Texperkin
Member
This is a great forum to go with my new FZ6S, particularly because I have managed to contact some locals and organised to go for a ride yesterday morning.
I told them that I wasn’t very experienced, didn’t know the roads and was on a new bike so I would be taking it easy. In my own mind I was also riding with unknown personalities. If they weren’t going to be happy with that then I was more than prepared to find someone else to play with however they assured me that it wasn’t a problem. Of course, they were terrific blokes and good riders, both physically and mentally. They were on FZ6s weren’t they?
We met at the Yamaha at Enoggera (Brisbane) at 8am yesterday morning and I was gratified and worried to see that one guy turned up on a new ZZR250 (like my old one). Gratified because its obviously not as fast as the FZ6 so that might set the pace a bit slower, but worried because maybe the reason he was riding it was because he’d just got his provisional licence back after losing it through speeding. I was also worried because the four of us we were going to go up Mount Glorious.
You can’t find a road in Brisbane that has claimed more lives than Mt Glorious. Its about 50km of one-lane mountain track which has variable lighting conditions, variable temperature, sudden stretches of wet road and unexpected gravel. Its full of hairpins, split levels and 90 degree drop-offs centimetres away from the road. Pretty much ideal conditions if you want to die on a bike. This is of course why its so popular. On a nice day, you get hundreds of bikes up there testing their machines and themselves, a lot of them ignoring the signs that say “people have died on this stretch of road” under a picture of a motorbike.
Knowing all this but also knowing that things are very unlikely to go wrong as long as you’re riding within your limits, I was up for it….. and had a great time. These guys obviously knew their bikes and the road better than me, but they seemed happy with my pace. I slotted into second place with the ZZR bringing up the rear until we reached the summit where we all stopped to wait for the ZZR who was by then about 5 minutes behind. He of course was having a great time anyway. I kept the lead bike in sight for most of the time which meant that he wasn’t pushing too hard. I had the 3rd bike behind me the whole way but not too close. He told me at the top that he was thinking about passing so I told him I wasn’t worried if he did. After regrouping at the top, the other 2 FZ6s lead out and the ZZR came along behind me.
The downhill stretch was a lot of fun, especially when the road straightened up and I could twist wrist. At one point as I was trying to get around a ute (but not too close - you don’t know what can fly out of the back of a truck) the road straightened right up across a valley and you could see for about a km. No oncoming vehicles so I opened up. I may have been going a little fast to get around the ute but I’m also breaking my bike in so I didn’t get anywhere near 200kph!
The other side of the mountain is really beautiful Australian country. I’ll get some pics up shortly but when we stopped for a break I thought that if I’d bought a book with me I would have been happy to stay there for a few hours just taking it all in.
Me and one of the FZ6s said farewell to the other FZ6 and the ZZR and started heading back the way we’d come with him leading out. We passed a group of sports bikes who were just suiting up after their break. One of the things I love about biking is that everyone acknowledges everyone else. A quick nod and a return nod or wave. They were up behind us in seconds. I let them through one after the other… ‘wave’, ‘nod’….. however they were going too fast for conditions. I was expecting to see one of them smeared across the road up ahead (not this time). I don’t really care how good a rider you are, but I saw the last one in their group take my friend on the outside around a blind corner. I’m pretty sure he drifted over the other side of the road and would have been toast if there were an on-coming vehicle. All these signs everywhere and knowing what everyone knows about this road and the warnings go unheeded.
It got me thinking – is it speed that kills or ego? Of course speed is the symptom, but if you’re doing something stupid you can die in first gear. Go fast if you must, but stay safe. Don’t touch the other side of the road, always maintain control, be aware of your surroundings, the road conditions and your own mental state and ride accordingly. Even after years of riding, all it takes is one mistake and you’re at risk. Like I said, I had great fun on the weekend because I kept to my own limits and everyone with me also had the right attitude. No one was trying to keep up or push anyone else and we regrouped on several occasion.
Speed doesn’t kill – attitude does.
I told them that I wasn’t very experienced, didn’t know the roads and was on a new bike so I would be taking it easy. In my own mind I was also riding with unknown personalities. If they weren’t going to be happy with that then I was more than prepared to find someone else to play with however they assured me that it wasn’t a problem. Of course, they were terrific blokes and good riders, both physically and mentally. They were on FZ6s weren’t they?
We met at the Yamaha at Enoggera (Brisbane) at 8am yesterday morning and I was gratified and worried to see that one guy turned up on a new ZZR250 (like my old one). Gratified because its obviously not as fast as the FZ6 so that might set the pace a bit slower, but worried because maybe the reason he was riding it was because he’d just got his provisional licence back after losing it through speeding. I was also worried because the four of us we were going to go up Mount Glorious.
You can’t find a road in Brisbane that has claimed more lives than Mt Glorious. Its about 50km of one-lane mountain track which has variable lighting conditions, variable temperature, sudden stretches of wet road and unexpected gravel. Its full of hairpins, split levels and 90 degree drop-offs centimetres away from the road. Pretty much ideal conditions if you want to die on a bike. This is of course why its so popular. On a nice day, you get hundreds of bikes up there testing their machines and themselves, a lot of them ignoring the signs that say “people have died on this stretch of road” under a picture of a motorbike.
Knowing all this but also knowing that things are very unlikely to go wrong as long as you’re riding within your limits, I was up for it….. and had a great time. These guys obviously knew their bikes and the road better than me, but they seemed happy with my pace. I slotted into second place with the ZZR bringing up the rear until we reached the summit where we all stopped to wait for the ZZR who was by then about 5 minutes behind. He of course was having a great time anyway. I kept the lead bike in sight for most of the time which meant that he wasn’t pushing too hard. I had the 3rd bike behind me the whole way but not too close. He told me at the top that he was thinking about passing so I told him I wasn’t worried if he did. After regrouping at the top, the other 2 FZ6s lead out and the ZZR came along behind me.
The downhill stretch was a lot of fun, especially when the road straightened up and I could twist wrist. At one point as I was trying to get around a ute (but not too close - you don’t know what can fly out of the back of a truck) the road straightened right up across a valley and you could see for about a km. No oncoming vehicles so I opened up. I may have been going a little fast to get around the ute but I’m also breaking my bike in so I didn’t get anywhere near 200kph!
The other side of the mountain is really beautiful Australian country. I’ll get some pics up shortly but when we stopped for a break I thought that if I’d bought a book with me I would have been happy to stay there for a few hours just taking it all in.
Me and one of the FZ6s said farewell to the other FZ6 and the ZZR and started heading back the way we’d come with him leading out. We passed a group of sports bikes who were just suiting up after their break. One of the things I love about biking is that everyone acknowledges everyone else. A quick nod and a return nod or wave. They were up behind us in seconds. I let them through one after the other… ‘wave’, ‘nod’….. however they were going too fast for conditions. I was expecting to see one of them smeared across the road up ahead (not this time). I don’t really care how good a rider you are, but I saw the last one in their group take my friend on the outside around a blind corner. I’m pretty sure he drifted over the other side of the road and would have been toast if there were an on-coming vehicle. All these signs everywhere and knowing what everyone knows about this road and the warnings go unheeded.
It got me thinking – is it speed that kills or ego? Of course speed is the symptom, but if you’re doing something stupid you can die in first gear. Go fast if you must, but stay safe. Don’t touch the other side of the road, always maintain control, be aware of your surroundings, the road conditions and your own mental state and ride accordingly. Even after years of riding, all it takes is one mistake and you’re at risk. Like I said, I had great fun on the weekend because I kept to my own limits and everyone with me also had the right attitude. No one was trying to keep up or push anyone else and we regrouped on several occasion.
Speed doesn’t kill – attitude does.
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