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What an absolutely f**king awesome day.
I had a good ride over the hill (I took my 1000), I rode by myself as Hamish was riding with a couple of our mates. On the way to the sprints road I did a few little bursts on some of the straights to get myself "in the groove". Got up to 180 (I know that's not fast for most of you guys but I don't often get up there so I wanted to be mentally prepared).
I was first to sign on, but chose #9, as I didn't want to be one of the first to do a run. (In hindsight a good choice, as the first couple of runs the timing gear didn't work so the guys had to come back to do their runs again.)
The weather was perfect, sunny and no wind.
I had decided to only do the flying quarters, not the standings (too hard on my bike/clutch and too hard to get a perfect start without bogging or wheelstanding).
My first run I didn't accelerate hard enough, and I changed into top too early, so by the time I got to the start line I was only showing just over 180 on the speedo. I normally change between 5000 and 6000, so it was a bit unusual for me to be revving through to almost 8000 before changing.
Even though I knew I hadn't gone that fast, it was such a BUZZ - at the regroup point my hands were physically shaking, and my knees were a bit weak. It was wonderful.
My second run I accelerated harder, and didn't change into top till 7500 (I think - there's not a lot of time to take your eyes off the road to focus on the instruments!!) I did see that the needle was over 200kph - that had been my aim for the day. The timing gear got me at 192kph - I'm rapt. I've changed my front sprocket from a 15 to a 14 tooth, so that will cut my potential top speed down a bit anyway.
They then had a lunch break instead of doing a third run straight away. I was hot hot hot, I had four layers of thermals on, plus my jacket liner, and I was just cooking. My mates were heading to Martinborough for lunch, so I decided I'd not do another run.
Figjam: good to meet you - great that you rode all the way down from Auckland for this event!
I know that most of you blokes did far faster times/speeds than me, but I did this for myself, not to prove anything to anyone - and I had such a great day, I really did. It was just amazing.
Thanks for all the pictures posted, and I'll watch the videos at work (first thing, before I've officially started work!)
It was great to see a good KB turnout - sorry I didn't get to talk with most of you.
What a great weekend of motorcycling - Manfeild Saturday, the sprints on Sunday, and Monday night I'll be watching the Superbikes from Imola that I taped.
And hey - if they'd had a "first female" trophy for the sprints, I'd have won it!!!
(to be honest, I don't need a trophy anyway, I enjoyed it so much that was my prize!!)
Life doesn't get much better than this.
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Being frustrated is disagreeable.
But the real disasters in life begin when you get what you want.
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