It’s been 5 months since the last decent ride ….so what does a man expect!!?
With it only being 2½ months to the NI1600 I have been mindful of my lack of riding and all the Wgtn Ulysses rides having been cancelled over the last couple of months hasn’t helped much, so when a ride was scheduled for today, I was keen to go, but alas, after working on Saturday, there to were still things I needed to do … and the morning’s weather wasn’t that flash! The ride was supposed to go out via Martinborough – Gladstone to Castlepoint, then back to Tinui for lunch, but I was at work by 0800, by the 1000 departure time I was buried in it, then by 1130 I was thinking “bugger it, I’ve had enough”, but I had more things to do ….so I did the essentials by just after midday then gapped-it for home. After a quick change and pack I figured I might as well do the branch ride, but because the bike had just over half a tank, I figured I’d do it in reverse because, then I could fill in Masterton, probably on the way back from the coast, because filling in Wellington wouldn’t allow me to use my accumulated discounts. Being slack my Sena hadn’t been charged and was flat as a pancake, so I put it on charge in the top-box in the hope it would be charged by the time I needed fuel. …and I left home about 1300. The weather was OK, but looked awful over the Rimutakas, however, as I got closer to Brown Owl, one could see that it was going to be OK (with wet roads but!!), so I took care but made good progress as most of the traffic was heading to Wellington, then the ride up SH2 was uneventful and just after 1400 I was heading out of Te Ore Ore and lifting the pace a little….and that’s when the fun began! It wasn’t long before I felt as if I was tapping the brakes, adjusting lines, over-cooking into corners and generally feeling downright incompetent and uncomfortable. Anyone with half a brain would just slow down a bit and get in the groove …but there’s some dumb bastards out there! After fumbling through the curly bit from Blairlogie to Langdale Rd, I decided I didn’t need to go all the way to the beach, so I turned back to do it again and head back to Masterton for fuel. The ride back was slightly slower and a bit smoother and I had soon filled and was on the back roads through Gladstone, Tablelands and Martinborough, then heading back to Wellington. Funny really because the Tablelands road is probably a part of the staple diet for Wellington riders, but it wasn’t until I was there that I realised how infrequently we tend to go Nth to Sth on the road (a bit like Route 52). By now the wind was up a bit but at least the roads were a lot drier than when I rode over, so more care was required. The traffic wasn’t too bad but I caught a big queue before the top, but made good progress because most were very courteous and made room, but found the inconsiderate twat at the front had an ‘L’ Plate and no idea that if you have 20+ cars behind, it would be nice of you to use the slow bays!!! What a muppet! I hope I scared the crap out of an him/her because I usually give plenty of latitude to L’s, but this dork had no idea and when they went wide on a right hander on the decent and were realigning, I bolted past. On the basis that there was such a big queue, I am assuming they had no spatial awareness and therefore no knowledge of my presence, so me holding my line inside the yellow as they were closing back to it should have scared the bejesus out of them. Looked like they had someone in the passenger seat giving instructions so that made the situation (ie not using the slow bays) even worse. I guess I wasn’t really riding like my Nana’s Nana, because that would probably involve a lot less pace and me causing a queue on the hill and I did have a good ride, but it made me realize I certainly need to do a lot more kms in order to prepare for the NI1600 in October.
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