Yes, Uncle Bruce (V-Twin) went for a ride again today.......
As we fueled up at the Caltex Rimutakas, ready for a good blat over the hill. A noobie rider turned up and started chatting with us.
Turns out he's new to Wellington, just moved here from Christchurch.
I asked him if he's ridden the Rimutakas yet, he replied no. I asked if he'd heard of them, again no.
So I invited him to join us for a blat.
Now this guy looked about 20-22, riding a RG150. he explained to me that he's ridden for two years, incident free.
Now considering that our group of riders are considerably larger in CC size, I gave him a spiel about the Takas.
"Takas are about 12 minutes away, when you see us guys start to nail it, you'll now you've reached the beginning. Take it easy and go at your own pace - don't try to keep it, you've never ridden the road so take the first one easy. We will regroup at the summit of the hill, you'll see the bikes parked up, just pull in."
As we rode off, I kept a fairly close eye on the guy in my mirror. I instantly noticed he didn't freely overtake cars as the rest of us did. I figured he was more in a car drivers mindset, more hesistant with overtaking. I thought either this guy is a very safety conscious rider or he's just relatively new to motorcycling. So I watched as the other two pressed further ahead, I sort of lingered not wanting him to feel all alone. He soon caught up.
Eventually we hit the start of the takas. I nailed it as did Bruce (SV1000) and Peter (GSXR600). We made good time to the summit.
We waited for our new friend but he didn't show.
We rode down the hill in search of him. half way down we saw a RG150 leaning against a fence, the wheel completely buckled, radiator pissing out fluid, plastic & glass here and there and the solid mounting between the handlebars cracked in half. Holy Crap, where is he???
Turned out he was alright, we heard from a passing motorist that he'd been taken to his mums job, she being a nurse at a local retirement home,Bruce and I went to find him to make sure he was OK. We visited the home, then traced him to a medical centre, then an after hours medical centre - then a phonecall revealed he was alright and back at the crashsite.
Turned out he'd lost it going into a corner, fishtailed and hit a barrier, sliding along it for 10 metres before coming off and rolling uphill another 10 metres.
Thankfully, he only had a sore leg. I did feel it was dissapointing after giving him the spiel. I don't think he was trying to keep up as we we're quite simply - gone! He wiped out on the first corner that tightens pretty hard and keeps tightening. He just wasn't expecting it.
The guys pretty bloody lucky, I didn't notice but apparantly he rode with no gloves and his gear was no good i.e. trackpants.
I did tell the guy about Kiwibikers, hopefully he'll reside here soon enough, sorry we didn't end up catching up with you, perhaps we will stop by over christmas and check out the recovery process. It's a shame because he seemed like a very nice bloke who was keen to meet some fellow bikers, I mentioned Helen and Skels etc, who'd be a good group for him to hang out with.
I hope he gets back on the road and hopefully he'll be keen enough to follow right behind me or Skelstar next time around for a slow paced guided ride up the hill.
Anyway - Thats another one for the WGTN SV Curse!
the sooner we force Bruce to buy the K6 Gixxer the better! This curse is getting out of hand.
P.S. Christchurch riders huh?Feel the power of the Takas!
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Originally Posted by Paul in NZ
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