Orange Street Triple R on Akaroa Highway? (2 January)

**Muppet** · 2nd January 2014, 16:23

Orange Street Triple R on Akaroa Highway today, with a Ventura pack - if this was you, take a bow for your superb textbook cornering technique. I'm guessing you are either; an old biker with years of experience, a racer, a ex pat POM with Roadcraft experience, an instructor or an ex biker cop. You were smooth, fast and safe. Bloody impressive! Was hoping you'd stop in Little River for a chat, maybe next time!

**Blackbird** · 2nd January 2014, 17:03

I'd say you're pretty much on the money - sounds like Simon, one of our IAM Observers in Chch.

Young fella though, not an old bugger like me

Thanks, I'll let him know!

**Blackbird** · 2nd January 2014, 18:42

Originally Posted by cassina

There is no such thing as being fast and safe and while I will admit to exceeding the speed limit at times I am fully aware there is a safety trade off in emergency stopping time. I am sure the police would not have dropped the speed tolerance if they felt high speed offered better road safety. I do disagree with the dropping of the tolerance by the way

Muppet said he was fast which doesn't necessarily mean breaking speed limits!

**Blackbird** · 2nd January 2014, 18:55

Originally Posted by cassina

I would never have considered our speed limits fast in the first place but you do?

Not at all but if there are tight corners on a road with an open road limit, you can really attack them without breaking the law. I thought that was a reasonable scenario out Akaroa way. The lines/position you take together with the right gear and a few other things quickly shows who knows Roadcraft!

**skippa1** · 2nd January 2014, 19:07

Originally Posted by cassina

There is no such thing as being fast and safe and while I will admit to exceeding the speed limit at times I am fully aware there is a safety trade off in emergency stopping time. I am sure the police would not have dropped the speed tolerance if they felt high speed offered better road safety. I do disagree with the dropping of the tolerance by the way

Wtf? Who let nana out?

**skippa1** · 2nd January 2014, 19:11

Originally Posted by cassina

Ok I possibly understand what poster 1 was saying that the rider they saw looked like they were cornering on a racetrack with their knee almost touching the road. It is easy to fall off too cornering like that as many do on racetracks. So their point about it being safe is very doubtful anyway in my opinion. I would be interested in seeing any comment from Rastus as to how safe he considers racetrack cornering on the road considering he patrols in that area.

Ah I get it, you're on the windup.

**GTRMAN** · 2nd January 2014, 19:26

Originally Posted by cassina

Ok I possibly understand what poster 1 was saying that the rider they saw looked like they were cornering on a racetrack with their knee almost touching the road. It is easy to fall off too cornering like that as many do on racetracks. So their point about it being safe is very doubtful anyway in my opinion. I would be interested in seeing any comment from Rastus as to how safe he considers racetrack cornering on the road considering he patrols in that area.

Who said anything about racetrack cornering? In fact I can guarantee the rider in question was not using racetrack cornering. Believe it or not there are ways of travelling rapidly and smoothly without getting your knee down, or breaking the speed limit.

**Muppet** · 2nd January 2014, 19:38

Originally Posted by cassina

There is no such thing as being fast and safe and while I will admit to exceeding the speed limit at times I am fully aware there is a safety trade off in emergency stopping time. I am sure the police would not have dropped the speed tolerance if they felt high speed offered better road safety. I do disagree with the dropping of the tolerance by the way

As someone else has said, fast doesn't mean breaking the speed limit, which this chap wasn't while I was following him. He, like me, went around the corners staying as far wide as possible until he could see his way through and powered out. When I said fast I'm talking about in comparison to cars and other traffic, some of which pulled over to let us pass.

It's quite common to see people cornering as if they know what lies ahead but in reality on the road, none of us do. This guy clearly knew what he was doing and I'm not surprised he is trained in Roadcraft.

**Muppet** · 2nd January 2014, 19:43

Originally Posted by Blackbird

I'd say you're pretty much on the money - sounds like Simon, one of our IAM Observers in Chch.

Young fella though, not an old bugger like me

Thanks, I'll let him know!

I was filming my ride today and have very good HD footage of him. If he wants to PM me with an email address I will make sure he gets to see it. If he's only a young guy then hats off to him. Quite a good ad for the Street Triple R but I quite like the look of MT-09 at Trevor Pierce Yamaha myself.....

**sil3nt** · 2nd January 2014, 19:59

Originally Posted by Muppet

I was filming my ride today and have very good HD footage of him. If he wants to PM me with an email address I will make sure he gets to see it. If he's only a young guy then hats off to him. Quite a good ad for the Street Triple R but I quite like the look of MT-09 at Trevor Pierce Yamaha myself.....

Chuck it on youtube for us all to see

**DrunkenMistake** · 2nd January 2014, 20:03

**Katman** · 2nd January 2014, 20:12

Originally Posted by Muppet

He, like me, went around the corners staying as far wide as possible until he could see his way through and powered out.

And therein lies my only problem with the whole IAM ethos.

It would appear that staying wide in a corner (in order to maximise your view through a corner) out-weighs the inherent danger of positioning yourself somewhere that is highly likely to be scattered with roadside detritus.

I would rather sacrifice a bit of corner speed (and keep away from the road verge) to give myself a greater margin of safety when negotiating a blind corner.

**DrunkenMistake** · 2nd January 2014, 20:13

Originally Posted by cassina

Thats understandable if he knew the curvature of each bend in the road but if someone comes around the bend slightly over the centre line he has less likelyhood of avoiding a crash than the cars he overtook.

Katman is that you?

**R650R** · 2nd January 2014, 20:18

We'll await the video footage with popcorn in hand... But I think what he was saying is there is a lot of people who can even make legal speeds/cornering styles look ugly.
You know like those car drivers that don't exceed the speed limit but are constantly wandering within their lane and speed up slow down with no purpose etc...
Same with some truck drivers can make a unit look nervous while others keep it smooth. One of the greatest compliments I had was when another driver asked if I was empty as my trailer wasn't waving about on certain rough stretch of road, nah mate double stacked with glass bottles 44ton.
No matter what your driving its all about the transition from braking to throttle and how you move yourself about in seat etc...