Learner Ride to Cape Reinga (20 November)

[The Singing Chef]

Plus 1 here - a toy boy? I think not - you would be tooooooooooooooooooo much trouble

Haha it's not like I bang pots or anything hahaha.

[ajessep]

Ooops, sorry.

It wasn't till we stopped and Grant pointed out that a couple of the bikes were pretty much tapped out at 100 - 110 that it dawned on me how effortless the big bike is. I think that the guys (and girls) on the smaller displacement bikes 150 - 250cc did bloody great to maintain 80 - 100 kph speeds, with the bigger engine comes a fatter rear tyre, so I can fully understand the gulps. Phreak said the same thing about corner entry speeds when we got to the cape, he was watching his speedo coming up to the corners whereas I was looking ahead for possible crap on the roads so wasn't really thinking about the speed side of things, TBH, Grant did a fantastic job up front, and as I did the TEC coming back from the cape I had a bit better idea of what you guys are having to do to maintain the open road speeds.
Sometimes being pushed a bit can be fun, other times not so much, I am glad it wasn't the latter.

Reggie

dont know about the others but my gulps were due to lack of skill not size of my bike :-) I was the limitation. feels great to be pushed a bit ...

[ajessep]

Ooops, sorry.

It wasn't till we stopped and Grant pointed out that a couple of the bikes were pretty much tapped out at 100 - 110 that it dawned on me how effortless the big bike is. I think that the guys (and girls) on the smaller displacement bikes 150 - 250cc did bloody great to maintain 80 - 100 kph speeds, with the bigger engine comes a fatter rear tyre, so I can fully understand the gulps. Phreak said the same thing about corner entry speeds when we got to the cape, he was watching his speedo coming up to the corners whereas I was looking ahead for possible crap on the roads so wasn't really thinking about the speed side of things, TBH, Grant did a fantastic job up front, and as I did the TEC coming back from the cape I had a bit better idea of what you guys are having to do to maintain the open road speeds.
Sometimes being pushed a bit can be fun, other times not so much, I am glad it wasn't the latter.

Reggie

later in trip (3rd day) i rode a lot better. unlike all yr experienced riders - i cant cruise thru corners. i changed my approach and went down a couple of gears and felt much more comfortable in corners and felt more in control. actually redlined it at one stage (but wasnt speeding) one day i will master the art of not having to slow down coming up to corners but that is years away. until the i will slow down some time before the corners (without braking :-)

[Phreak]

later in trip (3rd day) i rode a lot better. unlike all yr experienced riders - i cant cruise thru corners. i changed my approach and went down a couple of gears and felt much more comfortable in corners and felt more in control. actually redlined it at one stage (but wasnt speeding) one day i will master the art of not having to slow down coming up to corners but that is years away. until the i will slow down some time before the corners (without braking :-)

Lol just don't get to doing what I do and hit the redline every time you shift! Hehe...

It all comes with experience, and I think you'll surprise yourself how fast you'll learn! But I thought it was really cool to see you approaching corners with more confidence on the final day, you looked right at home on the bike.

[Mom]

Te he he he, stoked i wasn't the "and the kitchen sink" chicky on this trip

I had to laugh when we got to the motel and opened the boot, I doubt we could have fitted anything else in the car

Hey 3leaves? When are you off to parts north? Be good if you guys can come along to the BBQ. I had a sneaky feeling it was really soon?

[Maha]

later in trip (3rd day) i rode a lot better. unlike all yr experienced riders - i cant cruise thru corners. i changed my approach and went down a couple of gears and felt much more comfortable in corners and felt more in control. actually redlined it at one stage (but wasnt speeding) one day i will master the art of not having to slow down coming up to corners but that is years away. until the i will slow down some time before the corners (without braking :-)

Maakz was following me all of day 1 and 2 and I could see her move to the right side (instead of maintaing the same postion) of the lane coming into a left hander. You can maintian your speed when you can see alot more of the road through a corner.
She would then drop back into the staggered formation.
Being to the left of our lane she was already set up for any right hand corner..
If its a left/right/left situation...entering that first corner in the correct postion puts in the right place for the next without having to button off.

[Boots]

later in trip (3rd day) i rode a lot better. unlike all yr experienced riders - i cant cruise thru corners. i changed my approach and went down a couple of gears and felt much more comfortable in corners and felt more in control. actually redlined it at one stage (but wasnt speeding) one day i will master the art of not having to slow down coming up to corners but that is years away. until the i will slow down some time before the corners (without braking :-)

Part of entering corners is being in the right gear and at the right speed. There is a riding style (can't remember what it's called) which incorporates using only engine braking before corners, the idea is to be very smooth (and perhaps less noticeable to cops).

You'll improve more quickly than you think.

[blue rider]

Part of entering corners is being in the right gear and at the right speed. There is a riding style (can't remember what it's called) which incorporates using only engine braking before corners, the idea is to be very smooth (and perhaps less noticeable to cops).

You'll improve more quickly than you think.

that style is called the broken back brake.
i am sure Matt already has a song for it.

[blue rider]

riding only with the engine break was actually quite relaxing, there was no choice but to make sure you where at the right speed. At times riding along the windy bits felt like flying. Good fun.

[nzspokes]

Maakz was following me all of day 1 and 2 and I could see her move to the right side (instead of maintaing the same postion) of the lane coming into a left hander. You can maintian your speed when you can see alot more of the road through a corner.
She would then drop back into the staggered formation.
Being to the left of our lane she was already set up for any right hand corner..
If its a left/right/left situation...entering that first corner in the correct postion puts in the right place for the next without having to button off.

I found I need to look a lot further through corners. Got that from Mark W but my helmet sits a bit low on my face to make it comfortable so the helmet was blocking my view. Was intresting how much it helped my corner speed.

Through the twin bridges my bike was sliding at the rear through corners when I unleashed the bikes amazing 31bhp.

It was probably all the weight I had on the back of the bike though.

[Grant`]

Through the twin bridges my bike was sliding at the rear through corners when I unleashed the bikes amazing 31bhp.

or your tyres are in serious need of replacing lol.

[Boots]

riding only with the engine break was actually quite relaxing, there was no choice but to make sure you where at the right speed. At times riding along the windy bits felt like flying. Good fun.

Yeah. It's quite a fun exercise to do it sometimes while going through a gorge or something. ... Although it's not as relaxing when the engine is screaming while you whack it down gears to slow down quickly.

[The Singing Chef]

or your tyres are in serious need of replacing lol.

Then you can't drift!!

[ynot slow]

I dropped Tony to the bus station and still got to work for 8am

Truly and humbly appreciated,can not say thank you to you guys enough,am absolutely blessed to call you guys true f.cken friends.

[nzspokes]

or your tyres are in serious need of replacing lol.

Funny you should say that. Its getting down in the centre so its getting swapped out this week, me bike came with a spare pair of wheels with near new tyres. But it was sliding when I was leaning so heaps of tread there. Got my chicken strips down to about 2mm to.

just need to get some tyre levers to swap em over now.