Saturday Ride

Today I joined a couple of the E-Riders for an excursion around the North Island. Mostly sealed roads but a number of gravel roads to connect between sealed roads.

Our route:

Richard and Brian came from Wellington and I joined them at Bulls. It was a fantastic day and I learned a lot from Brian about some of the history of the area. I am in awe of Brian. He is 70+ and still riding. It was great for my riding education following Brian and Richard. They have both been riding for a long time (Brian since 1958 .... before I was born).

I learned probably the best thing to help my riding in the twisties. Counter Steering. You want to go right, put pressure on the right grip pushing it away from you, you want to turn left, put pressure on the left grip pushing it away from you.

At first I thought they were taking the piss and just wanted to see me go flying of the side of a hill. (Sorry guys .. :-) ) I tried it on a straight piece of road first, and blow me down if it didn't work.

Try it next time, if you don't already do this.  It immediately smoothed out my cornering and had me going through corners at least 10kph quicker than before. As the corner tightens, apply a bit more pressure. It was like I was on rails.

I will not mention me dropping ..... ahhhh parking my bike laterally when we stopped to look at an old dam. I will not talk about me tearing my hamstring trying to stop it from falling. However, there was no way I was not going to finish the ride. Sitting on the bike was almost pain free, but getting on and off was a bit .... ouchy.

A fantastic ride and I can't wait for next week. BMWOR ride. Just hope the hamstring heals okay. Voltaren, voltaren where fore art though Voltaren .... (sorry  Shakespeare)