Westie Ride Today! 04/07/04

[erik]

... Unfortunately coming back I missed the turnoff to point? peak? rd just after cowcop - damn maori being so hard to spell :@ So it was a lonely ride all the way down boring SH16 for me

Yeah, I almost missed that turn off too. I stopped on the side of the road just after the turn off, I think you were right behind me and carried on past. Oh well...
It was definately a fun ride I was surprised by how many people turned up. I only read the post saying the ride was happening 15 minutes before it was set to leave - lucky for me I live close by .

Thanks for organising it, KK

[Shade]

Hey guys,

Thanks for the great ride, was awesome weather and great fun thats for sure.

Was awesome fun on the way home too, thanks alot!

Will have to do it again next time.

[Antallica]

Excellent ride, good pace and safe enough. I sure needed that experience.

Cheers guys

[PutMan]

Yea was a good ride for me to the gixxer needed a quiet ride "cough cough" after the one eyed carby service i gave it. Must have worked cause i got there and back at a reasonable pase and only managed to see my life pass before my eyes a couple of times

anyways looking forwards to the next hope we can plan a evnt or something in the middle

[Andrew]

Firstly KK your the man for getting such a large group organised at last minute - how do you do it? - (Wouldn't have anything to do with a certain gathering which lasted till 3am the previous night? ).

Like others have said the ride was a good pace and everybody was riding within their limits (I guess that's all you can hope for on a SLOW ride!).

A highlight for me was watching 2smoker conquer the hill outside of Wellseford. Man you can fly!

Stopped in Wellsford to just pretty much turn back, only time for a pisstop. Oh and KK, if the only reason you didn't want to stop for coffee was because you were being too tight with your money, don't worry I'll shout you next time.

Going back over the hill from Wellsford I tried to keep with up KK and 2smoker as they were battling it out. My front brake lever managed to rattle itself loose and fall off. Fotunatly for me Frosty was kindly able to locate a nut off his whale to put on my falling apart bike.

I borrowed Frosty's knee sliders after the ride and took the bike for a whizz around Riverhead. I managed get my knee down lightly a couple of times. What were you doing in Riverhead anyway KK?

Well done to Shade who was riding in the shadow of KK on the way back. You've improved so much man!

[Kwaka-Kid]

hey guys, thanks for the nice talk bout the ride! could have improved so many things, firstly that it could have been alot less impromtue, and secondly that yes had i of saved my penny's wisely and not spent them all on the BBQ i could have afforded a stop in wellsford or something for food - but i have to be honest, id rather pay for hte gas for extra time riding then be eating crap mc donalds dude!.. maybe i will run another in a few or 3 weeks and do it far earlier and have a little BBQ @ my place afterwards (kinda like the other weekend but ill get my AintoG a lot more)

anyways yeah, i did my time back there with the 2x FXR's - and trust me ant it wasnt rider ability that held you back there, you flowed into hte corners well and i never cought you grabbing brakes mid-corner or slowing down majorly for a corner, the poor FXR dont like them hills though does it? hard to keep the thing up at the speeds the further-ups were doing.

And id like to also comment that Shade has come a long way! He had to pay like $500 to get there (a set of new tyres!) and shit me its made the difference, bang instantly up there with the other fast 250 riders (Andrew, Putman, and hell we throw TS in there despite being on the 150).

Must say thanks to TS for the sensible riders decision made to turn aorund and warn other riders of the upcoming new seal - the signs had been blown over!, and also for leading the way home, dude you really gave the other newer riders confidence with them tailing you all that way, we kept a nice tight pack and i hope nobody felt too pressured if the pace was getting up there - i dropped back to fill the small gap between you and putman that ocassionally came up - his sick GSXR carbs are not doing him too many favours however putman just take it easy dude-i was watching you make up for it by nailing those corners pretty hard, i told you jeans are allright to ride in 0 but when your getting that quick and slightly hanging you might want to borrow my leathers, got sliders etc for that stuff.

Good stuff all round - sorry i didnt rotate around enough to catch everyones riding - 6chris6 where were you-? Lost in the middle?- couldnt see you any of the ride mate!

[Motoracer]

Sounds like an awesome ride! I'll see if I can afford to buy Nick's RG one fiddy, then I can come out with you guys on the slow ride and have fun. Thanx for the test ride last time TS! I really enjoyed that, I wouldn't mind haveing one as a weekend/commuting bike. Ofcourse, we can then have some mean battles too .

Nice one Andrew, I have always known that you are a really good rider and that your bike has been holding you back the whole time. Nice job with getting your knee down man!! You now have real life experience to contribute on the "Does getting your knee down make you go faster" thread with. I really hope you get your bike sorted though. Thoes leaky forks just sound scary and way too dodgy...

[SILVER SUZI]

Well guys I was going to say that was my first group ride in 10 years, but on reflection it was the first EVER! and I loved it.
Thanks heaps to, KK for organising the ride, and Andrew for the night before. It's mid day monday and I'm still smiling (not cause I'm at work either).
I'd have to say though, if that was a slow ride I think I'll skip the fast rides.
Absolutely awesom roads, and quite fortunate with the weather. A great group to ride with, I'll definitely be into that again!
Cheers all!

[Kwaka-Kid]

Silver Suzi - sounds like youd be more interested in the true slow rides i often run - that one was generally mislabelled - but we did watch out for the ones who prefer the less mind boggling speeds and think i got a quick chat in to them all.

Typically we do westie runs and just set a bit of a speed limit and not pass it - doesnt mean to so we do try keep as much corner speed up as is possible with a group of mixed but generally lesser experience then others. So ill PM you next time we have a true slow run, i personally would call that a Medium run - as the FF/MR runs are alot quicker (well, havnt been on one in too long, ask TS, Hes been around on many a run - what pace would you call it TS compared to most FFMR runs?).

[Two Smoker]

Yep i would call it a medium run, i didnt top out my bike, and wasnt pushing it really hard through the corners....... On MR runs speeds can be extremely high (ie topping out a 600cc.......) and F/F can be around the 150ish sometimes a bit higher.....

This ride was a bit fast but nothing that couldnt be mamaged..... Im looking forward to going on an actual SLOW ride sometime soon, as i will have to run in the new piston.....

[Two Smoker]

ya still seemed to be givin that lil smoker a good run though TS

LOL, not really, i had it around the 10000 mark most of the time, where with other rides i generally hit the rev limiter lots

[FROSTY:Me]

Yea when I was alongside ya I could hear that lil piston makin a fair ol clackin in there

[Wonko]

Great ride.

I followed a cbr 1100 with a hard case, on the ride out. My lines where all over the place, and I couldn't relax and get any rhyme or rytheme on the way out. The CBR showed me the way the lines should be taken, but I was hitting them as offten as missing them.

The gravel made for some interesting time, as well as the blind courners after humps in the road.

Most exciting momment was slowing down for one of the stop signs, and having frosty roar past me on the whale

Return trip was much better, playing tag with a 400 (KK?) for the first half and watching TS fade from veiw.

Got the integra just before the stop. He can throw that car around.

After the stop followed TS for a bit, watching him hang well off the bike before the courner, and yet I was following his line without moving off the seat, and not losing any speed behind him. Either the 600 is a lot better than I thought, or he wasn't ringing it out like I was to keep up.

Great day, can't wait for the next one

[Two Smoker]

Nah mate, wasnt ringing it out, wasnt so sure that the piston was going too last, and i still need to gain my confidence back after the bin i had oh well, make sure you come on the next one, ill push it a bit harder for you

Oh and the CBR1100 was my old mans he can run rings around me when he wants too lol...... He's just sensible.....and keeps a moderate licence saving pace....

[Wonko]

TS, you pulled away from me plenty of times, the 150 has more acceleration around traffic than my 600, and you've got bigger balls than me when passing cars while going round blind courners.

I'm not quite that confordant in my or my bikes abilities yet to do that sort of thing.

Big ups to your dad for showing me how I should be riding