Adventure bike training?

[gav24]

What was I saying about the weather holding out
Should have kept my gob shut!

Anyway, the forecast for tomorrow is bright sun so lets just do this thing

So any of you that want to come along for some training/instruction its 9.30am meet for a 9.45 start at the entrance to the Mungakutukutuku on the Paraparaumu side. If you've not been before, look for valley road then Mangakutukutuku road on google maps, when you get to the gravel, keep going down the hill til you reach the carpark for 4x4 adventure. We'll meet there ready for the first river crossing... hope this rain stops!

[gav24]

Opened my mouth again, about the sun...
Still raining...
Still riding though - lets get muddy!

...might improve in the next 2 hours....

[gav24]

Hey, cool ride today OV Lander!
Maybe a little bit too much 'adventure' for a "novice" day after all that rain yesterday and last night.
But they are called "adventure bikes"
Still, the sun came out and the NZ back country really turned it on - again!
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the ride and your skills definately improved during the day.
Now you need to get on some of the Wellington/Wairarapa area ride outs and put those new skills into practice, or put that practice into new skills!
Hope to see you out on the trails again

[OV Lander]

Indeed - a great slide, sorry, I mean ride!

So my biggest fears were slippery descents, especially when approaching corners, and boy did we practice those!

The new custom crash bars certainly proved to be worth their weight in gold, and my techniques for picking the bike up also improved as the day progressed!

Seriously though, the biggest thing I learnt was that the uncertain and skittery feeling of the bike is actually normal, and that the things I have been doing to 'hang on' are (largely!) correct. Knowing this helped me gain more confidence as the day progressed. At least now I know that more practice will help me reinforce the right things, rather than worry that I might be doing it all wrong!

The most rewarding part of the day?
Suddenly realising that I was already, and painlessly, down the main hill of greasy wet clay that gave me the shits last time I was out that way!

Thanks Gavin - I had a great ride and took away a lot from the day.

Cheers.

[gav24]

Yeah, wasnt going to mention the crash bar testing
...or that long river crossing

Glad you enjoyed it and learnt a bit too, its good to get this sort of feedback which makes me pleased to do these days.

I'll probably run another now in mid February, thats the next time I can see a gap in my busy schedule

Maybe it'll be a bit drier then....
...not now I've just typed that

[gav24]

BTW - if any of you BMW650 dakar, funduro etc riders out there need some seriously good and $$$$$ saving crash bars, I'd PM OVLander and see where he got his from.
Unobtrusive, strong, crash tested (both sides just to be sure) and bloody awesome!!!!

[OV Lander]

I have had a couple of questions about the bars. To go back to the beginning I really was not impressed with the amount of protection the SWmotech bars looked like they would provide, certainly not for the pricing anyway. So, I looked into having some custom bars made up.

I got in touch with local engineers Kapiti Precision Engineering (Paraparaumu), turns out they are both bikers and are/have been into the adventure space with Transalps and Buells currently - it meant they understood what I was talking about as I sketched up ideas and chewed the cud with them.

Long story short: for just under $500 they:
- straightened and reinforced my Jesse Panniers racks
- built some rear bars that mount onto the Jesse rack
- designed and built the engine bars

I reckon they saved me over $500 of damage this weekend - so good value in my opinion. If you wanted the engine bars only, I reckon they could do it for somewhere around $250-300?

Anyway, pics are attached (mark on L/H bar was the key touch point that saved the rest of the bike last weekend).

Interested in your thoughts.