I was riding an orange bike back from Akaroa that day, not a triple R though, nor am I a great rider.
I was riding an orange bike back from Akaroa that day, not a triple R though, nor am I a great rider.
There is a grey blur, and a green blur. I try to stay on the grey one. - Joey Dunlop
Ha! You're a good bastard really, Rastus' told me, so it must be true. The chap I was following was simply smooth and fast. He wasn't going flat out and taking risks. By sticking to (an obvious) system of cornering on every corner he/she made ground on me. They left the turning until as late as possible, didn't touch the brakes as they were in the correct gear and accelerated out of the corners at a constant rate. Maybe it was Keith Code on Holiday? I'm stunned how I simply praise a guys riding and it causes a right kerfuffle!
As far as this staying to the left for a right hand bend, for example, lark goes, I saw a very graphic example of why this is a good idea a while ago. Akzle I'm using big words here so pay attention!
I was on the back of an instructors bike in the north island and we were going through the Pahiatua track. The instructor rode like our friend on the Street Triple R. He rode at a gear higher than me, 20 km/h faster than me and was 500 mm further to the left/right than me in corners, he also accelerated out corners HARD and used clutchless up shifts. All while listening to his MP3 player and radioing to the others on the course and cracking jokes with me. I shat myself, thinking we were going to die and had planned how I would dive roll off the bike if we binned it. I'm not kidding.
Well, we came upon a right hand downhill corner and were mm from the fog line when one of the others decided to hug the centre line. Nek minite he hit a patch of gravel in the centre of the road. Since a car was coming towards him at the time, he had no choice but to hit the gravel. He fell off and slid for some distance, while his bike slid then flipped into the air landing upside down. Words like "shit" & "fuck" came out of my mouth. We were able to stop 10 metres short of where he ended up, simply because we were a metre further to the left and saw the gravel way before he did.
During the ride, when we got stuck behind traffic and the guys riding one up asked us if we'd like them to pull over so we could catch up, the instructor said "No you keep going I'll be with you in a few minutes". I thought "Oh for fucksakes" and went through my dive roll escape plan again. This guy was simply smooth and fast and consistent with every corner, I'll never forget what I learnt in the few hours it took to ride from Ohakea to Wellington that day.
The End.
PS when we eventually rode through the Rimutaka's in the wet, he didn't change a thing about his riding or slow down, managed to avoid a number of oil spills as a result.
If you had to sacrifice a bit of corner speed or cornering position, which would it be?
Speed mate, you can always get it back on the next one and you don't end up dead.
Every day above ground is a good day!:
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks