Waitangi Day - Where did you ride and what did you practise?

[Terminated]

This weekend and Waitangi Day, Chanceyy and Bull are your selectors. They will be looking at good new rider training practice and welcome input from senior riders and mentors.

This weekend review will cover rides on Saturday 3rd, Sunday 4th, Monday 5th and Waitangi Day reported here in this thread and selection will be made by Wednesday Evening.

Those selected will have their training comments copied to BuckBuck's Update - Newbie Training thread and they will in turn be the selectors for next Sunday's Where Did You Ride and What Did You Practise?.

I encourage all newbie riders to seek out a riding Mentor to review your riding skills and technique periodically throughout your graduated licence time. Go for mentor riding reviews and discuss the matters that have been identified, then practise, practise, practise.

When you go for your Sunday/weekend ride think about those things you want to focus on and review before you set off on your ride.

I invite any new riders to put forward their comments relating to specific training sessions they may have had recently and not necessarily just this weekend's ride.

The key benefit that I am encouraging is: for new riders/all riders - to 'key in' their training comments to this thread and by doing so, this is reinforcing a personal training discipline.

For those posting to this thread, a degree of humour is welcomed as are pictures of your weekend ride, however please note that the emphasis is newbie training awareness.

You take the time to train on the motorcycle, you take the time to make an entry to this web site, and hence you have indirectly reviewed your own personal training discipline. Well Done.


Heads Up and Enjoy
BuckBuckNo1

[Rosie]

On Sunday Clint and I rode from Rotorua to Wharepapa South (South Waikato) and back. My two main focuses (foci?) were: Following distances, and smooth throttle use while changing gears.

First we went into town in Rotorua, to buy tickets for the Nathan Haines concert, except Ticketek doesn't do Sunday in Rotorua. I need to work on my parking technique - backing the bike into the park, and parking where I can see if there is any traffic coming (ie not behind a giant view-eclipsing van).
Rode over the Mamakus. Stopped to let a couple of people go past, but didn’t really see much traffic.

We stopped at Fitzgerald glade, our pre-decided first stopping point. We just got off the bikes for a couple of minutes, and Clint put his overtrousers on, because it looked like the weather was a bit showery up ahead. I wasn’t entirely sure where we were going, especially where to go through Putaruru, so Clint went ahead and I followed him. I found following someone through an unfamiliar area quite a challenge. I had to keep an eye on everything around me, and watch what Clint was doing (but not too much), and find an appropriate position on the road relative to him etc. I noticed that he was going much slower than I probably would have by myself, so I think I need to watch my speed in built up areas. I've told Clint that he is to tell me if he thinks I'm going too fast in a given situation.

Out of Putaruru I was riding in front again, but wasn't entirely sure where we were going. Some intersections had signs, some didn't, so we ended up taking the very scenic route, finding some interesting little roads. And evil gravel-strewn road works. And a stray bull calf.

My big focus for the day was using the throttle smoothly when changing gears. In general I did pretty well. This is leading into using the gears more, often I'm a bit lazy and will sit in a gear that is a bit too high when going up a hill or something, and the poor little bike doesn't have much pull at low revs. So to get the most out of the bike, I want to be doing lots of nice smooth gear changes.

Cornering (which was last week's focus) went well, even though I wasn't specifically focusing on it.

We stopped at the rock climbing Café in Wharepapa south for a bit to eat, and to buy me a new pair of climbing trousers (yes, the whole ride was just an elaborate cover to make Clint go shopping with me).

After lunch we went home via Mangakino, Atiamuri etc. It's a really nice ride through there, I had only been there once before in the car, about 3 years ago. And I managed my first extended stretch on SH 1. It was only about 5k's, and I was riding at the same speed as the cars around me, but I wasn't loving the whole straight, main highway thing, so I was pleased to turn onto SH 30, and to be on my way home. I was starting to get a little tired by this stage. All that concentration takes it out of you I guess. I was noticing a bit of vibration from the bars by this stage too which would add to fatigue, I might see about some weighted bar ends.

[Steam]

Near Miss #154
Today (waitangi eve) I practised emergency braking in a Real Life situation, when some lunatic cut me off on purpose!
It was good to have been practising this during the weekend.
I didn't lock up either wheel and came to a stop perhaps 2 meters from the van who cut me off.
Survival is success!

[Terminated]

Near Miss #154
Today (waitangi eve) I practised emergency braking in a Real Life situation, when some lunatic cut me off on purpose!
It was good to have been practising this during the weekend.
I didn't lock up either wheel and came to a stop perhaps 2 meters from the van who cut me off.
Survival is success!

"Synchronicity"
The coincidence of events that seem related but are not obviously caused one by the other.

You just got your money back and some I'd say. Well done.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[98tls]

I never ride on Waitangi day...............i prefer to stay home and have a couple of quiets whilst toasting our forefathers and sincerely hoping that wherever they are they dont get the paper delivered..............

[Lissa]

Waitangi Day... was the Wairarapa Ride, which turned into the Kapiti Ride and BBQ.

Waitangi Day was my first real ride over the Rimutakas and into the dreaded 'WellySide'.

On the Rimutakas I practiced taking it slow and at my own pace... not too much traffic going over, which helped alot. The Wellyside of the takas is alot smoother and shorter, and really not so bad. Tried to keep my bike in the centre of the road, not too close to the bank or the centre line. The more I practice the quicker I will get for sure... its not as hard as it looks, too busy concentrating on my riding then thinking about the fact I am on a big hill... so its really not unlike anyother road.

Also practised group riding... which I enjoy, but would enjoy more if I could actually catchup to most people.

I need to practise cornering alot more.... Paekak Hill on the way home I was all over the place (well I thought so) I was tired and my concentration wasnt there.. also got to trust my bike more, and that I can actually lean it and not fall off.

I am quite happy with how well I am going as a learner, I am quite confident on the motorways, and just enjoy the ride. But its more than that, its also meeting really interesting and individual people, who like to help each other out and have a chat. To be able to txt or ring someone when you feel like a blat and they are happy enough to come along.... Thats something that really only happens between bikers. I think Uncle B would be pretty happy, he only saw me do about 80ks when I was first starting out, and now Ive been over the hill and all the way to kapiti.

And Buckbuck I hope you had a great day too yesterday.

[chanceyy]

Near Miss #154
Today (waitangi eve) I practised emergency braking in a Real Life situation, when some lunatic cut me off on purpose!
It was good to have been practising this during the weekend.
I didn't lock up either wheel and came to a stop perhaps 2 meters from the van who cut me off.
Survival is success!

Hi

I have selected Steam for this weeks pick. Steam has proven that the cost of attending a course is money well spent.

I would also like to see Steams report from that course included in the thread ..

[bull]

I choose Lissa as i was impressed with:

1. concentration and riding her own ride

On the Rimutakas I practiced taking it slow and at my own pace... not too much traffic going over, which helped alot. The Wellyside of the takas is alot smoother and shorter, and really not so bad. Tried to keep my bike in the centre of the road, not too close to the bank or the centre line.

2. perserverance and recognising the signs of fatigue

I need to practise cornering alot more.... Paekak Hill on the way home I was all over the place (well I thought so) I was tired and my concentration wasnt there.. also got to trust my bike more, and that I can actually lean it and not fall off.

[DUCATI*HARD]

ME AND MY PARTNER RODE OUT WEST AUCKLAND ON MY BLACK999, AND HER 400MONSTERCHROME TANK DUCATI, TO PICK UP MY BLUE ANODISED FOOTPEGS,BRAKE AND CLUTCH CAPS,HANDLE BAR ENDS AND TYRE CAPS,ALL ANODISED IN BLUE.ON THE WAY HOME TRIED A WHEELSTAND DOWN THE MOTORWAY,WHEELED AROUD 5 POWER POLES.YEEEHAAAH!!!

[Grub]

I rode to the top of the Takas with 39 others ... and half way down again.

What did I learn?
- Bike tyres get punctures
- Ringing the AA 0800 Service line is really funny if you're bored, sickening if you're not
- Bikes don't have a spare. You have to remember this for when the AA call centre ask you what's wrong with it.
- At the *first* wtf feeling, STOP. Things deteriorate quickly after that.
- Once a tyre's gone flat, it will break the bead seal very quickly
- Once the bead seal is broken, you may not get it to reseal
- If you don't have a big-bore compressor, you won't reinflate the tyre at all
- Tyre Pandas won't work after the bead seal is broken
- AA tow is NOT free
- TSS "Free bike transport" ph number doesn't work out of hours
- Tubeless bike tyres cannot usually be repaired
- Bike tyres cost twice as much as car tyres
- NEVER borrow someone elses bike, even if they insist!