Motorcycling and An Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)

Where: Brooklyn Windmill

Why: Time to take on longer and new suburban conditions. [Note travelled
over Haywards out to Porirua then off the motorway all the way to Brooklyn - good traffic experience Porirua - Tawa - Johnsonville - Khandallah - out to Karori then back to Brooklyn] Down to Newton to Mc D's Reverse route home.

Achieve What: Prolonged concentration in suburban traffic conditions, escape strategies, protecting your own riding space.

[Heads Up] Forgetting to cancel out an indicator can be a sign of fatigue, particulary if it is a rare thing in your riding strategy.


Well there you go that was 4 days of consecutive riding around the region and personally rewarding:

Like that explorer:
1.Know where you want to go
2.Don't go too far [because you may have reached you fatigue limit before you know it.]
3.And when you park the bike up at home identify no less than 5 things that you thought about out there that you felt good about and or want to improve the next time you head out.

Heads Up and Enjoy

19 July 2006
Hey BuckBuck,
Forgetting to cancel out the indicator is more common than you think. Checking your instruments is just as important as checking your mirrors. Imagine if the lady pulled in front of you because you left your indicator on.

On winding inner city roads, adjust your speed to the surrounding conditions.....ie: parked cars, width of road etc....A truck will take up more road to negotiate a turn.

Good heads up on different senarios.

Thanks Mentor

About the indicators, I like T-bones steaks but not enough to die for out there on the road.

The truck, and going up and around the bend, your point from the other week was well put into practise.

Cheers for the feedback.
Buck

The weekend saw two rides over to Martinborough and on Monday a run into Wellington and around Shelley Bay - Seatoun - Rongotai - city and home.

Thanks to the KB'ers on Sunday morning at Caltex Upper Hutt who came up and introduced themselves, it is good to put names[handles] to faces, and thank you for your supportive comments about this forum thread of my actual 'newbie rider training'.

As Sunday was not an organised group ride it was good to be able to front up and say hello, no pressure or expectation to head out in a group. My goal is to wait until springtime as I have said in earlier posts before I join in group ride. In the interim I continue to concentrate on my riding skills and have my mentor's reviews through winter.

As everybody headed off up the Rimutaka Hill, I was quite content to go at my own pace.

Having done the Rimutaka Hill several times now, my focus has been to establish smooth lines going down hill where I can see through the turns and also to be mindful of those 'blind' bends. Similarly coming up the hill attention is being paid to the engine and smooth gear shifting - while riding around the suburbs you certainly don't have full throttle on, however climbing up the RH hill you find the throttle is way out there and when it comes to gear shifting up or down the engine may rev quite markedly. So practice there found a happy medium to smooth gear shifting.

Riding into town once again meant the motorway from Petone to the gorge, I choose to do that run outside of main traffic peek time. Once in the city the slow bike control practice I have undertaken at the local parking near home comes into play, particularly down the Quay into Cable Street and around to Wellington Motor Cycles, stopped to buy an oil filter for the upcoming bike maintenance course. Then onward through the Victoria tunnel and a wonderful quiet ride right around the inner harbour and down to the entrance and around the airport runway. Stopped near Shelley Bay at a bench seat, soaked up the sun and enjoyed a banana and mandarin. I usually take some fruit with me when I go for a ride.

So this week past has been generally taking on two extremes the Rural and the city. The 30-40-30 practise strategy I have adopted the last 2000km [see earlier posts] has been very good and presents a good platform for gradually working on and improving your riding skills.




30 July 2006
Total Distance 3485km [since 12 May]

Saturday: Took a run from Stokes Vegas into town out to Karori then back up to Porirua [not on motorway] up the inlet and back across Haywards Hill.
I have the bike maintenance course at Linden on Tuesday and Thursday coming, and wanted to do that part of the around the inlet and Porirua.

Main focus was on traffic conditions and protecting my own safety zone, also as and when in motorway conditions [into town and from Porirua to Paremata] being mindful of blindspots especially avoiding riding in blindspots of other vehicles.

Spent a good 20-30 minutes in Stokes Valley before venturing out reviewing slow bike control and head checks particularly when turning off main road into side streets as well as frequent mirror checks.

Sunday: A good casual ride today. Through Whitemans Valley region and across to coast over Haywards and back.

Focus: being gear shifting up and down particularly around 6000rpm.

Things To Improve Upon: How many times did I forget to cancel out my indicators today - twice. So as mentor has said, not only your mirror checks but also your instrument check.


Here's a little circuit here in Stokes Valley that I have found useful for slow bike control:
Come off Stokes Valley road just up past the shopping centre - left into Milton then T-intersection Milton/Montgomery right crossing Kennedy. You will find that Montgomery ends in cul-de-sac both ends and Kennedy is a cul-de-sac: this I found to be a good little area to practice slow turns and intersection stops and also uphill starts toward end of Kennedy.

When you have 'warmed up there for 20minutes then pop over to George Street and go up Logie and across the top of Holborn Drive back down to George and Stokes Valley Road. There are some good bends so treat them with respect and go easy building up your counter steering technique.

Finally, down near the Caltex garage coming into the valley first left passed the bus stop into Manor Drive then left and go up Kingsley, across Robson and down Lord, here there are some steep gradients and will help you with you gear shifting.

I will be going out with my Mentor in a couple of weeks too. It is very good to get feedback and to focus on the skills enhancement.

It takes time, be patient and I am sure you will have a big smile on your face, bigger
than the day your bike arrives.

Review Comment
In terms of my Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder and looking back to July 2006, I now see myself as having been immersed in this new activity ‘riding a motorcycle’, and also maintaining an online log of the activities was extremely beneficial. Being able to channel my thoughts and energy not only into the dynamics of riding but also, being able to ‘verbalize’ my actions in a log was, and continues to be helpful…..it is one of the reasons I have returned to Kiwibiker to review and extract those early days of riding in 2006-07.

The log also introduces for the first time my meeting other Kiwibikers gathering on a Sunday during July – this was very important to me and beneficial. In the months and years ahead I was able to ‘get the measure’ of many different riders through listening and watching. This somewhat put a twist on the expression ‘do as I say – not as I do’ and is summed up in the often heard – ‘ride you own ride’.

Heads Up and Enjoy