Stave Falls ride

This is really it for my 2011 riding

Just as I thought I already had my final ride of 2011, there was still one bright and sunny Sunday morning allowing me a bonus ride! With the insurance on my Ninja 250R expiring in couple days, this has got to be it of my first riding season. It is time to prepare for storage months.

It has been a wonderful 5-month riding experience from never having been on a motorcycle at the beginning of the course to now with 2000+ km of riding on my very own motorcycle :) The upcoming rainy seasons will be dark and will feel long at times, but that will only make welcoming the next riding season that much better!

Spent more time riding than taking photos!  Just a quick snapshot at a short stopover.

End of the bonus ride.  Topping up with zero-ethanol stuff ready for some Stabil soon.

Another sunny September Sunday perfect for riding

Visited another new spot in my first year of riding, another water front location at a nearby suburb area.

 

 

Returning to where it all started... for my riding days.

As I am still trying to not yet repeat any full route I have gone on, I found myself riding on some highway stretches that lead me back to where it all started for my riding days.  The wonderful Pacific Riding School where I learned my skills as a safe and confident rider :D

PRS is a great riding school!!

A class in session at the lot across the street

No, I did NOT help my Ninja with any free gas :D

2-part ride

After couple of fairly busy weekends, managed to fit in a short but fun 2-part ride this Sunday afternoon :D

Part 1
Took to the nearby highway and bridge crossings.  I think I "invented" a fun little route taking me to less traveled areas, complete with sweeping curves on wide open highway ramps and quiet main roads (not busy on Sundays!) with modest twists.

Part 2
On the return leg, swung over to pick up some items for the pantry.  This small tank bag can be a handy grocery bag too! 

Just sauces and stuff for the pantry

Completing a Sunday hat trick

Thoroughly enjoyed F1 German GP this morning then the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca in the afternoon, wrapped it all up by taking an early evening ride up a local mountain visiting a familiar place.  No I didn't try to imitate Stoner or Lorenzo, I ride sensibly and safely on the roads :D

Added another 100km seat time alongside a buddy

This Sunday, I finally met up with a buddy visiting from hundreds of kilometers away.  We picked the perfect time for our ride as it stayed dry - dry enough for most of the time anyway.  Here are some snapshots after our moderate ride covering ~100km round trip.

A pair of bikes at opposite ends of performance scale :D

It's all accessorized for long road trip storage

Looks as beautiful as it is comfortable!

1198cc of goodness

Nice looking tailpipes

1st group ride since "graduating"

Today I went on my 1st group ride (link to forum post) since "graduating" from PRS and completing my class 6 license.  What an experience!!  I must say it felt pretty cool to be one of the group riders that people were turning head to look at (some may be haters, but who cares LOL)

I was in awe with so many bikes and riders there at the starting meet location; only to be told that while it was a good turn-out but there have been and will be bigger attendance in group rides!  It's so exciting to see and hear all the cool bikes, I am glad I wasn't too excited and was able to ride safely :p

Even though I didn't ride the entire route (I did ~80% [correction: more like 65% in ride time] before departing at a pre-determined spot), the parts that I rode were already great; with some types of routes I had yet to experience before!  So far on all the solo rides that I have done, I did mostly open highway plus short distances on suburb residential streets getting on/off the highway.  Today, it was open highway: same stretch I have done prior, so no biggie, it was a nice warm-up; then some moderate twisties around the West edge of the city... next up, through the heart of downtown core... the busy intersections could get intense but that was all nice and good.

The next big highlight was some more twisties uphill and downhilll, fairly narrow at parts... one lane each direction.  I have never even driven a car through that part of town, so I was in for a bit of a surprise while winding my way through them.  I am sure I could have done better (i.e. smoother, NOT faster) and caused less worries for the tail rider (whom I still have to id and contact to thank!) in my group; but overall I really enjoyed it and fairly pleased with how I rode.  I will be back to ride that stretch and be better and better at it!

Rider visiting autox

June 12 was the 3rd sunny Sunday in a row before Summer even officially began.  That was too good to pass up, so I rode out to a local autox event.  It was also the first time using my tank bag carrying a smallish DSLR for some autox photos.  That trip added 86 km to my riding experience, it was a nice day!

Two of the fine sports cars by Honda

Another nice Sunday (2011 June 5th) for some good riding!

Rode around not too far from home and overall did about 40km on some fairly quiet open roads with some moderate twisties, even some good elevation changes too :)

One of the checkpoints was a newly developed industrial park area with nice wide open access roads and empty parking lots with brand new asphalt, so here are couple pictures under the sun.

Did some practice "panic" braking in a wide open empty lot (trucks all parked)

Went and did a hang-out at McD for a $1 soft drink