over and ran into a shop. The call he was making after the first lights must have been the wife, probably wanted something from the travel agents he ran into...
So in summary.
Thanks to Phil for his most excellent teachings 4 months ago.
And thanks to the KB crew who selflessly share their life lessons, skills time an opinions, to keep dumb ass newbies like me, from making dumb ass mistakes more often than we need to.
Cheers.