Riding Gold
Travel Info > Motorcycling in NZ > “Riding Gold”
It is starting to get reasonably cold in May but once the heated grips started on the GSX-S750 you couldn’t tell. As the twists of the road lead me back to Christchurch from Arthurs Pass, I reflected on my training on the Gold Ride Forever course with Wayne from Ornsby Motorcycle Training. The obvious consideration is that motorcycling is more than just riding a bike; it’s an experience I want to last a lifetime.
In New Zealand, there are motorcycle rider training courses that are heavily subsidised by the New Zealand government (via motorcycle registration fees) to help riders improve their skills on the road and ultimately reduce rider harm.
Key takeaways of the Gold Ride Forever course
Practice the essentials: Getting into bad habits is something that every motorcyclist can be guilty of. The course was a good opportunity to touch on those often-forgotten basics that we should be practicing, such as emergency braking. Try emergency braking next time you’re out on your bike - try it in the rain too, you never know when you need to suddenly stop. It’s simple - look where you want to go, close the throttle, progressively (and rapidly) apply rear then front brake and finally clutch in, with the left foot out to catch yourself.
Positioning: Create a safety cushion around the bike with space and time to react or evade. This means remaining conscious of the risks on the road, how visible (or invisible) you are, and where the risks might be hiding (considering sun-strike in the winter months, for example), then ensuring that you position yourself in a place that should minimise the chance of getting into trouble.
Ride a bike you’re comfortable riding: As a younger rider on a sports bike, you often find yourself lumped into certain stereotypes. Half the group of older riders, (all on their 1 litre+ BMW’s) expected me to show up in a singlet and jandals and to do a wheelie as I left the car park. The same was true in reverse, I was expecting these older men to run circles around me with handling prowess that would make Marquez blush. But I was surprised that a lot of them looked like Bambi doing basic low-speed handling; nearly witnessing a few car park drops. Some of this was probably due to riding a bike they weren’t comfortable on. Consciously practicing and reflecting on your motorcycling can go a long way to improving your comfort on a bike - try taking your bike to a local have-a-go-day track day to build confidence.
Massive credit goes out to our instructor for the day: Wayne. I can only imagine the number of times the instructors repeat themselves when delivering these courses, but he was engaging, entertaining, and offered plenty of riding wisdom.
So cheers to a good day’s riding. Ride on! 🤘🏼
