ho ho oops update and question.

Merry Humbug!!!

Survived the day so far - in fact, I'm full of beans today! Amazing what a
bit of a blat can do for a person's state of mind!

I had 2 goes at the Cotter today. The first one was quite early. I went with
an L-plater friend, and we had the road to ourselves, apart from a little
group of 3 hardy treadleyists who took up the whole road. I believe this is
common on the Cotter loop, and a source of local conflict, most weekends. In
the usual scheme of things, swarms of treadleyists do battle with boy-racers
AND hordes of 4WDers.... It's a war-zone out there, I tell you, and one that
I generally avoid. I know my limitations <grin>.

Today, though, part from being almost deserted, it was so cold that my mate
suggested an early end to the ride, so we didn't get to meet up with Andrew
McK, who had some dramas of his own! I came home, had a hot shower for the
outside and a hot coffee for the inside, put some warmer gear on and headed
back for a second bite of the cherry that is the Cotter.

Last Saturday's wild weather has left a fair bit of debris on the roads, and
most of it seems to accumulate across the twistier corners for some reason -
washes of gravel, chopped up/broken tree branches etc. Still, I was able to
get a little bit more speed up as I wasn't watching out for my L-plater
friend.

I had to share the road, by this time, with the boy-racers who ride the
Cotter every weekend. Familiar with every twist and turn, and every bump on
the road, they fly through the twisties, leaning like the motoGP boys do,
and hitting warp speeds. Which is why I usually avoid the Cotter - I don't
have the skills, the confidence or the sportsbike <grin>.

Being the Kings of the Cotter that they are, they treat the road like a
race-track, often overtaking in places where there just might be oncoming
traffic round the next bend - so they overtake you in your lane, just to be
on the safe side (sheesh!) This brings me to my question, because I think
there must be some law of physics to explain the phenomenon that occurs
next, and I'm wondering what it is. As they go thundering past at warp
speed, they somehow pick you up in their wake and all of a sudden you find
yourself sucked along behind them, travelling at a far higher speed than you
wanted, and oh shit here comes a coooooorner!

Am having a lovely day... my new tyre is well and truly scrubbed-in, and my
chicken strips have shrunk by 50%...

betty

 

Indeed, and the same to you.

That too!

Wish I had had the good sense to go for a ride today.

Instead, I did some typically seasonal things like some grass cutting
and whipper snippering. :-|

Big mistake....

It isn't actually a law of physics involved, but rather to do with
physiology or psychology.

It's the way your eyes and brain decide if you are going fast or not.

If you start out riding in residential areas, with say a 50 kph speed
limit (and assuming you are near enough to the limit!) it feels OK, then
you get to an 80 kph limit, accelerate, and initially it feels like you
are going much faster, but, after a while, it feels pretty slow again.

Onto a highway, up to 110 (or there abouts ;-)) and it feels fast, but,
after a while, it feels slow again.

Now this is all based on sensing speed by the surroundings, and assumes
that the other traffic is going at much the same pace as you, but, when
someone passes you with a fairly high speed differential, it gives you
the immediate sense that you are traveling too slowly, so, even without
a conscious, "I'll have a piece of this" thought, you do speed up.

Good for you.

My day has started to improve once I started on the Coopers.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

That is the most lucid explanation, Cam - thanks heaps! It all makes perfect
sense now. I was starting to worry in case I had a secret hoon tendency, but
figured that couldn't be the case coz I scared myself silly when I realised
I'd become faster - and became slower again as quickly as I could!!!

betty, sending virtual Coopers Cam's way

 

In aus.motorcycles on Tue, 25 Dec 2007 18:05:54 +1100

So, wanna go for a ride on Wed?

<waves keys>

Zebee

 

Merry Humbug to you as well Betty.

Sounds like you had a good day. My day was spent with the outlaws
while they complained about other outlaws that hadn't turned up LOL.
I'm susposed to be packing the car for the trip back from Hobart to
Canberra..... when I get back I might get a chance to go for a
ride ;-)

Cheers
The Happy Drunk

 

Merry Humbug to you as well Betty.

Sounds like you had a good day. My day was spent with the outlaws
while they complained about other outlaws that hadn't turned up LOL.
I'm susposed to be packing the car for the trip back from Hobart to
Canberra..... when I get back I might get a chance to go for a
ride ;-)

Cheers
The Happy Drunk

Safe trip back! Keep those windows shut when driving across Bass Strait.
<snigger>

betty

 

Thanks for the advice Betty I've got the snorkel attached already.

 

Reminds me of a Chrissie, several years ago....

I had asked Angie what she fancied for a chrissie present, and she had
said that she wanted a push bike.

OK, I thought, no probs, so off we went to a bike shop.

Now the next bit is very unclear, but somehow, without intending to, I
ended up buying two matching mountain bikes, one for Angie and one for me.

When we got the bikes home was when I discovered that Angie didn't
actually, as such, know how to ride a bike.

Now, while I may be a bit silly in some things, I love Angie dearly, and
had no stupid idea of me trying to teach her to ride, so I found a
proper professional bike riding instructor and booked her in for lessons.

The lessons were to be done in Centennial Park, over the other side of
Sydney from where we live.

So, with the two bikes loaded in the back of Angie's car, we set off for
C.P. On arrival, I reassemble both bikes, we find the instructor, and
she and Angie disappear off to a quiet corner of the park and I'm left
looking at this new mountain bike.

Now, at this stage, I haven't riden for something over 30 years, but
<shrug> it's like wotsit...you never forget.

Idling round the main circuit of C.P., I'm almost beginning to enjoy
myself, when a trio of matching, Lycra clad, serious road racer types
whirr past me at high speed.

"I'll have a piece of this!" I thought. :-(

Down two gears, seriously up cadence, and after them I go. I got onto
their tail and lasted nearly a third of a lap...well, maybe a quarter of
a lap... before I ran off the track onto the grass and, as they say in
all the best old motorcycle stories, laid the bike down... with me still
attached.

Now, the business of your life flashing before your eyes, when near
death, is just not true.

I just lay there thinking what a fucking stupid way to commit suicide,
cycling into a fatal heart attack.

After about half an hour of just laying there, trying to do simple
things like breathe, I recovered enough to get disentangled from the
bike, stand up, and then head off looking to find where Angie was.

So, the moral of this story is two fold...

Hooning can be _really_ bad for your health.

and, I have a bicycle rack thingy that fastens onto a car's tow bar
which is for sale.

Ta.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Dunno yet....7.45 Wednesday morning.

Angie hasn't told me yet what I'm doing.

...and there is no need to wave keys at me, I'm still not that great at
standing up, and similar high-stress physical things, as to feel capable
of riding such a big beastie.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

In aus.motorcycles on Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:49:59 +1100

Oh dear.

Time for http://www.bikeweb.com/ ?

Zebee

 

Well, it is in my Bookmarks already....

Funnily enough, I dunno if I need something like that yet.

I still manage to feel pretty good riding the Hornet, the Z50 and the
RZ, it's the worry of stopping with someone else's new, large, heavy and
expensive motorcycle that slows me down.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

OK; so you did what all of we over-the-hill males would've been expected to
do in the same circumstance and made a total tit of yourself trying to prove
you've still "got it"...[shrug] big effin;
The question is did Angie learn to ride or not?

 

Goodness! Are we _all_ that stupid?

Nope.

She did a few lessons and, basically got nowhere.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 30 Dec 2007 07:37:23 +1100

From general observation....

What's "learn to ride" when it comes to a pushbike anyway?

Manage to stay upright? Everything else is fitness really.

Oh, OK, staying upright and handling gears, but hey these days you can
buy hub-geared commuter bikes with upright riding positions and flat
bars.

If you *really* want to you can buy proper sit up and beg ones with
skirt guards and all.

Zebee
- who had a sit up and beg bike with skirt guard a very long time
ago. Didn't realise what the netting whatsit on the wheel was as
didn't know anyone who rode a pushy in a skirt.

 

Zebee Johnstone wrote:

Not fall over.

The art of staying upright isn't actually all that easy to teach.

Nor is it that easy for a mature adult to learn.

Wee kids can be taught, and/or can learn it, if they want to learn.

A mature adult _can_, if they are sufficiently motivated, also be taught
how to do it, but it is a lot harder.

The advantages that kids have is that they are relatively comfortable
about trying new things and failing at first, they bounce better than
adults, and, in the worst case, they heal quicker than adults.

You can even get 4 or 7 speed hub gears, with a wee controller which
changes gear automatically.....Shimano make them.

I guess this may be a difficult thing for most of the folk here in
aus.moto to understand, but, for an adult who hasn't learnt how to ride
a pushie, it can be quite a challenge.

The adult in question has to really want to learn, and have the
confidence to cope with the possibilities of falling over.

If any of you think this is not the case, I'd suggest you might like to
write up notes of how, exactly, you'd try and teach someone to ride.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

You start at the top of a really steep hill and let gravity do its duty.

Boxer

 

Ain't THAT the truth!!!

Amen to that as well!

not me!!!!!!

I hear you loud and clear and I'm nodding so hard that my head may fall off
soon.

betty

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 30 Dec 2007 21:26:47 +1100

Yes, I can see that.

THe falling is frightening.

I suspect that a scooting setup with no pedals, ridden on grass, is
the best start, just to get balance working.

Zebee

 

Have to admit, 14 gears in a hub _is_ impressive shoehornery, and sounds
expensive, but it was actually the automatic bit of the Shimano setup
which appealed to me, and was the reason for mentioning it,came from
Zebee's comment about changing gears.

Goodness, that sounds pretty expensive too.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Indeed.

I just had a look and saw two grand as a quoted figure for fitting one
of the units.

Bloody 'ell, I could buy another motorbike for that!

regards,
CrazyCam