1st Ride out to the Coro
Got up early at the crack of sparrows fart today.
Mission : Ride to the Coro for the 1st time
ETD : 0630hrs
I did the usual pre-bike ride checks to ensure my ride was well and good. I started my journey by filling up at BP Takanini and heading out South. The early start meant I had the roads to myself and it was lovely!
The turn off to the Coro was made and I blatted on through, it felt exciting and I was anticipating the experience to come (but put those thoughts out as best as I could to just focus on my riding!)
I pulled off to the side of the road where it was long and straight and admired the scenery for a few minutes before crossing the bridge into Coro. The twisties were fun and I put into practice all the points made in David L.Hough's book "Proficient Motorcycling : The ultimate guide to riding well."
At this stage, I made the one mistake - I didn't scrub off enough entry speed into one left hander and crossed partially over the center line. This was a major for me! You don't live long if you make mistakes like that! I went back to basics and did the :
Slow more into turns
Look ahead and check out all factors - road surface, debris, hazards
Lean into the turn using countersteering and body english
Rolling on the throttle through the turn to conserve traction and improve leanover clearance
By doing this and working out the apex points, entry window into the turn and moving my imagined delayed apex through I managed all the twisties to come with the minimum of pucker factor!
Eventually I hit Tairua BP and filled it up, by this stage the sun was shining brightly and people were gradually beginning to wake up, the Cafe next to the BP was only just opening, proprietor putting out the tables!
I tootled through and got onto the next part of my ride, visiting the previous owner of the Hornet whom I purchased it off! Punching up and down through the twisties to Whitianga was a complete blast and the feeling I got was an inner joy as my bike felt like it was coming home.
Eventually I got to the cow cut out sign and turned left ... this part I wasn't looking forward to since the owner lives several kms down a metal road which has some tight downhill turns! My butt clenched as I felt the loose gravel under my rear wheel and gradually as my confidence grew, I found out that it was better to ride it at 40-50kph then the 10-20kph I was doing! Mind you, getting to the tight down hill turns saw me puttering to the 10-20kph again!
Had a nice long chat with the previous owner and headed back up the loose stuff to where I turned off next to the cow sign. As tempting as it was to ride to the left to Whitianga, I had to go right - and begin the journey back to Takanini. Fathers day lunch with Dad and family beckoned ( ET : 0930 ).
Back onto the bike and cagers were out in force, I had a funny feeling and took the twisties extra carefully and kept well to the left...around one of the points, a honking great 4WD decided to cut a tight corner and gave me and the frikkin' idiot a fright. He didn't think there would be anyone coming around at the time he decided to ignore basic road rules!
Sometimes it pays to listen to those little voices!
After that, a quick blat back up to Takanini saw the usual patches of bikers heading out to Coro way - I guess they must be wondering what I was doing heading in the opposite direction! Plenty of waving and nodding by me (and not worried about recieving any in turn - thats what the waving threads are for!)
Hit home at 1130hours and helped load up food into van ready for transport to brothers place where feast would be held. Great timing - I tried to post this after I got back, but for reason it wouldn't upload! Having to retype it again now!)
All in all , did about 350km - I can't believe I've owned my bike for 4 weeks now? 1800kms done already...the more I ride, the more I want to ride! My little jaunts end up with me going out to the back and beyond!
Hope everyones ride went as fun and safely as well today (and the rest of the days!)
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Originally Posted by bugjuice
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