Hair-raising harbour bridge crossing this arvo.

**mattian** · 5th March 2009, 18:51

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Nah - I outweigh it.

I was going to say to Mattian - you have to do the racing tuck - roll up in a ball and get everything as close to the bike as you can.

yeah mate. I try to turn myself into a bullet while in a head wind. LOVE those tail winds though! anything from the sides is a nightmare.

**mattian** · 5th March 2009, 18:59

Originally Posted by skidMark

You want to be in a low gear and be sitting on about 3/4 revs....

Enough to keep an acceleration pull but not nutting it.... stops you from getting blown around as much...if you try pootle as usual you end up in the wall.

yup, I do that. I also find a little bit of rear brake helps to stableise things a little. Trying to relax my grip, like Vifferman suggests is a little difficult though. When all your senses are screaming....... "Fuck, I'm going to be blown over the barrier!"

**Ixion** · 5th March 2009, 19:49

Originally Posted by chasio

It was interesting alright. I do it every day in all weathers on my Vespa GT200, which I reckon is excellent in the wind, but this evening was a bit squeaky-bum-time.

....

Scooters usually are. One of their advantages.

I believe this is because they have a large wind resistance surface area to the rear (ie all that enclosure stuff around the rear). And very little forward of the centre line to catch the wind.

The more side surface area you have on the front of the bike the worse it is in wind. The more surface area to the rear of the bike , the better. Especially if the surface area is low down.

**vifferman** · 5th March 2009, 20:16

Whelp, I didn't ride my bike today, because of the wind.

Y'see, I really like the wind, but it winds me up summat chronic, so I end up riding like a wanker....

Don't need any more tickets...

**Mikkel** · 5th March 2009, 20:20

Originally Posted by slofox

Scooters come complete with invulnerability y'know.

Oh, I thought it was invisibility - must be that drunk russian bad guy again.

**JimO** · 5th March 2009, 20:37

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Woah! - that's what? 3 times since 2004.

laugh all you like you suckers, we have everything that you cunts have without the traffic, gang problems etc, you can buy a nice house in a good area for fuck all, you can ride on roads 10 mins from dunedin and not see another car.....but you suckarses stay where you are, we dont want you here

**Kemet** · 5th March 2009, 20:56

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Nah - I outweigh it.

I was going to say to Mattian - you have to do the racing tuck - roll up in a ball and get everything as close to the bike as you can.

And while you're tucked up like that you may as well use the posture to the fullest of it's purpose.....

Originally Posted by jimjim

laugh all you like you suckers, we have everything that you cunts have without the traffic, gang problems etc, you can buy a nice house in a good area for fuck all, you can ride on roads 10 mins from dunedin and not see another car.....but you suckarses stay where you are, we dont want you here

seconded

but...

um.....

What are suckarses???

**swbarnett** · 5th March 2009, 22:35

Originally Posted by chasio

Still, we're all at home typing stories about it...

Well, those of us that are at home and typing are at home and typing, the rest we don't know about.

For myself, I avoided the bridge today. The CBX does tend to catch bit of side wind, especially with the Givi on the back.

**musicman** · 5th March 2009, 22:54

I hate how people seem to not know how to drive whenever a few drops of water fall from the sky. Crossing the bridge northbound today at 3pm cars were doing 40km/h. Yes, 40!! What the hell was up with that!! It wasn't even jammed or anything, traffic was free-flowing on the other side! Gaaaah!! Oh well, good thing that bikes can lanesplit

**chasio** · 6th March 2009, 06:02

Originally Posted by Ixion

Scooters usually are. One of their advantages.

I believe this is because they have a large wind resistance surface area to the rear (ie all that enclosure stuff around the rear). And very little forward of the centre line to catch the wind.

The more side surface area you have on the front of the bike the worse it is in wind. The more surface area to the rear of the bike , the better. Especially if the surface area is low down.

That makes sense and probably whipping the screen off would make it better still, as the curvature of it means that it does present a reasonable side profile.

Another things with the GT200 is that it is made of steel and is 150KG dry, with most of that weight down low. I wouldn't have fancied it on a 95KG bit of flexi-plastic.

**74 knuckle** · 6th March 2009, 06:24

Hey you guys want a realise theres life south of the bombays and come to a town that gives you a frequent wind velocity of 140ks it adds to the adventure!!!!

**SixPackBack** · 6th March 2009, 06:30

Originally Posted by jimjim

laugh all you like you suckers, we have everything that you cunts have without the traffic, gang problems etc, you can buy a nice house in a good area for fuck all, you can ride on roads 10 mins from dunedin and not see another car.....but you suckarses stay where you are, we dont want you here

There is a fucken good reason why dunedin and surrounds are sparsely populated.

**Bass** · 6th March 2009, 08:08

Originally Posted by SixPackBack

There is a fucken good reason why dunedin and surrounds are sparsely populated.

You may be right, even the gangs have more sense. I lived there for a year!
Also, I'm pretty sure this "good area" where nice houses are to be found is a figment of his imagination, unless of course they are on the tops of those hills that I couldn't get to cos the roads were completely iced over.

Just to get it back on topic, driving to work yesterday morning, as has been pointed out, the breeze was a trifle spritely. Things got really interesting for a second or so when a couple of phases of an overhead 11,000 volt transmission line touched about 50 m ahead of me

I thought that God had taken up flash photography - the whole world went blue-white and the arc must have been 20 m long.
It sounded like all the arc welders in the world were operating at once in the back seat of the car and I was certain that the line was going to fuse and come down on top of me. I was reminding myself not to try and get out of the car if it happened.
There was no point in trying to stop but as luck would have it, the arc broke just as I got alongside and the lines remained intact. I still had to drive through a rain of liquid metal droplets though and it was about 10 minutes before my pulse got back to normal.

**vifferman** · 6th March 2009, 08:12

Originally Posted by jimjim

laugh all you like you suckers.....but you suckarses stay where you are, we dont want you here

Fine.
We'll post messages on here about our winter riding, while you're stuck inside because you can't even walk outside without falling over on the iced-up roads and footpaths.

Originally Posted by musicman

I hate how people seem to not know how to drive whenever a few drops of water fall from the sky.

You mean, still following one car length behind, and traveling at 1110km/h, even though it's pissing down with rain and visibility's shit?
That's what I experienced this morning - some dickhead on my bumper, who then overook on the left, and into the sensible gap I was leaving in front. The car I was following had to keep hitting the brakes as he wasn't leaving enough distance to the car in front of him, whereas I didn't need to brake once.
Anyway, I ended up moving one lane left, which actually meant I passed Mr Tailgater within 2 minutes of him passing me, so he ended up behind me again.
All that risky driving for nothing.
Pillock...

**Hailwood** · 6th March 2009, 08:15

Originally Posted by jimjim

laugh all you like you suckers, we have everything that you cunts have without the traffic, gang problems etc, you can buy a nice house in a good area for fuck all, you can ride on roads 10 mins from dunedin and not see another car.....but you suckarses stay where you are, we dont want you here

So jimjim how is the new job at the Otago Promotions Board going?