Originally Posted by
HDTboy
I'll write up a decent report tonight and post it in the morning
I want to hear about what happened after you boys left the motel and went to the pub.
Thanks Shaun, Jason, Andrew and SpeedMedic.
Even though I wasn't able to ride I still learnt plenty and had a fun day as well. One arm is all that's needed for waving a flag at the end of the sessions and has the advantage that no one was going to hit me for walking around telling everyone what to do 
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Friday Titanium picked me up at lunch time in a brand spanking new 2.5 litre turbo diesel Pathfinder 7 seater (he'd done some wheeling and dealing and got it for the weekend). We then shot around to kickingzebra's place to pick up a couple of bikes then went to Titaniums to pick up his and his gear. We ended up waiting there while kz took off to Biohazards to pick up that bike, people and gear in the Subaru. After many messages and phone calls they eventually arrived back at Ti's over 1.5 hours late. Turns out the trailer they were hauling didn't have any working lights so they started pulling things apart and eventually found all 4 bulbs were dead. Duh.
Eventually we went and picked up Road Rash and his wife, bike and gear then hit the road. We had 7 people in the Pathfinder + trailer and 2 bikes and 2 people in the Subaru + trailer and 2 bikes. It was approximately 5:15pm. We were originally going to leave at 3:30pm. So we were pretty much running to form ....
The trip down was relatively uneventful. I got the front passengers seat by virtue of having a busted shoulder while the other 5 climbed into the 2 rows of rear seats. We stopped at Te Kuiti and had some dinner then got rolling again, constantly checking the AA phoneline to see which roads were open. National Park was open so we took the turn off at the 8 mile and headed that way. After that we found the roads to Waiouru & Taihape were open so we shot across that way, stopping in Waiouru at the servo for a quick break. The servo had 6 inches of snow in it's forecourt and the Desert Rd was still closed.
Left Waiouru and headed for Marton where we dropped 5 of our passengers off. After that it was on to Feilding and the motel where I dragged Stify and Girlygirl out of bed to let me in. Ti hadn't organised a bed for the night so he crashed on the couch in the room while Biohazard and his wife went off to find Spudchuka's place.
Next morning Stify and GG shot out to the supermarket and came back to cook up some bacon & eggs for the 4 of us. Ti wandered over and got a room sorted before he forgot and had to sleep on the floor. Me and Ti then headed to the track via the Mobil. As we pulled out of the motel we saw Biohazard drive straight past heading in the wrong direction. A quick phone call and he came back to meet us at the Mobil where we filled the huge racing fuel cans Ti had.
At the track we set up around the back of the shelters. Some wandering and talking was done while those with 2 hands unloaded. poos was busy fixing RossiGirls 600. She'd been a victim of the infield left hand kink the day before and had cracked the alternator cover. Turns out the replacement was the wrong one so they had to ring around for a new one and wait.
At 10:00am Shaun got us all together in the scrutineering shed and went over some preliminaries (indemnity, days structure etc). We then went out for a wander around the track with Shaun and Jason explaining many things about how to approach corners, the lines they use, the mental processes of getting into and out of the corners and much more. The walk around was extremely informative and comprehensive and I learnt heaps even though I wasn't going to be riding.
After that we went back to the pits and divided into 3 groups, slow, medium and fast. The slow group was to go out first so I volunteered to wave flags and keep track of the session times. Shaun wanted to start with sessions of 10 minutes so the first round went relatively quickly. The only incident of the day being dss3 who was simply undone on a very cold, wet, slippery corner on slicks. Sometimes there just isn't any grip no matter how slow you go and that's what got him. Unfortunately, the damage to the bike meant he wasn't able to get it to a ridable state again. Thankfully Noel (CaN) let daryl head out on the recently purchased K3 from loosebruce later on so he got to have some fun.
Gradually the sessions were lengthened until they were more than 15 minutes. Shaun, Andrew and Jason went out at various times amongst everyone. Unfortunately Jason had a wee lie down on top of the tyres at the pit entrance, breaking the sub frame of the shauns brand spanking new K6 600. Funnily enough shaun didn't let him near it again lol. People were shuffled from one group to another and Keystone looked like she was almost gonna cry from fatigue when I told her to turn around and go straight back out again cos she'd been moved up a group.
Called a quick lunch break at 1:40pm as people were starting to look a little fatigued, hungry and it had started raining. Funnily enough, as soon as we stopped the sessions the rain stopped too. After 10 minutes a couple of guys were asking when we were continuing so I sent MorePower and Kiwifruit out to do 2 laps and see how slippery it was. They said it was slippery but not dangerous so I sent them out to have some fun and wandered around telling everyone that they could go out with the other two rather than in their group but to be careful as it was slippery.
By the time the lunch break was finished there was quite a mix of people out on the track. However, everything was smooth and nobody was having problems with the speed differential as there wasn't any time pressure to get laps in before the session ended. A quick count up of the busiest time saw approximately 23 people out on the track at once. A couple of people used an entire tank of gas in the 1 session cos they were having so much fun they just stayed out there. From what everyone have said this last, very long single session was the best of the day because it was so relaxed and there wasn't any pressure to cram laps in before the end of the session.
Eventually 4:30pm came around and Sue (track manager) told me to wave the final flag of the day. The final super session came in at 2 hours 40 minutes in duration. Everyone had started packed up, with a few already gone, keen to get back on the road and home before it got too late. I wandered around telling everyone that there was a bbq and drinks back at the motel afterwards and plenty said they'd cruise along. Unfortunately shaun had to bail and because a few had left already he didn't get a chance to thank everyone for a fantastic day with virtually no incidents (1 bike down, 1 went into the sandpit but stayed upright and 1 found the grass but stayed upright too).
Sue wandered around the pits looking a tiny bit impatient cos she wanted to lock up and go home, however, securing bikes and gear takes a wee while so eventually everyone got out of her way. She was very good humoured about it and was pleased to see that everyone had a good, worthwhile day.
I can't be stuffed writing about the after match bbq/piss up (that's a novel by itself) or the trip home so that's it folks.
Zen wisdom: No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. - obviously had KB in mind when he came up with that gem
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
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, I too kinda have a curvy figure which makes it worse beacuse im a guy. Well the waist kinda goes in and the bum pushes out. When I was in college the girls in my year would slap me on the arse and squeeze because apparently it is firm, tight...
I wear jeans
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