Southern KBs heading to Glenorchy

[T.W.R]

This morning I had the pleasure of spying the Southern KBs heading to the Glenorchy rally
I was heading towards ChCh in my 4x4 just north of the Rakaia Bridges & passed the crew at the southern end of the Passing bays between rakaia & bankside, I gave them a flash of the headlights & a wave

There were roughly a dozen in the group & all seemed to be following Rashika or maybe the boys were just watching her rear?

But there was one thing i must comment on & maybe i'll rattle a few cages from them when they get back & possibly see this, but the were all packed together with no real safety buffer between any of the bikes & at a distance they actually looked like 2 trucks coming towards me, now i know that SH1 between ChCh & Rakaia is a boring as shit ( 58kms, 2 sweepers, 2 S-bends) but its notoriously dangerous piece of road for accidents etc especially past dunsandal.

And riding in a pack with a sizable number even if everyone knows eachothers riding style etc, especially on a substantial trip the safety of the group should be paramount & following distances should be open & uncongested Honestly if one of the leading bikes had gone down for some reason it would have taken 3-4 with it, or sent them into the scrub or into the path of vehicles heading the opposite direction & i really wouldn't want to have been peeling a fellow KBer out from under my Landcruisers Bull-Bar or having to attended to one smeared over the front of a car

Remember theres safety in numbers when in a pack of bikes, but that safety doesn't have to be compremised by riding in a tight pack, a number of bike together has pressence on the road use it & enjoy the space

[Fordy]

Wasn't there, didn't see what you saw, don't know who went down this morning.

On the ride to Arthurs Pass there was no bunching, and a reasonable stagger formation with the usual swapping left to right positioning every now and then. A good point well made, although a view passing on the other carriageway doesn't necessarily mean everyone is guilty of bunching

Hope those that may have been a bit close read and learn - remember the 2 second rule or 1 if staggered and can plan escape route.

[T.W.R]

Yeah I'll admit i haven't had the pleasure of attending a KB run yet due to the rebuild of my bike, so can't comment on how other rides & events go.

with this mornings passing the only KBers i recognised were Rashika & possibly ZZR & Jimmie only due to the distinction of their bikes & as i said Rashika was at the head of the group, and ZZR & Jimmie were towards the rear alongside of what looked to be a early GPZ1100. and having read what time they were leaving BP Rolleston, it was definately them
Possibly they were starting to bunch up ready for turning off at Rakaia ( which i presume they did to take the inland route via Thomson's track) but the over half the bunch you could have covered with the preverbial postage stamp.
and with the tedious nature of that road accidents happen easily, as it was they were only 1km south of where a biker got cleaned up early last year.

I'm not trying to play the holyer than thou attitude but in a group situation like that it only takes one small incident to create a major mess

[TonyB]

Riding back from Glenorchy today the following distances were fine. In fact at times there were 100m or more between us. The only times we bunched up were when the leader slowed- it can take a while to register that the gap is closing if the leader has merely slowed a bit rather than shutting off or braking.
I'd say rashika just slowed for the bridge and the group bunched up. Would be easy to do when they would have just gone over the rail overpass as some people were probably playing catchup. Wasn't there though.

[geoffc]

Riding back from Glenorchy today ........

Hi and welcome back! :Good ride no doubt:
Hope you all enjoyed the rally. The weather here in Oamaru was good. Did you fair ok as well?
Love to hear a bit about the ride & rally. Bound to be some good stories to tell.
Cheers
Geoff

[T.W.R]

I'd say rashika just slowed for the bridge and the group bunched up. Would be easy to do when they would have just gone over the rail overpass as some people were probably playing catchup.

glad you guys had a good time down there & the weather didn't play up to much on the return journey.

the bunching incident was way before the railway over-pass, it was the southern end of the bankside passing-bays.

the rail bridge is deceptive. a group shouldn't even consider being close together going over it.

[Rashika]

This morning I had the pleasure of spying the Southern KBs heading to the Glenorchy rally
I was heading towards ChCh in my 4x4 just north of the Rakaia Bridges & passed the crew at the southern end of the Passing bays between rakaia & bankside, I gave them a flash of the headlights & a wave

There were roughly a dozen in the group & all seemed to be following Rashika or maybe the boys were just watching her rear?

But there was one thing i must comment on & maybe i'll rattle a few cages from them when they get back & possibly see this, but the were all packed together with no real safety buffer between any of the bikes & at a distance they actually looked like 2 trucks coming towards me, now i know that SH1 between ChCh & Rakaia is a boring as shit ( 58kms, 2 sweepers, 2 S-bends) but its notoriously dangerous piece of road for accidents etc especially past dunsandal.

well the rally was great, riding was damn good.
Its funny I cant actually remember ever being in the front of the group, on the main road anyway, Dangerous usually leads.....yeah yeah...its a bloke thing okay?
from what i could tell everyone rode well, not even a hint of bad stuff from anyone, and I'm impressed by that. And we did swap around positions a fair bit, so i followed most people at some time, its always fun to learn all the number plates in the group And holy shit Sniper, does that CBR250 wind up at times, like a bloody plane taking off
10 riders in all, most of us have riden together a fair bit now. We always travel staggered esp on the main road, and that can always look close from other drivers point of view, and pretty much stick to the 100km... just doesn't pay to do stupid stuff along there as TWR says.
Personally I always give lots of room, whether it be to cars or bikes, and I was comfortable with how the others were riding... believe me if i see shit I WILL mention it.... and I did see some but not with our group I'm happy to say.
We covered aprox 1100 km of amazingly varied Terrain with mostly the same riders, just added a few along the way, with some atrocious winds and a little rain coming back....and the only instance I had a moment was near Tekapo when about to past a bus who thought it would be cool to pull over to my lane at the same time (not to pass anything mind you, just cos a car was parked there)....damn wish they'd use their eyes and check for indicators/traffic...fktards.
But hey that is what happens, just have to be prepared for anything.

[Sniper]

And holy shit Sniper, does that CBR250 wind up at times, like a bloody plane taking off

Im sworn to secrecy. But thanks

[miSTa]

I have just one comment to make - at no time in the entire weekend did I feel that my riding put anyone at risk nor any other persons riding put me at risk. The following distances were just fine and the staggered riding formation was shit hot. This was the third time I've been out with these guys and would have no hesitation in doing it again.

[scumdog]

I'm with ZZR here, I ride like a nana and I'm pretty safety conscious - I rode with this crew from "Cromill" to Glenorchy and back to Frankton and some of the time the riding conditions were appalling on the way back into Q'town yet I had no problem with any of the KBers riding.

The ONLY bit I saw where my thoughts were "hmmm, I wouldn't have done that!!" was near Gibbston area when somebody (who shall remain nameless in case it WASN'T them) pulled out to pass a car or two - and was in the centre of the opposite lane going up-hill towards a crest AND was on the wrong side of the yellow no-passing line.

[idb]

Well I'm bloody glad I didn't come back with you maniacs then!

[scumdog]

Well I'm bloody glad I didn't come back with you maniacs then!

Especially not on the red bike eh? eh?

[idb]

Especially not on the red bike eh? eh?

Please be gentle, I'm still sulking.................

[Kickaha]

The ONLY bit I saw where my thoughts were "hmmm, I wouldn't have done that!!" was near Gibbston area when somebody (who shall remain nameless in case it WASN'T them) pulled out to pass a car or two - and was in the centre of the opposite lane going up-hill towards a crest AND was on the wrong side of the yellow no-passing line.

You should have stopped them and given them a ticket

on second thoughts I guess you wouldn't catch them on your Harley

[scumdog]

You should have stopped them and given them a ticket

on second thoughts I guess you wouldn't catch them on your Harley

S'ok, I had (unknown to them) Deputised the whole KB group so I had a lot of back-up!!!

And efen uss Harley riderss haff vays of catchink these dancherous riterss....