bosslady

Originally Posted by bosslady

Riding for 2.1 weeks now (not incl. the couple of lessons i had in a car park). This time last week the thought of going on a main road was unnerving, the motorway? unthinkable! Tackled the motorway Sunday just been, the harbour bridge yesterday and had a longish ride today. Been getting out almost any chance I can when its not been raining and/or I haven't had to work, not all of us get time off, slackers! (kidding!!)

Anyway first ride for 100km without getting my semi fat arse off the bike. Birkenhead to Orewa, tiki tour around, through Silverdale briefly then back on the motorway and all the way to Manukau, didnt get off the whole time, 100km done and dusted (technically it was 98km if you want to be super anal about it) grabbed some sushi, had a drink then back to birkenhead. My wee adventures have tuckered me out and I've only done 160km in total today what a soft touch.....

Taken from my thread here: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...e-off-the-bike

It's funny reading that, 160km round trip and it's only going to get longer and longer with each "adventure"! It also appears I was spotted by Gremlin on the Newmarket Viaduct going a little too fast, I was freaking the f*ck out with all the traffic

02/01/2013 This is funny.. as the below post says, I went on a trip with another KB newbie to Warkworth, good lord my directions were terrible, just terrible. Anyway, we got there, eventually.... and were recognised!! Well, my bike was anyway and I guess it was obvious who the "bikers" were seeing as we were wearing biker gear... I wonder how often I will continue to keep getting recognised unbeknown to me?

Just a warning to all kbr's, beware of stalkers on this website... I went for a ride to WARKworth today, whilst sitting on a chair outside the bakery after having a feed and watching a mental seagull harass other seagulls, I was approached by some strangers asking if we (was with FZR250, another newbie) were from Kiwibiker. Yes, we were... turned out these stalkers were Maha and Mom who recognised my gn with it's big L (L is for lovely, not loser FYI) plate perched right on the back. Awfully rude smelly people, invited us back to their abode, I didn't want to be rude (you never know the mental state of some of these internet types) so agreed. THEN they inflicted a beverage, chocolate truffle and great conversation on us. Terrible, just terrible! joking of course, was great meeting you both!!

Haha... anyway 185km today... birkenhead to Massey to WARKworth to Massey then got lost and went through Henderson then all the way back to Birkenhead and boy am I tired, good adventure though but a lesson to study maps properly before I go on my wee trips, haha.

06/01/2013 Letting stupid things get your confidence down... as per below post, some newbie lessons learnt.

Originally Posted by bosslady

Trip out to supercheap auto to pick up some degreaser and chain lube so I can clean my chain today. Get there, get what I need, hop on bike, go to get on main road, stall not once, but twice. Wtf? I barely ever stall anymore? but whatever finally set off, decided to go to cycletreads see what they had in the way of back protectors to fit inside my jacket. On the way there, stop at set of lights, go to take off STALL, by this time im feeling like an effing muppet and wondering whats wrong with me today? Anyway got to cycletreads, only insert back protector they had was an RST contour plus back protector, $40, was gonna get it but decided to do some more research first...

Get out of cycletreads ok, great. Decide to go to my local super and head up the top of archers(?) road, steep hill, slow towards the top but for some reason run out of steam when I'm not quite there, change to first though and get up to the top with the stop sign, all good. On the way to the super, stop at the intersection of onewa and glenfield road for a red light, I'm at the front. Green, go to take off, in first of course, STALL. Fark ok, turn on, let clutch out, bit of throttle at the same time, no different to any other time i do it, STALL, try again, STALL, now the cars are beeping. Try one more time and off she goes, phew! By this time my confidence is getting a right good knocking and I'm feeling like a dunce and wondering why all of a sudden my progress has disappeared! Pull into the super carpark, have a look at my bike, don't see anything untoward so go and do my shopping.

Back on, I've had enough, feel frustrated and tired, going home. It's at this point on my way home going down small hill I start noticing small jerking in my bike, small enough you could almost miss it but enough for me to notice now I've been on it for awhile. This feels like something that's happened to me before... Pull into the gas station 100m up the road, sure enough she's almost empty, pretty much almost to reserve, which I hadn't turned on cause I didn't realise the problem was fuel. Topped her up and I'm off on my merry way.

Lessons learnt;

1. Trust my instincts, if something doesn't feel quite right, it probably isn't
2. I shouldn't have blamed my riding skills (or lack thereof) and knocked my confidence which in turn distracted me, I should've followed point 1!
3. Don't ride when you're tired, even just a little bit but especially if you're a newbie. If I wasn't so tired I think I would've thought it through better, pulled over as soon as something didn't feel right and had I THOUGHT about it I probably would have picked up what the problem was and had been able to fix it straight away.

I've pushed myself too much lately, going to have a rest and use the cage today and tomorrow and most importantly make sure I rest up and get to bed at a decent hour!

The more I ride and the more time I spend with my bike the more I am obviously learning (or trying, sorta) about it. I have been relying a lot on my ears as to what it sounds like and a lot on my body as to what it feels like. After a while on my bike you get to know when she's not really happy with you and something is maybe wrong...

07/01/2013 I lost my L plate on the motorway that I'd affixed to my new pack rack (there will be another blog to follow about the drama that followed from installing that puppy!). Anyway I couldn't find a good one at The Warehouse, they only had those silicone ones that fit on the inside of a cars windscreen etc. Oh well.. Maha kindly gave me an L plate which was fantastic, but as you can see after a week or two the tyre burnt a nice tyre shaped cut out onto the plate! I'm gonna leave it like that... Has given some people a chuckle for sure.

I'm slowly catching up now on blogging my posts from threads I've started so apologies for all the quoting, hope it's interesting for some newbies at least!