Dec7 AKL Lunch ride to the Coroglen Pub

[Anonymous]

#11304

I concur with all the above, it was a great ride. Warm thanks to Alex and Jim for taking us there, and Jim for bringing us home.That would be Gentleman Jim, by the way. Going to I did my best to assess Karina's ability from the front, which ain't the easiest, and she appeared to be a very competent rider. She showed early in the piece that she would make her own decisions, and continued to do so all day, which freed me from that most awful of mentoring jobs, trying to guesstimate space for two bikes to overtake. All I needed to do was provide a clear presence on the correct side of the road. I polled the opinions of a couple of riders that had been behind her at Kopu, and they agreed with my assessment of her riding, which took a weight off my shoulders for the rest of the day. (At lunchtime Alex explained how much more difficult it is to get a bike license in Germany than it is here, which would explain her proficiency: this is a young woman that had done only one small crosstown trip on her new-to-her SV650 before going out with us and putting 270+ kms on the clock yesterday.) Coming home I cunningly tucked us in just behind Jim, because Karina had expressed concern that she was "holding people up". Jim, being a gentleman, took his speed off me, I took mine off Karina, nobody passed and blew our doorknobs off, and she should have got that trepidation out of her system by now.The boyfriend, who arrives mid-January, should have a competent instructor to keep him on the left side of the road.Alex, pushiness never crossed my mind for an instant. I have never been the fastest rider on the road, and I'm a lot slower now than I was in my prime (last week  :-D). If I am alert enough to spot you, I always move left and use my left-hand indicator. This is the same thing ambo and fire service drivers, and I guess the police, look for to indicate they have been seen. I am only ashamed about the number of times I DON'T see you unique riders niqueing up on me..................This morning reality bit. I threw a leg over my bike, locked into the pedals and headed for work. After sorting out the chain rings and cluster to match a slight head wind I wound both the bionic and the OEM knees up to usual rpm's and found the bad news was only 29.4 kph: a bit slower than yesterday. The difference between a hairy chested boxer, and a power plant rated at 1 GPP (Geriatric Person-Power). At Homai I stood up to pedal-dance over the railway bridge, and the first drops of sweat off my eyebrows fell inside the lenses of my specs, rendering me effectively blind for the remaining 12.5 kms of my commute. If you are around Sth Auckland at five o'clock in the morning you will recognise me, I am the cyclist with the white stick.It takes a really bad day on a motor-sickle to be worse than even a good day of going to work.

[Anonymous]

#11305

Des, while I am sure you've missed Amy, you must have enjoyed the run without a pillion. It just frees up a couple more horse and makes cornering a little bit easier.

Actually the ride without her as pillion seems a little empty. We do so many km's together that I rarely do a longer trip without her. She's so light and sits so well on the bike you hardly know she's there till she nods off. lol. Which she did on our Napier trip.I'm throrougly enjoying the Pirelli Corsa III rear. I thought you went a little slow yesterday compared to your usual pace Alex. Those were some interesting roads you took us through. I was looking forward to the two winding bits South of Kawakawa Bay and struck a cue of slower cars and bikes in the beginning of both of them.Those roads through the hills up the Coromandel where the logging trucks have just been with all the trees felled look like a bit of fun.PeterZ I didn't realise you were behind me in the later part of the gorge. I'd slowed for the patches of wet tar and then noticed you in the mirror. How long had you been sitting there? Thanks for suggesting going back through Kawakawa Bay. It was a good ride.So that was you Bruce with Karina, Steven and Jim that I passed at Kawakawa Bay.

[Jim Young]

#11306

Thank you for your kind words Bwucie, I really enjoyed yesterday although the old shoulders were sore this morning after the longer ride, but a physio session improved things.Carina as you say was very competant and a pleasure to ride with so lets hope she joins us again.I also didnt mind the road blocks as the boys in blue were very friendly and aware of the state of the roads, one mentioned to me that when they had finished last week the roads were just running with liquid tar, so take it easy out there folks.Also a big thumbs up for Jimmy for doing the 309 on the K1200S better him than me, and now when he invokes the lemming principal, he should first check which lemmings to follow  🙂

[Dave Morris]

#11307

Mr Bell your mates should be writing reports on how bad the roads are with all the melting tar as well lay grit and signs at these bad spots

Dean maybe next time you go for a ride we could arrange a Police escort for you. They could carry brooms and sweep the stones off the road for you. If ya really lucky at the toilet stops a nice Police man could hold PEPE for you and bring along some 4 ply toilet paper to wipe your ass.or maybe you could do what a prudent rider/driver does, ride to the conditions. 🙄

[Anonymous]

#11308

Mr Bell I have no problems with all road conditions, as you know I can ride a bike well. I'm thinking of other riders and there are some very poor riders out there on bikes whch are too large and too much power.The cope that stopped says our detectors must save us a few tickets 😮 😀This is how good the stop was. One bike had no WOF not checked, another had no licence on him not checked, I asked the question why have you stopped us so I got the full check including breath test non of the other nannies had the full check by the cops 😛You might know the cop he had a tattoo of the out line of NZ on his inside arm.  sideswipe from today!  At least I only got processed once!!!!!! Twenty other like-minded Triumph riders and I set out from Auckland for a relaxed ride to Whangamata for lunch," writes Dave. "On SH25A in the morning and again on SH25 in the afternoon we were stopped at police checkpoints and pulled off the road to be breathalysed and have our driving licences, registrations and warrants checked. We were also lectured on road safety by the ACC, and advised that we should all be wearing reflective vests while riding. Apparently twin headlights that cannot be switched off are not visible enough on their own. Ironic then that the only near miss on the whole trip came on Whitford Rd coming back into Auckland when I was almost sideswiped by a police highway patrol car - the driver not checking the lane was clear before pulling out to overtake. (A prolonged blast on twin air horns and a grab of the brakes averted tragedy.) Perhaps the police force's time and resources could have been better spent training their own members to drive better. To be fair though, she did stop to apologise."May be she could hold my PEPE as she does not know what mirrors are for 😀 This is what my wife said when I advised she wears a nanny vest."Bugger off I look stupid enuf now without standing out by wearing dayglo vests!  I agree, they should be targeting speeding and drink driving or in their case plain stupidity by their own, but it is much more fun to pick on bikers out for a sunny Sunday ride and lecture them on the evils of riding bikes!!!!!!"John Key's speech today says the same. Off with nanny state as well all the nanny laws.http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10547206

[Anonymous]

#11309

Odd fact: every motorcycle organisation I have ever belonged to has a small group of members pathologically opposed to high visibility gear.They are, almost without exception, self-proclaimed good riders. A lot of them sport radar detectors.Here I go again, single-handedly dragging the average riding ability down to the low standard we witness on the road. There's no doubt my riding must be k-wrap. I probably need to buy a radar detector and get rid of my hi-vis (of which I have lots, some for work, some for the pushbike, some for the kayak, some for the car.)

[Dave Ross]

#11310

I have done 100000km on the GS without radar detector or tickets (knock on wood). You've got ride at a speed where you can safely spot the cameras or radars, or something like that, isn't that in the road code?

[Anonymous]

#11311

Odd fact: every motorcycle organisation I have ever belonged to has a small group of members pathologically opposed to high visibility gear.They are, almost without exception, self-proclaimed good riders. A lot of them sport radar detectors.Here I go again, single-handedly dragging the average riding ability down to the low standard we witness on the road. There's no doubt my riding must be k-wrap. I probably need to buy a radar detector and get rid of my hi-vis (of which I have lots, some for work, some for the pushbike, some for the kayak, some for the car.)

How about one for Church it must be an age thing wearing these hi-vis just like long walk shocks and shorts 😮

[Anonymous]

#11312

I have done 100000km on the GS without radar detector or tickets (knock on wood). You've got ride at a speed where you can safely spot the cameras or radars, or something like that, isn't that in the road code?

It must be luck or your wife has slowed you down. You don't need speed just the abilty to ride corners fast. 😎 I've been riding since I was 14 and never had a speeding ticket only a ticket for passing a car who slowed down and pulled over to let me through. I did make the mistake of giving the driver a bit of room and went into the flush centre barrier when this old unhappy cop gave me a ticket for. He even told me I was not speeding. The ticket cost more than speeding whats up with these cops. I did add the cost of the ticket to a cop who wanted some joinery 😀

[Anonymous]

#11313

hi…That was my best ride I had until now in New Zealand  👿 okay okay...it was the first...but thats very much...it was really good...i enyoed it really...and thanks brucie for the good leading 🙂 and the good comment about my driving...i hope i can join you one day again...

[Dave Ross]

#11314

That was my best ride I had until now in New Zealand

Welcome to the forum. We enjoyed having you along. Yes, you are riding confidently and I am sure you'll be used to staying on the left now.Still, it must have been a long and tiring ride for you. After all there was a lot to take in. I suppose being vetted by New Zealand's finest, twice, was just the icing on the cake.Alex

[Anonymous]

#11315

I was not too tired…only my bum hurted very much…or still hurts…a SV is not compareable with a Transalp:-D

[Anonymous]

#11316

Gosh, spirited posts!50hp is plenty for me!  Not too large or too powerful.

[Dave Ross]

#11317

Gosh, spirited posts!50hp is plenty for me!  Not too large or too powerful.

Get Dean to give you some pointers, so you can make the most of these bikes, especially that Beemer needs to be ridden with confidence.

[Anonymous]

#11318

Gosh, spirited posts!50hp is plenty for me!  Not too large or too powerful.

Get Dean to give you some pointers, so you can make the most of these bikes, especially that Beemer needs to be ridden with confidence.

It's been so quite on this site it needs some spirited posts.Barb had 3 cops on there bikes make a right turn in front of her and only one at the rear even bothered to indicate there right turn. She said one almost feel off 😀

[Author]

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