Well, I was meant to write reports on Saturday past, but the server at school was on the fritz...so off riding I went!Blatted out via Kaiaua/Miranda and onto the famous Coro loop, which I heard some much about...
Boy oh boy did I love it - I did it clockwise so Coroglen went by pretty fast and I decided since I was this far up, I pootled onto Colville. Port Jackson defeated me since I didn't have knobblies on (oh for a dual sport!) Zipping by the Buddhist temple there, a strange omen occurred - a little sparrow decided to be a kamikaze and spat himself against my front tyre - poor thing, I could feel it getting churned under the front guard and spat out under the rear wheelI whispered a little prayer and hoped that would be the last bird to run under my wheels!
The little ol'Hornet loved the twisties and I lost count of the times I scared myself with boots scraping from them!Coromandel was a nice little town and I waved to a heap of kids. From there I went to Whitianga after filling up at the BP, nice people told me to watch out for the sick corners (I was beaming!
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Well, those twisties coming down were most excellent - I loved flicking back and forth and even practiced shifting my butt over and leaning into the corners with the ol'leg splayed out (acting as an airbrake? Looking like a tosser? Whatever, I enjoyed it!)
Well, it was nice leisure pootle past Whitianga into Whangamata, down past Waihi and through Paeroa. At this time, sunstrike was quite bad so took it easy heading back up to Ngatea. Only saw one rozzer who was lying in wait off a side road in the 'Raki Plains. I think he was a bit disappointed when I pootled on by doing 101kph...
Well by this stage I had an excellent travel and was looking forward to some twilight riding back through Kaiaua. This was done and then the omen came ...
I was about 5 minutes out from Clevedon when I felt an almighty whack on the back of the ol'lidI saw stars and got into a fair ol'wobbly motion on the bike, with racing heart I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. Yanked off my lid and saw some feathers on the back! It must have been a frikkn' ***k'n duck!
Now comes the embarassing bit ... feeling mighty relieved, I flicked up the kickstand and plant my left foot down...on some gravel and felt myself and the bike drop to the left!!
Result : bike ends up doing slow motion fall to ground and I end up arse over heels and facing back to my bike
Boy, was I red - by the time I picked myself and the bike up, there was a little line of cars waiting for me. I tested out the bike, gave the thumbs up - and they all pissed off! Got home with no hassles 'cept for admiring the different angles my brake lever and mirror was at! Only bruise I got was where the right elbow pad edge chewed up the skin! Nothing some savalon, antiseptic cream and bandaids couldn't cure (Xerxesdephat knows all about this ritual!)
Spent today fixing up the minor scuffs and readjusting the mountings. Lent bike out to Aididdy to lend to a mate who needed a 250 to resit his full licence test.
What can I say ... 12 weeks riding ...
2 day binning at Nana speeds ...
12 week in, dropping it after not coming off from a duck strike ...
3 Oil changes ...
1 Rear tyre change ...
Rides down to the back and beyond, Wellyway on a twofiddy ..
20,000km under the seat (which now has a split down the middle!)
I'M LOVING THIS WHOLE BIKING THING! MY ONLY REGRET IS NOT DOING IT EARLIER!
Phew, thanks to anyone who made it this far reading my ramblings! I'm off to do the Coro again next week! ... and the next week..and the next...and the... I'm done now ...
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I just wince and hope they miss and so far so good - they do.
But mate, how did a duck hit you on the back of the head? Don't you know to pull over for faster traffic?
Originally Posted by MVnut
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