Sunday cruise (23/05/2004)

[White trash]

(bearing in mind that I am a bit paranoid about binning at the moment with my wedding and honeymoon so close...) For sure!!!

You were worried about that when we rode together not long ago!

I'm glad you were or I wouldn't have kept up. :sly:

[Two Smoker]

Hey MR is this ride going to be cancelled if it is raining?????

[MikeL]

Hey MR is this ride going to be cancelled if it is raining?????

The official weather forecast is for heavy rain (a bit like today), so there's no chance of it being washed out.

O.K. I'll admit I did get a few drops of rain on me this afternoon but the sun was still shining. And if I'm wrong and tomorrow it's shit, I'll humbly apologize to Mr Weatherman. But let's face it, at least half the time he gets it wrong.

[Motoracer]

Doesn't matter if there's a hail storm or whatever, I will still be riding. Thoes who want to go on a ride with me can take the chance of maybe getting a bit of clear weather.

Fucking hell, I just cleaned the bike and made it look pretty too!

[erik]

Doesn't matter if there's a hail storm or whatever, I will still be riding. Thoes who want to go on a ride with me can take the chance of maybe getting a bit of clear weather.

Fucking hell, I just cleaned the bike and made it look pretty too!

I'll be there no matter what the weathers like, I think I've more or less got my wet weather gear sorted now .

That said, the weather looks like it could be ok, looking out the window here in west auckland .

[Coldkiwi]

hey, sorry I couldn't make it. don't think i'll be going for anymore day rides before i return from the honeymoon cause I've just got too much on. maybe some short fangs to keep me sane

must've been something in the water MR, mines all cleaned/polished/waxed and even bumper blacked too!

hope it was a good ride

[Yamahamaman]

short fangs

I heard that Count Dracula had a set of those

[erik]

Man I'm knackered. But that was a good ride Thanks for organizing it Motoracer, and thanks all you guys that had to wait for me since I was the slowest .

I had a bit more fun grinding the pegs on some of the corners .
(incidentally, this isn't too hard to do on my bike, the pegs are kinda low )

But on the way back I think I was getting a bit too tired and made some stupid mistakes, like not slowing down soon enough for a corner and ending up a bit on the other side of the road. The scariest one, that AFAIK only Vladi knows about caz I told him at a gas stop, was on one of the simple 65km/h corners near Miranda. I think I was just a bit too tired, and misjudged the corner. I ended up just going off the edge of the road at the end of the corner, and rode along on the gravel for a bit trying to carefully get the bike back on the road as it weaved from side to side.
But yeah, I think that one was just due to tiredness and inexperience. I remember looking at the edge of the road and thinking that I'd go into the gravel, which reminds me of what the guys at the BRONZ course said about target fixation and not looking at the edge of the road! Anyway, I'll try to do better next time. I'm just glad I didn't come off...

Near the end of the ride, I noticed my bike making weird kind of clacking noises as I was taking off. It didn't do it when I was up to speed though. I was worrying there was something wrong with the clutch or gearbox, but when I got home and tried accelerating up the drive, I noticed it was coming from the chain. The lower half of the chain where it comes off the drive sprocket was kind of clacking up and down. I don't know exactly whats wrong with it, I adjusted the tension a week or so ago, and I keep it well enough oiled. The chain is kind of stiff though, it's always been like that, so I'm wondering if it's to do with that. Anyway, I'll have a closer look at it tomorrow, I'm guessing it needs replacing.

I only got one good photo on the ride, I wasn't really in a photographing mood. Just on the way back at one of the intersections where everyone stopped for a bit, I noticed a rainbow in the distance and thought it might make a good photo.

Anyway, cheers guys, it was fun

[Motoracer]

hey, sorry I couldn't make it. don't think i'll be going for anymore day rides before i return from the honeymoon cause I've just got too much on. maybe some short fangs to keep me sane

must've been something in the water MR, mines all cleaned/polished/waxed and even bumper blacked too!

hope it was a good ride

Thats OK CK, this weekend was a bit busy for me and I didn't manage to get much rest so I wasn't exactly in good form today anyway.

Thanx for comming MikeL, erik, Vladi, Motu (that was a nice surprise ), Two Smoker, sAsLEX and nhuan.

Too bad you missed out on a pretty good ride nhuan but I am glad you got home safe after having a puncture on your tire.

Erik, that sounded pretty bad, I am glad that you were able to save your self and the bike on that one. I know exactly what you mean by fatigue, I was getting really tired from being stressed out from riding in the wet as well.

TS, I was very impressed by your efforts on your RG150. You were doing very well indeed!

sAsLEX, you'r doing so good now as well! I can't belive how much you have improved in a short time.

Motu, it was cool to see you out there on your XLV.

[Two Smoker]

Yep awesome ride MR, My hat goes off to Motu (he throws that XLV around sooo well on the road ..... i dont know how he goes fast.......)

And thank god that the road was wet for the initial part of the ride so i could keep up with the bigger bikes.... and in the really tight and twistys in the dry.....

Don't worry bout being last eric, you were pushing the bike hard and thats what counts......

I just can't wait for a bigger bike so i can keep up on the straights and open sweepers .....

MR your form looked bloody good do me......... and your stoppies are looking bloody good too.....

Mine however need to be a hell of a lot smoother (havent done any in a while)

Hope i gave a new respect for 150's LOL......

All the big bike guys, you skill and ability can only be appreciated by watching you guys ride, its just soooooo damn impressive

[MikeL]

Pretty good day all in all. The weather was a lot better than predicted and in fact the only real rain was while we were stopped for lunch. How's that for good timing? Not a lot of HP activity noticed (perhaps just as well...)
It was great to meet some more KBers in person and put faces to names.
BTW Erik you forgot to mention that you weren't the slowest all the way!

[Motu]

Yeah,that was a good ride and I enjoyed myself to the max.I had planned to ride the XLV750 today and Motoracers ride fitted in with my plans.The Missus got in at 3.00am after 2 parties,role reversal or what! so I slipped out of bed and took off.

Shit Erik,don't give yourself a hard time - you were giving me a hard time coming up the hill out of Kopu,kinda embarassing - I was all over the road,couldn't seem to find a gear suited for any corner...you kept coming up on me and making me make even more mistakes! I'm happy to push that TKC80 front knob right off the side - in the dry,but I have to be very careful in the wet,going from dry to wet mid corner is not what I need - so the ride down was in safety mode.

Coming back from Whangamata it was drying out so was able to up my pace,I caught up with a 250 pocket rocket (sAsLEX?) and we had some fun back to the intersection - a big fat 750cc dirt bike on semi dirt tyres just hanging onto a 250 4cyl on decent rubber.Thanks mate,I enjoyed that.

Over to Kopu I caught up to Two Smoker - duh,a 150? you gotta be joking...shit this thing can really fly,and we flew up the hill together - but going down was wet again,so I backed way off.

Waitakaruru we head up to Miranda and I'm behind this bloody 150 again - doing a steady 160kph!!! He reckons he saw 185 - I'd be happy with that,but that's the top speed of my bike,and I not on full throttle with 1000rpm to go.I've been this fast on the XLV before,but not for this long,a good blast.I'm by myself around the coast but catch up with Two Smoker again and we have a ding dong battle to Orere Point - I am SO impressed mate,you were just flying on that thing,I didn't even have the edge on acceleration out of the corners - an extra cyl and 600cc means squat.

Hey,what about all the Falcons coming into Whiford,they loved us and all pulled over for us.

Well,thanks for the ride guys,maybe I'll come again.

[NhuanH]

available from your favourite Repco in Thames - or maybe a bit closer if that suits you better! Only $15 gets you back to Auks at a leisurely pace so you can enjoy the scenery for a change. Maybe the leisurely pace was so I could avoid becoming part of the scenery!?!

Don't cry for me Argentina, those on the ride saw that the 012 was spent anyways.

Thanks Motoracer for you concern, advice and assistance. And your mate ?Sione? on the Blade for really finishing off that tyre Yeah, I knew I was missing out on the rest of a good ride.

[sAsLEX]

Good ride in all,cheers MR, shame about the roads being just that little bit wet, the uncertainty coming in to a corner slowed some of us down a bit.

Yeah, just couldn't shake you motu! and you were on knobblies!

And it was fun follwoing TS into kopu, and the little drag race!

[Two Smoker]

Me!!!!!!!!!!???????? Never, i don't speed And i don't go around corners fast either sAsLEX, ill take you to an awesome spot so you can get your knee down will PM you about it later.......

Motu ive got the upmost respect for how you push that XLV

Will definately try to get to the next ride, and hopefully get closer to the front....... But ofcourse once again the bike is off to the shop (i think it lives at Colmans rather than in my garage....)