Sunday 7th January - Where did you ride and what did you practise?

[bell]

Out of Nelson toward Murchison via some back roads (Korere to Kawatiri Junction via St Arnaud I think it was?) then joined the traffic on SH6 again into Murchison for fuel and caffeine. Bloody windy. Battled gusty head winds and cross winds most of the way. First thing to practise: staying attached to the bike!

Practised: stoppies, er, emergency braking we'll call it, on some of the quieter straights away from SH6. Respect to you Hitcher pulling that FJR up from 100+ in that not-so-great distance as per your post above. My emergency braking is improving but I can't wait to get braided lines to improve feel at the lever for one thing....
Also practised: emregency braking in corners. Well, I'm working up gradually toward the 'emergency' aspect of it. Let's say that I am improving my ability to lose 1/2 of my corner speed as quickly as possible. It's well worth thinking about. There was an earlier thread re the importance of being able to slow down sufficiently in corners in order to avoid things we'd rather not come into contact with. it struck a chord with me.

It was a great day to be on the bike after a run of bad weather days coinciding with days off work. Lovely part of SI up here. Planning to ride to Westport this Sat if weather's fine. The Buller Gorge beckons....

[klingon]

Set out from home (Waiuku) this afternoon, headed to old Gt Sth Rd, onto Bombay > Ridge Rd > State Highway 22 through to Rangiriri turnoff > down to Rangiriri (refreshment break) onto State Highway 1 up to Mercer > back road over to State Highway 2 > Lyons Rd > Hunua Rd > Clevedon (another refreshment break) then back home via Drury.

Today for me was about decreasing my speed into each corner and looking for the exit point.

At first it was a little annoying (it felt waaaay too slow coming into the corners) but as I perservered through half of the ride I started to get into the rhythm and I ended up a heap smoother from the straights to corners and I didn't brake at all for a corner on the second half of my ride.

I will note that I deliberately chose a mixture of roads I know, roads I don't know and roads I don't know well.

G

I pick Girlygirl's post as a good example of cornering practise - slow in and planning your exit. It takes a lot of restraint to learn to go slower, but it's worth it in the end.

Keep up the good work, GG.

[Terminated]

To all who have posted to this thread this week thank you very much for your contribution.

Here are this weeks selections copied over to the Newbie Training Update:

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...=30010&page=15

Heads Up and Enjoy