Fortnight 4 – 17 July 2007 Where Did You Ride and What Did You Practise?

[Terminated]

Fortnight 4 – 17 July 2007

Where Did You Ride and What Did You Practise? during the last/next fortnight.
With winter well and truly here, the only upside is daylight is starting to get longer moving out from the winter solstice.

With a view to providing some useful information for newbie riders I invite all riders, within this kiwibiker community, to perhaps reflect on some of those learning to ride challenges we have all experienced. If you have a particular topic you may want to present here that you have, or are planning to examine during your riding this fortnight, then by all means take a few minutes to post up your comments.

Where you ride to is also of interest, as are any pictures you take, and any humorous thing that may have occurred. The general theme is nevertheless the riding practice so that newbie riders can perhaps get an insight to the things that can and do happen, and what we endeavour to practise so as to avoid any harm to ourselves and other road users.

The more senior riders are encouraged to post a few lines here that they believe will be helpful to, not only just new riders, but all riders in general.


At the end of the fortnight on 17 July Stickchick and kave will each choose an entry from this thread.


Their selections will then be copied across to the Newbie Update Blogg.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/blogs/viewblog.php?userid=1728

The blogg is intended to provide an insight to the approaches taken to motorcycle riding and I encourage all new riders to seek out an experienced riding mentor to periodically review your progress. As you gain time in the saddle and distance travelled, then plan on taking a professionally conducted advanced riding course.


Heads Up and Enjoy:yes::scooter::scooter::yes::scooter::yes:

[mikey]

dont fear the reaper

[carbacca]

07-07-07

its been bucketing in auckland all week and i was really starting to wonder if the weekend would clear out enough for a ride this weekend. it seems to have rained itself out thurs to friday night to reveal an overcast day on satruday, high clouds with not much chance of heavy rain, my prayers have been answered. sorted out a few things early in the morning then off i go.

couple of weeks ago i did the RRRS course. but for the next week i got the flu and was waiting for parts for the bike so i was out of action for two weeks, last week got a brief break and went for a run down the southern motorway but that was hardly enough to satisfy me. so this week really for me was to get out to some open roads to see if i can put the things i learnt in the RRRS course into practice. i knew some guys out and about in kaipara so off i go in that direction, bonus for me being that i knew the road pretty well (as much as you can from inside a cage i guess). another thing that i wanted to test was the new tankbag i got off trademe.

the ride itself was pleasant enough, being the first fine saturday in ages traffic was heavier than i would have preferred. all the way up i was keeping in mind the lessons on cornering and countersteering and putting those into practice as much as possible, trying to get a more instinctive feel for things. got my first open road passing victim (sorry silver toyota spacio) as well as passing a few other bikers on scooters and GNs and the like. got a lot of friendly waves from bikers going in the opposite direction too.

the thing i m most stoked about however is the tankbag; initial thoughs was that it would really get in the way of your arms on the handlebars but it really wasnt the case, 99% of the time i dont even notice its there. also found that because its a slightly stiff bag i can rest my chest gently on the edge of it to help with fatigue. the top map compartment is very useful too, i put all my phones and garage remotes and wallet into it and its very handy at service stations or buying food, no more fumbling about looking for stuff from a bulky jacket. whoever invented the tankbag should get a nobel prize lol

swung past motomail on the way home to look at the sale, but saw nothing i could sink my credit card into.

[rideNroot]

Picked up my Bike on tuesday. So far, been out north east valley, through to Mosgiel & Outram to raes junction and on, shame its so icy!

[bull]

After pretty much only commuting to and from work lately i was determined to get out for a decent ride.

So went for a ride today with Mickdarstadly - went into Wellington City and then out and around the bays from Miramar wharf to Owhiro Bay then back to Upper Hutt.

1440hrs - 1700hrs
Conditions: Rain, Cold, Wind Gusts, Greasy Roads and Sunstrike

Heading into Welly on Motorway...
Extended following distance to allow for the greasy road.
Road Surface Scanning to check for oil/petrol/diesel, manholes, potholes.
Indicating for 3 seconds and using headchecks when lane changing.
Keeping an eye on Mickdastardly who was following to ensure he was up with the pace and lowering of the pace to suit.

Through Wellington City...
Alot of oil on the roads, some very long slicks on the roads.
Lots of manholes in the roads, managed to avoid most where possible, especially in corners.
Made sure to check ground when stopping at lights to avoid standing in oil slicks and possibly dropping the bike.

Around the bays...
Road surface scanning
Smooth cornering
Right gear selection to adjust for coming around a bend into gusts, made sure was in low enough gear to be able to power through the corner still.
Looking through the corners with head not just eyes.
Slight body adjustments prior to corner to keep bike more upright whilst cornering in the wet.
Found sunstrike coming towards the airport, the rain droplets on my visor obscured vision so i opened visor and tilted my head downward to compensate.

Was a bloody good ride even in the weather conditions.
Definitely glad ive got good cordura gear to be able to ride out in the cold and wet conditions, and my latest purchase of REVIT Hyper Balaclava is brilliant in the cold, no more frozen neck when riding and it even doubles as a breath guard.

[Rosie]

On Sunday I practised riding a dirt bike on gravel. Clint had organised for me to borrow an elderly 125 farm bike off a friend, and we went for a bit of a pootle around some forestry roads.

I practised altering my riding position - keeping my weight back on straight sections of road, and moving forward over the bars when going around corners. And practised standing up a few times. Standing up felt a bit strange, but with more practise I'll get used to it.

I hadn't been on a dirt bike before, so it took a little while to get used to the geometry. It was definitely much nicer to ride on the gravel than my KR.
Unfortunately, just as I was getting used to it all, we started having engine trouble with the bike, and after a lot of push starting, sparkplug changing etc had to hide it in the scrub and go back with a van to rescue the poor wee thing.

The next step in my adventure-riding evil plan is to test ride some dual purpose 250's.

[carbacca]

08-07-2007

weather was good on sunday again, so off i went on what turned out to be my biggest adventure yet. first stop was waitakere trusts stadium, to drop by WCG/xlan to have a look (i used to be a bit of a geek) at the technology exhibitors but didnt see much there. only more geeks playing computer games on stage as part of the finals to see who represents NZ at warcraft3. continued up NW motorway into hobsonville road up towards greenhithe, the aim was to get to dairy flat BP for the ride to whangarei. at this stage it didnt click to me that there was a BP at dairy flat. came up through the back of albany and onto SH1 at oteha valley road looking for a "dairy flat" exit, not til i saw the service station sign did i remember there is a BIG BP there (i used to drive north to kerikeri once a week and that was my mandatory fuel stop) and met up with big dog, mactheknife plus a few others i dont know forums name for. waited around a bit, had a chat for a bit for more peeps to show before we discussed the route and headed off. the group was about 10-12 bikes, couldnt remember for sure but it was pretty impressive going in a convoy of bikes, sure was turning a lot of heads as we were going slightly faster than the rest of the traffic. good chance to put the group riding theory from RRRS into practice, although riding staggered did come naturally to me from too much practicing patrol formations etc. got to orewa and the group got cut off into two by other traffic, i was at the rear of the front group at first but got bumped to second to last when the group stopped for a moment to wait for the final bunch. good riding conditions up through waiwera, puhoi, wenderholm. the roads were good but traffic was a bit on the heavy side of things, being a sunny sunday and all. things i did work on mainly was gear selection before corners/hills to minimise gear changes at inconvenient times, reading the corners and lines before i get to the corners, and learning the "blip" the throttle when i downshift for more power so i dont end up with massive engine braking when i actually want to go faster. learned that my bike actually seems to prefer it better on 4th at 100k's when a little bit of grunt is needed.

about 10k before warkworth it started raining >_< so had to be extra careful. started off as a slight drizzle but got quite heavy by the time we got to warkworth for the stop. big dog and the lead group forgot which "W" to stop at (might as well have been Whangarei eh). the tail group waited around at the carpark as mac called big dog up whos actually in wellsford haha. at that point i decided the rain was getting a bit much for me as i decided to turn back (i wasnt going to go all the way to whangarei anyways) and left the group with two others (rachel and regan??). the rain had stopped by then but the roads where still wet, so rode back carefully again. got to orewa/silverdale and its stopped raining and the sun was out again >_<. rode around north shore for a bit, nothing major to report then went home.

[EJK]

11-7-07
Weather: Extremely Windy, No rain but thick cloud.

Today morning I tried to go to St. Hellers bay with my brand new Yamaha Scorpio. But when I was in half of the way, I turned back and headed home because the wind was too strong. It nearly blow me and my 126kg machine.

However, I didn't straightly went home, because I missed the dry tarmac for last 3 days because it was raining. So I went to my favourite place Mt. Eden Summit, and OMG it was beautiful.

Mt. Eden is my favourite place because the way up is a "one-way" street, hence there is no on comming traffic to bother you. Also, the road is wide enough for a single bike. That way, the road feels like a race track of my own :)

I've done about 3 "laps" on Mt. Eden and then went home. Aaah... It was beautiful.

[kave]

07-07-07

its been bucketing in auckland all week and i was really starting to wonder if the weekend would clear out enough for a ride this weekend. it seems to have rained itself out thurs to friday night to reveal an overcast day on satruday, high clouds with not much chance of heavy rain, my prayers have been answered. sorted out a few things early in the morning then off i go.

couple of weeks ago i did the RRRS course. but for the next week i got the flu and was waiting for parts for the bike so i was out of action for two weeks, last week got a brief break and went for a run down the southern motorway but that was hardly enough to satisfy me. so this week really for me was to get out to some open roads to see if i can put the things i learnt in the RRRS course into practice. i knew some guys out and about in kaipara so off i go in that direction, bonus for me being that i knew the road pretty well (as much as you can from inside a cage i guess). another thing that i wanted to test was the new tankbag i got off trademe.

the ride itself was pleasant enough, being the first fine saturday in ages traffic was heavier than i would have preferred. all the way up i was keeping in mind the lessons on cornering and countersteering and putting those into practice as much as possible, trying to get a more instinctive feel for things. got my first open road passing victim (sorry silver toyota spacio) as well as passing a few other bikers on scooters and GNs and the like. got a lot of friendly waves from bikers going in the opposite direction too.

the thing i m most stoked about however is the tankbag; initial thoughs was that it would really get in the way of your arms on the handlebars but it really wasnt the case, 99% of the time i dont even notice its there. also found that because its a slightly stiff bag i can rest my chest gently on the edge of it to help with fatigue. the top map compartment is very useful too, i put all my phones and garage remotes and wallet into it and its very handy at service stations or buying food, no more fumbling about looking for stuff from a bulky jacket. whoever invented the tankbag should get a nobel prize lol

swung past motomail on the way home to look at the sale, but saw nothing i could sink my credit card into.
My pick for this fortnight is carbacca, for putting in some effort by going out and practising what was taught on the RRRS course he attended, and for getting confident enough to be able to pass on the open road.

[Stickchick]

After pretty much only commuting to and from work lately i was determined to get out for a decent ride.

So went for a ride today with Mickdarstadly - went into Wellington City and then out and around the bays from Miramar wharf to Owhiro Bay then back to Upper Hutt.

1440hrs - 1700hrs
Conditions: Rain, Cold, Wind Gusts, Greasy Roads and Sunstrike

Heading into Welly on Motorway...
Extended following distance to allow for the greasy road.
Road Surface Scanning to check for oil/petrol/diesel, manholes, potholes.
Indicating for 3 seconds and using headchecks when lane changing.
Keeping an eye on Mickdastardly who was following to ensure he was up with the pace and lowering of the pace to suit.

Through Wellington City...
Alot of oil on the roads, some very long slicks on the roads.
Lots of manholes in the roads, managed to avoid most where possible, especially in corners.
Made sure to check ground when stopping at lights to avoid standing in oil slicks and possibly dropping the bike.

Around the bays...
Road surface scanning
Smooth cornering
Right gear selection to adjust for coming around a bend into gusts, made sure was in low enough gear to be able to power through the corner still.
Looking through the corners with head not just eyes.
Slight body adjustments prior to corner to keep bike more upright whilst cornering in the wet.
Found sunstrike coming towards the airport, the rain droplets on my visor obscured vision so i opened visor and tilted my head downward to compensate.

Was a bloody good ride even in the weather conditions.
Definitely glad ive got good cordura gear to be able to ride out in the cold and wet conditions, and my latest purchase of REVIT Hyper Balaclava is brilliant in the cold, no more frozen neck when riding and it even doubles as a breath guard.

Nice write up, good to have someone that is willing to put all actions into words, helps me thats for sure

[Terminated]

A big thank you to Stickchick and kave for your selections from the entries this last fortnight.

Carbacca and Bull congratulations, I read both entries with interest: Carbacca it is always good to review your riding after attending a course and getting the tankbag, good on you.

Bull, as always a very informative write up, and knowing the Wellington region here, I always enjoy a ride around the bays, matter a fact was out Shelley Bay yesterday, practising my counter steering and body position/head and eyes.

I think a harbour and bays ride one Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning is not too far away.

Carbacca and Bull you will be the selectors for the fortnight 18 to 31 July.

Heads Up and Enjoy the following entries:

Newbie Update Blogg:
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/blogs/viewblog.php?userid=1728