Monday 05 Feb
1. Ride with Dasser out to Wainui Coast.
2. Slow manouvre practice in GMs carpark
1. Met up with Dasser in Naenae and proceeded to the bottom of wainui hill then up and over and out to the coast. What an excellent road, well maintained and lots of nice sweeping corners.
My focus of the day was to accompany Dasser who has been riding for two weeks and just follow along at whatever pace he liked. I had never ridden the coast road so thought it may well be a good training run for hazard identification, countersteering and smooth throttle control.
On the way out we cruised and i was happy to go along with just my throttle hand on the bars and using it to control the cornering. I had remembered UncleB telling me about him being told to ride up a twisty hill with one hand to learn better control so thought id try it out at a comfortable pace. It was quite effortless doing it and it definetly made me smoothen the throttle otherwise i was bucking back and forwards in the saddle coming up to corners. Lots of driveways scattered along the road so was allowing room for cars by moving closer to centre where possible away from driveways, had noticed patches of shingle on the road so was very wary and on the lookout for more along the road.
On the return trip the pace was a little quicker so was able to put alot of countersteering into practice and also shigting my body over prior to cornering to help me turning in quicker and later than my normal arc. Could really feel how it would let you turn at higher speeds with countersteer and body to the inside of turn and dipping inside shoulder, also wanted to ensure i was putting weight onto my outside footpeg - the whole cornering thing is getting exciting now!
2. Decided to go with Mickdastardly(brand new to KB) to the GMs carpark to show him what hell need to do for BHS and also to practice slow manouvres myself. I explained the steady throttle and using the clutch and rear brake to keep the bike moving at low speeds. He picked that up rather fast so it was then onto the race(the last one to the end of carpark is the winner) we started the race and went a good 80m before he put his foot down. Next thing i explained to him was the countersteering buzz. He took a little while to suss this out and looked like he was jerking the bars. Few explanations later and he was doing it with ease and the smile on his face said it all. then we started doing some low speed tight circles and then uturns, he did these with ease.
All in all i had a great day - left home at 1130hrs with a 3/4 tank of petrol and got back home at 2000hrs and need to fill it up so a good days riding for me.
Thanks to both Dasser and Mickdastardly for the two rides today.
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