11th-17th April Where Did You Ride and What Did You Practise?

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The KB community is asked to post a few lines of 'where did you ride and what did you practise?' over the following week.

Humour and photographs are welcomed, however please keep in mind the general spirit is to enlighten us all about riding practice.

By all means ask questions about your riding and technique etc, and I am sure a mentor or senior experienced rider will be only too happy to touch base with you in the forum or by PM personal message.

Tuesday evening Steam and Yungatart will chose an entry each from this thread. These selections will then be copied across to Lissa's weekly update The Mentor - Newbie Training Update.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[yungatart]

This weekend I went for a ride up the Wairoa Rd with our w/e ride group. I followed Wasp27 and we set off at a fairly sedate pace. I focused on maintaining good lines through the corners, good positioning on the road and trying to maintain a reasonable speed in the corners. We met up with the rest of the group at Puturino, where they had stopped on the side of the road to wait for us. I had thought that I was riding quite well, only to be greeted by Mstrs, saying "What took you so long? I'm on my 5th smoke". (He was joking, but in my negative frame of mind, I didn't see that)

I have struggled with my confidence since my accident, and at times feel as though I will never get the hang of this biking thing. I have been tempted lately to throw in the towel and stick to being a pillion, so I fought back the tears and told the others I would not carry on up to the Viaduct, but would just wait for them to return. After a drink and a natter at the pub we set off back to Napier.

The ride back home was much the same, with me continuing my focus as before. Wasp27 rides that Harley so well and is great to follow, with his smooth lines and relaxed style..thanks so much for all your help and advice.
Yesterday, I donned my leathers again and Mstrs and I went down HW 50 to Ongaonga. My focus was again on smooth cornering, limit points on the corners and remembering to breathe....

I had a fantastic ride! It finally felt like I was in control of this machine! I was relaxed on the whole ride, yep, even the twisty bits, and had an absolute blast. TBH, I am still smiling!! The corners were smooth, the speed was consistent, for the most part and the ride was FUN!!

I feel that after 18 months, I am finally getting to be a motorcyclist...it has been a long time getting to this point, but, boy, its great to be here!
Thanks, Mstrs, for your unending patience.....and all the other HB guys, you're awesome!

[Rosie]

On Saturday evening I rode to Taupo. Concentrated on riding to the conditions - it was a little windy, was getting dark, and there were a few passing showers. Nothing too bad, but not conditions I've been riding in for a while, so I was trying to be relaxed and smooth, and keeping an eye out for what was going on around me.

Bright and early Sunday morning I headed out to do a lap of Lake Taupo. Focussing on keeping my speed up to 100-110ish on the main highway sections, and, keeping an eye on the conditions.

Pretty good ride down SH 1 to Turangi. SH1 isn't a terribly exciting road, but didn't see much traffic. The rumble strips on the road verge scare the hell out of me. Are they ok to ride over? (Say if I wanted to slow down and pull over and let someone past).

Past Turangi it got windy and clouded over. The road was wet most of the way along the lake, and I had a few brief showers. The wind was tiring at first, but it was fairly steady, so I settled into it fairly well.

I was still tending to ride at 95 ish along the straighter highway sections, I'm working on riding a little bit faster than I'm comfortable with, aiming to be able to sit at a similar speed to other road users, rather than being a little bit slower than average. It may be psychological - my speedo reads 140 when I'm doing a little under 110, which makes it seem quite fast, but is about the same speed I'd drive my car on the same roads.

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Ride on Saturday:
A beautiful morning up and over the Rimutaka Hill and down to the twin bridges at the bottom and return.

The V Strom has a long wheel base and you do sit fairly high up. My focus was smooth cornering from very slow in crawling traffic going down the RH. Fuel tanker and truck pulled over to let traffic move on. And then cornering, while coming back up the hill maintaining good throttle and gear selection.

The other aspect was recognising current gear selection, correlating speedo reading with tachometer, finding 80kph at 5000rpm tells me 4th gear is selected. Over the RH I found 3rd and 4th used most often and the occasional downshift to 2nd for some tight hairpins.

Sunday:
A great day and turn up for the newbie ride, a pleasure to lead the cruisie newbie crew over the hill and down to Featherston where the local hotel had been alerted, thanks to Mr and Mrs Kendog, a fine lunch was enjoyed by all. After lunch it was a small loop ride out towards Martinborough and turn off to loop back to Greytown SH1 over the RH and home. Focus on this run was down shifting, accelerating and upshift, here the torque of the engine was readily apparent.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[Hitcher]

Castlepoint and countersteering, head position and torque surfing.

[yungatart]

My choice this week is Rosie!
Well done for riding in less than ideal conditions, whilst still maintaining your focus on being smooth and relaxed., and being aware of your surroundings.
Don't worry about trying to increase your speed, that will come naturally when you are more comfortable.

[Steam]

I choose you BB, because you are da thinking man.

Ride on Saturday:
A beautiful morning up and over the Rimutaka Hill and down to the twin bridges at the bottom and return.

The V Strom has a long wheel base and you do sit fairly high up. My focus was smooth cornering from very slow in crawling traffic going down the RH. Fuel tanker and truck pulled over to let traffic move on. And then cornering, while coming back up the hill maintaining good throttle and gear selection.

The other aspect was recognising current gear selection, correlating speedo reading with tachometer, finding 80kph at 5000rpm tells me 4th gear is selected. Over the RH I found 3rd and 4th used most often and the occasional downshift to 2nd for some tight hairpins.

Sunday:
A great day and turn up for the newbie ride, a pleasure to lead the cruisie newbie crew over the hill and down to Featherston where the local hotel had been alerted, thanks to Mr and Mrs Kendog, a fine lunch was enjoyed by all. After lunch it was a small loop ride out towards Martinborough and turn off to loop back to Greytown SH1 over the RH and home. Focus on this run was down shifting, accelerating and upshift, here the torque of the engine was readily apparent.

Heads Up and Enjoy

[jtzzr]

Rode down to Matamata on Sunday ,then up the kaimai s` to spread a mate/fellow bikers` ashes , didn`t practice alot , but did learn to be prepared , carry a puncture kit ,not a can of pando , but the dog-poo stuff and air cyclinders . Was fortunate that I had a mate that was local (was in Paeroa when I ran into trouble) and he knew a guy who came out and repaired my puncture with the dog-poos , as the pando didn`t work due to the hole being too big .So when you go riding remember to always be ready for the unexpected . Ps A big thanks to the builder guy that stop and helped ,sorry I didn`t get your name ( he rides a 900ss).