Question:- Returning Rider any hints ?

A good friend who after a break of 14 years has just decided to re-experience the joy of motorcycling, Before his break he was a good rider but seeing as he'd owned a series of GSXRs before stopping against my varied suggestions he's decided to buy a new GSXR1000K9.

Hes had a couple of short solo rides but tomorrow have promised to take him on a half to 3/4 day ride taking in some of my favorite reasonably close by twisties, now its good to be enthusiastic but hes been a bit fixated on ridding his tires of chicken strips and how fast the new Gixxer accelerates compared to even his last bike a GSXR1100.

When we rode together in the mid late '80s he was the better faster rider then but I have been back riding again for 7 years and advanced riding courses so have had a chance to build my roadcraft back up and the other Sportsbike owning riders he rode with then never stopped. I worry as he is a good long time friend about his choice of bike and it may sound odd but also how keenly he talks about regaining his skills.

Now the question:
Any suggestions on how to handle him, anyone been in a similar situation with a return to biking friend ?

 

Ride report - a great days ride with no drama

Despite the prediction of an overnight thunderstorm with showers in the morning luck was with us upon wakening the weather was absolutely glorious at about 70f. Starting the ride with my friend at 07:00am at the local Gas station outlined a few basics to him.

1) Come home safe.
2) Generally maintain a 2 to 2.5 second gap.
3) Ride at your own pace, if want to go slower do so without pressure if I want to go faster let me go as we had clear meet up points on the other hand if he wanted to go faster, overtake when safe and I'll maintain a 2 sec gap.
4) Enjoy yourself, have fun and safely re-experience the joy of motorcycling again.
5) Lastly and most important come home safe.

With me in the lead the first leg started slow via our close by tight twisties the Royal National Park starting around 4/10s and ending up towards the end at Stanwell Tops at 6/10s, he maintained his 2 sec gap the whole way.

2nd Leg was a dull slab via the Old Highway again without drama.

3rd leg was an early run up Macquarie Pass, Macquarie Pass is a bit short being only about 20 miles but it is all uphill with multiple sets of tight radius on camber corners, very tight switch backs, sinuous short bending straights with fun little mid humps allowing for brief easy to control 2nd gear power rises.

The Pass can be great fun if you get a free run up but if you get stuck behind a bunch of cars behind a slowly climbing Tractor Trailer it is teeth grinding frustrating.

It proved a good idea to start the day early as we had a free run up, even better down below just before the ride up the Red Monster S4(996) ( pictured below ) over took us at the bottom, it took me a little internal debating between riding the Pass with hard charging Duc rider or maintaining an easy pace for my mate but quickly decided to run the Duc down and ride the Pass with him. Presently supprised after watching my mate a few corners in the revision mirrors not doing anything silly to keep up I chased the Duc down and then we had a blissfully car free run up the warm recently resurfaced Mountain Pass.

The guy on the Duc was grinning ear to ear with the words his best run up ever as he pulled his helmet off next to me at the pie shop and my mate on the Gixxer rolled in a scant minute later also grinning from ear to ear happy to ride his own ride. :biggrin:

After a couple of pies at the Famous Robertson pie shop and some cordial discussion with Ducati guy and a supprising remark to me of how fast the VFR leaps out of corners we then had a safe ride home with a fun trafficless return ride via the National Park home safe a little earlier than planned and making our wives happy. :thumbsup: