My little ride report
Well the ride yesterday to Kaiaua was awesome!
This being the first group ride and the first long ride that Sam and I have been on was way better than expected.
Firstly thanks to BugJuice for organising the ride, and for taking Sam as his pillion. As far as I know he was the only rider 2 up. So
to you!!
I stalled leaving the gas station at Botany... felt like a bit of a dick but that was soon forgotten as we hit the road. I wasn't too sure what to expect as far as group riding goes... did a little research on the "how to's" of group riding but was still VERY impressed with how smoothly everything went. It was really good to see riders pulling over at intersections and round abouts to point out the right direction to go and to the bikers signalling to slow down and pointing up at the speed camera.
Gave myself a few hairy moments in the twisties... going in too fast (too fast for me that is) and holding up the bikers behind me (the chick on the busa was behind me through one section of twisties but wasted no time in leaving me in the dust when we hit the next straight... got to say I don't mind being over taken by a busa). Went wide a few times and had to slow right down to stay in my lane... and had to brake a few times while in full turn... not the best felling when your back tire starts to skid out on you on a cliff edge tight turn
but no-one came off so it was great!
I tried keeping up with any bike that happened to be ahead of me, following thier lines and the such... but still got left behind on the straights... Only went up to 140kph and held it there enjoying the view and pretty much laying on my tank trying not to be distracted by the bugs hitting my visor lol
I found everyone that I talked to (out of the 38 bikes there) was very friendly and generally fun to be around
I also noticed that our group (The KBers) were the best group I saw... When we stopped at Kaiaua there were heaps of other bikers and they were all the same (guys on big bikes that all looked the same and dressed the same). Our group was awesome... big bikes... small bikes... sports bikes... cruisers... trail/road bikes... guys... chicks... leathers... kevlar/cordura... no leathers... old... young... mohawks and so forth... such a diverse group of people sharing thier passion of biking no matter the other bikers sex/age/bike. And that to me was one of the best parts of the ride.
There was a slight lack of communication towards the end of the ride and a few of us ended up on our own parked on the side of the road waiting for the rest, until (FEINT I believe) stopped and told us that the rest had turned off further back... so we just headed to the motorway and rode home...
All the pictures I've seen of the ride are great shots. I'm a little disapointed that I wasn't fast enough to keep up with the bunch of riders that had pic's taken of them... would have loved a shot of me on my bike... but was still 100% satisfied with the ride.
Thanks to Crashe for leading the way home on the motorway, and to everyone else that showed up
Sam and I ended up crashing out on the couch at about 7pm and woke up during CSI and went to bed... Both a little stiff today but otherwise good
Ride Safe and can't wait for the next ride.
Placid & Sam
Originally Posted by DingDong
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, even if you can't keep up... 
But please, keep Barby at home, we don't need to see what you do with her on the bike...
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