Michelin Road 5 end of life review

Front Michelin Road 5 @ 10,400 km

Rear Michelin Road 5 @ 10,400 km

Tyre choice can be a contentious issue as it's so dependent on intended end use and personal preference in terms of "feel".  Add in the other relevant factors such as tyre pressures, weather conditions, ambient temperatures, road surface, bike suspension and geometry, all up weight etc and decision-making can become overwhelming.  

Since retirement in 2008, we've lived on NZ's Coromandel Peninsula which is a road rider's paradise with highly technical twisty roads (look up the Coromandel Loop on YouTube!) with a road surface mainly composed of a coarse chip surface on the western side and smoother seal on the eastern side.  During that time, I've owned a Honda Blackbird, Triumph Street Triple, Suzuki GSX-S1000 and a KTM 790 Duke.  For the last 10 years, I've also been heavily involved with NZ branch of the UK Institute of Advanced Motorists.  Being fully retired also means that commuting has been taken out of the equation as riding has just been for fun and advanced rider mentoring with IAM.  What I'm getting at is that for a good many years, I've ridden a number of bikes under pretty much identical conditions with different brands and types of tyre which is useful for comparative purposes.

There are numerous tyre reviews in this blog but summarising, my preference has been for sport touring tyres as I ride in all weather conditions and cover up to 20,000 km a year.  The Suzuki and KTM came equipped with Dunlop and Maxxis pure sport tyres respectively and they were awful things for my intended use.  Firstly, in colder or wet conditions, it was nigh on impossible to generate sufficient heat for decent grip.  I had some butt-clenching slides when riding appropriately to the conditions and both bikes were also equipped with traction control.  One was when the front end let go and that was seriously scary.  The second factor is the life of a pure sport tyre.  For the environment I ride in, both brands of tyre were stuffed by 3500 km!  A good way of going bankrupt over my annual distance.  As long as a tyre delivers around 10,000 km, I'm a happy camper.  Actual tyre price is irrelevant as  performance (longevity and grip) is the only consideration.

In more recent years and in terms of sport touring tyres, I've used the Metzler Roadtec 01, the Bridgestone T31 and the Michelin Road 5.  All of these tyres gave the grip I was looking for over a wide range of weather conditions but it's worth mentioning where there were notable differences. 

The Roadtec 01 was a good tyre and the full review is HERE .  Two sets fitted to the Suzuki with the same result. Excellent grip in all conditions and a good life.  The rear hoop retained its profile well but the front noticeably started to lose its shape from about 7000-8000 km onward, developing flats on the outer part of the tyre. (A triangular or wedge profile).  Undoubtedly, countersteering and the type of roads I ride on contributed to this but the bike also had good aftermarket suspension set up by renowned guru Dave Moss so the front end wear characteristic was a little disappointing.  I should have replaced the front earlier than my normal habit of replacing both at the same time.

I also had Road 5's on the Suzuki.  In terms of performance, they delivered everything I wanted, including a faster turn-in than the 01's due to a sharper profile.  Unfortunately, I had a series of punctures including a destroyed rear hoop at 2000 km. I'm fairly certain that it was sheer bad luck as opposed to a tyre shortcoming but as I sold the bike not long afterwards, a longer term evaluation wasn't possible. However, I have occasionally seen comments from other owners around the world about "above average frequency" punctures.  Just something to file in the back of the mind.

After buying the KTM 790 and the poor experience with the OEM Maxxis pure sport tyres, I tried a pair of the Bridgestone T31 sport touring tyres as they had good reviews. Hmmm..... do motorcycle magazine reviews truly reflect everyday road performance over a representative period of time?  I suspect not.  Again, grip was satisfactory in all conditions but the front tyre developed a pronounced triangular/wedge profile from about 6000 km onwards.   At 8500 km, the profile was so bad that handling was adversely affected and both tyres were changed for a set of Road 5's.

The T31 front tyre at 8500 km

The Road 5's on the KTM have just clocked up 10,400 km and although it would be possible to legally squeeze more out of them before reaching the wear bar indicators, I'll get them replaced as soon as the 320 km round trip to my dealer can be made.  In a nutshell, they've been absolutely superb.  Outstanding grip in all conditions and equally importantly, they have pretty much retained their profile throughout with no noticeable loss in handling.

Front profile @ 10,400 km

In the following photo, the roughened part of the tyre is the outer soft compound and the wear bar indicator is about 0.5mm below the tyre surface.  The tread block with the sharp entry just to the right of the indicator is lifting slightly due to tearing.  This is occurring round the full circumference of the tyre but is so minor that it doesn't affect the handling.

Front tyre wear at the junction between the softer edge compound and harder centre

The rear tyre shown below has retained an excellent profile throughout the 10,000km+ life. If more time had been spent on straighter roads, the expectation would presumably be for a less-rounded profile.

Excellent profile at 10,400 km

In the photo below, a small amount of raised "feathering" can be seen in the soft compound at the rear of the large rain groove.  It doesn't affect the handling at all and has only become noticeable in the last 1000-2000km.  The most likely cause is less than optimal rebound damping as the OEM White Power shock on the KTM doesn't have the adjustability features of a high end one such as Ohlins, Penske, Nitron etc.  Nonetheless, the bike handles superbly and as the feathering is minor, no action is required at present.  For normal road riding, front tyre pressure is around 34 psi and the rear is 37-38 psi.

A small degree of feathering on the rear of the large rain groove

In summary, the Michelin Road 5 delivers everything required for the type of riding I currently do and the next set will be a straight replacement.  There are relatively few poor tyres on the market unless we buy some virtually unknown dodgy brand in pursuit of false economy.  I'd go further and say that most of us (and most certainly me) will run out of talent long before shortcomings in any of the major brands become apparent.  The real trick is to figure out what type (not brand) of tyre you need in the first place.  However, as I hope this blog post shows, there can be considerable differences in how long tyres of the same general type (e.g sport touring) lasts overall and how well they retain their profile.  I'm just glad that the Road 5 is a perfect fit for the KTM and the type of riding I do.

Oh and by the way, good suspension will really extend your tyre life.  I fitted a top of the line Penske on my Blackbird plus upgraded fork internals.  Gained nearly 2000 km from a set of tyres.

In search of more traction

In March, I made a post about attending a suspension clinic by internationally-renowned guru Dave Moss.  It involved riding about 150 km and tweaking the suspension every time we stopped.  The improvement was a significant step change but Dave remarked at the time that there's only so much you can do with a Suzuki OEM rear shock.  Having fitted high end units to my previous two bikes, I was aware that despite the improvement, there was more to come.

The Suzuki has now covered getting on for 45,000 km and the decline in compression and rebound damping was becoming noticeable, even to this old codger.  Keeping contact with the road in even moderately adverse conditions is a safety issue as well as a performance one.  Time to look at a replacement, especially with a 71st birthday coming up in mid October.  That's Jennie's present to me solved, haha!

On the Blackbird, I fitted a US-made Penske shock and new fork internals.  On the Street Triple, it  was a UK-made Nitron shock.  The NZ supplier was KSS in New Plymouth who have a second to none reputation for service so it was a no-brainer to go back to them.  A couple of emails back and forth to establish my type of riding, loaded bike weight and so on and an order was placed for another Nitron, custom made to my requirements.  I didn't need to go for a separate remote as my riding loads and conditions don't vary by much.

This beauty turned up a few days ago:

Yumm.... bike porn

I have an ABBA stand (link HERE ) which makes working on the bike a piece of cake.  A fellow IAM member and GSX-S owner (thanks Blair!) gave me some time-saving tips and the old shock was removed, the new one bolted in and sag measurements taken in under 2 hours.  The only minor annoyance was having a retaining shim drop out of the rear brake caliper during disassembly and not seeing where it came from!  However, it became obvious during reassembly so not too much damage to the ego.

Goes nicely with the matte grey of the bike

Seriously nice engineering

Static and loaded sag came nicely within tolerance so no preload adjustment required.  Next step was to check compression and rebound on the road.  A quick trip over the Coromandel Range was just the job as I know every hollow, bump and truck ripple on that road. 

Western side of the Coromandel Range- riding heaven!

Even though I was expecting a better performance from the new shock compared with the OEM one, it still came as a surprise as to just how good it was.  The degeneration of old suspension and tyres come to that is imperceptible so that just adds to the surprise.  Leaned over whilst riding over truck ripples on corners was almost like they weren't there.  In adverse conditions such as wet roads, that's got to be a major safety improvement by maintaining good road contact.  In addition to better handling, an increase in tyre life can be expected based on past experience.  Less fatigue on a long haul too.

If there is any downside, it's drawn my attention to the front forks.  The standard forks aren't too bad, especially after Dave Moss set them up.  However, some RaceTech internals would be a further nice improvement if I decide to keep the bike long term.  Just coming up for 3 years of ownership.  The low throttle fuelling was so bad from new that it nearly got sold in the first 3 months of ownership.  However, Suzuki NZ came to the party by fitting a different ECM at their cost and that solved the problem.  Since then, I've grown to really like the bike, but still don't have the emotional attachment that I had with the Street Triple.

Thanks KSS for your great service and a product which really delivers.  You might see me for some new fork internals in due course!

Parked up at the Whangapoua Harbour boat ramp on the test ride

Finally, on a loosely connected note, the Michelin Road 5's are working out just fine in both dry and wet conditions.  In the photo below, the band of soft compound rubber out towards the edge of the tyre can be clearly seen,  Initially, the lack of tread towards the edge worried me with respect to how effective they would be when leaned over in wet conditions.  I needn't have worried!  A few weeks ago, I was examining an IAM Trainee Observer (instructor) for his full test in near-biblical rainfall.  He's a quick rider, racing and road riding in all conditions and I was concerned about how the Road 5's would fare in those conditions.  As it happened, they stuck like glue - not an anxious moment even when "making progress".  Totally sold on their overall performance and I'll do a full review in due course.

Soft compound band of outer tyre can be clearly seen

A slight problem and a bit of innovation

The phrase "silly bugger" isn't one that springs to mind as an endearment from one's lifetime love although most males the world over would have been on the receiving end of similar words at one time or another.  However, in this instance, I must agree that Jennie's words were well-chosen.

Last week, I was getting ready to waterblast the top of our neighbour's driveway as it gets mossy and slippery with the absence of winter sun. I retrieved the waterblaster from the workshop and squeezed past the rear of our 4x4.  In a moment of stupid inattention, my calf connected with some force on the end of the towbar.  When I could speak again, the air turned blue.

I knew I was in trouble when the leg began to swell with a big haematoma starting to appear.  Having had an internal leg bleed a few years ago, it was straight into the RICE routine with an ice pack and sitting on the settee with my leg up.

The next few days were purgatory, not being able to do much - can't abide sitting about and I always seemed to be in Jennie's way.  The pain wasn't too bad but the swelling made things a bit stiff, especially with the technicolour bruising starting to come out.

Owwww....

As per the Joni Mitchell lyrics "You don't know what you've got until it's gone....", not being out on two wheels or doing anything else productive was causing some intense frustration bordering on depression in the darker moments as the weather has been pretty good.  As I'd already had to cancel some ride coaching and with August and September looking as busy as heck, getting back on the bike was a priority.  More well-chosen words from Jennie but when you're passionate about something......

Gingerly getting on the bike for an experimental sit went fine.  A bit of stiffness getting my foot on the peg but relatively comfortable.  However, the real worry was accidentally knocking the haematoma and making making the damage a whole lot worse. What to do?  Some form of good protection was needed, with various ideas being considered and rejected.  The degree of eye-rolling by one's wife is a good litmus test of practicality.  Then bingo!  Went rummaging in the closet for an old riding jacket and pulled the CE elbow armour from one of the sleeves.  An absolutely perfect fit over my calf and only minor eye-rolling from the boss.  How about this.......

Made for the job!

The question of securing it in place still needed resolving.  Direct taping to the leg wasn't a good option as the screams from pulling duct tape off a hairy leg would be heard in the next town.  Solution - tape it to a pair of long johns!  With the problem solved, it was time to kit up and give it a try.  I must admit that I was quite apprehensive for a while and my riding wasn't particularly fluid for the first 20 minutes or so.  After that, muscle memory overtook the apprehension and enjoying the beautiful sunny day along the coast road became the overriding emotion.

Parking up for a few minutes after around 40 minutes of riding, it was a pleasant surprise to find that I hadn't stiffened up and wasn't in any real discomfort - awesome!  Same at the end of the ride home.

Bike, sun and sparkling water - doesn't get much better than this

Not another person in sight!

Jennie thinks I'm stupid to be riding so soon and she may have a point.  However, it raises an interesting question about the positive impact of mental well-being on physical recovery as long as it's not taken to extremes.  The ride certainly lifted my mental state.  On the other hand, ageing does have an effect on the rate that the body heals so maybe over the next year, it will be time to retire from IAM and just do some social riding on a different sort of bike.  At least I've got a fall-back position in terms of our boat and travel to keep occupied if I cut down or stop altogether.

To finish on a different note, regular readers will have seen various tyre end of life reviews on this blog.  The Suzuki came equipped with Japanese-developed 50 profile Dunlop D214 Sportmax pure sport tyres.  Horrible things.  Grip was ok in hot, dry conditions but in cooler conditions or in the wet they were lethal.  At the most sensitive traction control setting, the TC light was always coming on in corners, even in the dry.  The rear tyre only lasted 3700 km and it was a relief to replace them.  Many owners went for one of the big brand sport touring tyres to get more life and 55 profile to get a better rate of turn-in and a larger contact patch when leaned over.  

The anticipated gains were achieved and the traction control light rarely, if ever comes on.  It bothered me a bit in case going to a different profile tyre had inadvertently affected the TC calibration so belatedly, I recently emailed Suzuki NZ to query the effect.  They responded quite quickly saying that tyre profile made no difference as the traction control had a self-checking function every time the ignition was turned on.  This confirms that the 55 profile sport touring tyres which many riders fitted do give better grip.  However, at the end of the reply from Suzuki, they gave the standard "corporate-speak" (or arse-covering if you prefer) caution about the adverse impact of fitting non-standard tyres.  I don't really have too much of an issue with them doing this for legal reasons but is supplying a new bike from a Japan with a set of tyres (D214's) which are manifestly "unfit for purpose" in many parts of the world where weather conditions are so variable a less responsible thing to do?   I did email back politely querying this and predictably didn't get a response as it's a difficult topic bound up with corporate supply policies.  I suppose that the moral of the story is to do as much research as you're able with respect to tyre choices as you won't necessarily get the full story from your bike or tyre supplier.  

This doesn't mean that Suzuki NZ are by any means deaf to their customers.  Readers may remember that when I first got the bike, it snatched badly at low throttle openings.  When I got in touch about the problem, Suzuki replaced the ECU with another type at their cost which solved the problem.  They even offered to let me have a trackday ride on the GSX-S 1000 race bike which they prepared for visiting US journalist Don Canet.  As generous as the offer was, that was a bridge too far for me!

Addendum:

A 400 km outing today to take a rider out for his Roadcraft Advanced Test.  The rider passed and I completed the ride pretty comfortably with the armour protection in place.  Need to take sensible precautions but yayyyyyy....... I can ride again!

A smiling Blair, who passed his Advanced Test today!

Tyres and other stuff

It's been a busy few days for this old fella!  Last Sunday saw an IAM ride in wet and often torrential conditions.  Not the most enjoyable environment but it's good practice riding in adverse conditions whilst making progress to keep us sharp.  Tony, one of our Trainee Observers (mentors) is getting to the pointy end of his training so getting him and a new Associate out in challenging conditions keeps everyone honest.

Yours truly from Tony's Go Pro - rain, rain go away......

The ride went surprisingly well with no anxious moments and all our rain gear did its job with no leaks.  I gave my Cordura gear a wash recently with Nikwax Tech Wash and TX.Direct Wash-in and those two products do a great job of rejuvenating riding gear.  I've used Tech Wash previously on hiking jackets etc but never previously used the two products in combination.  Don't know how long it will last but extremely impressed.

Great for Cordura/Gore-Tex-type riding gear

Tony (Yamaha Tracer) and Jim (Honda ST 1300) at the coffee stop

On Tuesday, it was an early start to the city of Hamilton 160 km away for a routine service and new tyres.  The last 2 sets of tyres on the Suzuki have been Metzler Roadtec 01's.  On both occasions, useful life has been about 11,000 km.  Whilst there is still some reasonable tread left on both tyres, the front 01 goes out of shape and the bike tends to drop in rather than roll into tight corners.  False economy to wring every last km out of such critical bits of equipment so both always get changed at the same time.

Metzler Roadtec 01 front tyre at ~11000 km

Metzler Roadtec 01 rear tyre at ~11000 km - kept its shape quite well

Even with the front tyre going out of shape, they're a superb tyre and grip well in all conditions from torrential rain to a trackday in hot conditions.  I would have happily replaced them with an identical set but more on that in a minute.

Arriving at Boyd Motorcycles, they were waiting for me and the bike was whisked off into the service bay pretty much as soon as I got off it.  Great staff who try and get me back on the road as soon as possible as they know it's just over 2 hours to get home.  Only had time for a quick peek in their showroom as a friend was picking me up rather than hanging about at the dealer,  However, I liked the BMW R9T cafe racer in the photo below.  Not sure how comfortable it would be on a long haul though.

BMW R9 Cafe Racer in the foreground

The service and new tyres took about 4 hours which was pretty good.  The replacements are the new Michelin Road 5's, the successor to the PR3's and 4's which I've previously used on various bikes and liked; especially wet weather performance.  The switch away from the Metzlers is pure curiosity.

Having been been released relatively recently, the pricing is still pretty sharp, presumably to gain market share.  There's a host of technical differences compared with both their predecessors as well as the Roadtec 01.  The most obvious visual difference is that the design more resembles their pure sport tyres than the PR3's and 4's with a high crown and a tread pattern which stops a long way short of the tyre edge - see below.

Michelin Road 5 front tyre

Michelin Road 5 rear tyre

Preliminary magazine road tests suggest that it's a superb all round sport touring tyre and outstanding in the wet.  This is somewhat comforting because that lack of tread out towards the edge is a slight worry.  I just hope that the design brief to the French engineers wasn't " Nobody leans a bike zat far in ze wet, so no tread is needed.  If anyone does, well, merde......".  Well I do, given half a chance so "merde" indeed!  I'm sure that the compound  takes care of that problem (he says hopefully).

Although the Suzuki came with 50 profile tyres, I've gone for 55 profile again for quicker turn-in and a bigger contact patch when leaned over.  Michelin's marketing department are a bit vague on expected tyre life compared with its predecessors but from experience, they speak with forked tongue anyway.  The claim was that PR4's lasted 20% longer than PR3's but from personal experience, there was absolutely no difference.

It's far too early to make any objective comments about performance, not wanting to skate along on my arse on the delivery trip home.  That will have to wait until they are properly scrubbed in.  If they are as good as the Metzler 01's, last for a minimum of 10,000 km and are trustworthy at pace in the wet, I'll be a happy camper!

The ride home was one of those which are truly good for the soul.  No time constraints, beautifully warm and because it was late afternoon, very little traffic on the road.  New tyres meant not treating the road like a personal race track whch meant that I could chill and enjoy the spectacular views along 50 km of coast road.  Arriving in Coromandel at sunset, I pulled up at the wharf which is just a few hundred metres from our home on the ridge in the following photo.

 Sunset on Coromandel town wharf

Aren't days like this what we live for?  Good for the soul indeed and out fishing in the boat tomorrow.  This retirement business isn't too bad at all!

A most excellent week!

Definitely one of the busier weeks for this old geezer!

Last weekend was the Institute of Advanced Motorists annual conference and AGM being held at Lake Taupo in the central north island of NZ, about 270 km from where I live.  For members who fancied a bit of speed without red and blues and sirens behind them, there was also a trackday on offer on the Friday at the nearby Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park - the full international circuit no less!  I was certainly up for that!

Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park - 3.3km international circuit (stock photo)

Riding down the previous afternoon, it was wet with lots of roadworks but the morning of the trackday dawned sunny and warm - wonderful!  After scrutineering, we set up in a pit garage, dropped tyre pressures from road settings, taped the mirrors and waited for the briefing and first session.

The Suzuki ready to rock, with Alan's BMW 1200GT in the background

Terry's Aprilia Tuono and Graham's RSV 4 - yumm.....

The first session was taken relatively easy whilst riders learned the track, sorted out braking markers and so on.  All accomplished with no dramas.  From then on, it was all go, with progressively larger throttle openings held open for longer!  My road-going fuel consumption is generally between 5 - 5.3lt per 100 km and on the track it was between 8-9 lt per 100 km!

Alan on the 1200 GT and I were pretty evenly matched.  He'd been to the California Superbike School and was really impressive in the tight infield whereas I was faster on the sweepers and straights.  At 230 km/hr down the back straight, neither of us wanted to give an inch and all I'll say is thank goodness for ABS whilst scrubbing off enough speed to make the next turn!

 70 year old hooligan having the time of his life! (official photo)

Working hard to stay on the right line! (photo: Barry Holland)

Sticking it to a Gixxer rider who is on the wrong line!  (photo: Barry Holland)

Over 160km/hr down the short pit straight (photo: Barry Holland)

The Metzler Roadtec 01's stood up pretty well considering......

The following morning, there was a presentation on electric vehicles which completely changed my ill-informed views!  IAM member Wendy brought along her recently purchased Tesla Model S which has a 0-100km/hr time of about 4 seconds and was beautifully appointed.

Wendy's Tesla - get the number plate?

A local dealer brought along a Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe.  Both were surprisingly quick off the line and handled brilliantly.  The lack of noise made them even more impressive.  Running and maintenance costs were incredibly low and with ever-decreasing battery costs and increasing range, they're now a serious consideration, particularly as a commuting or round town vehicle.  A mate of mine has one for commuting and saves $100 per week on gas!

Lloyd hammering a Nissan Leaf off the start line

As enjoyable as the cars were, the real fun were the pedal-assisted e-bikes which were there for us to try out!  The Giant model I tried was a real buzz and as fast as heck in "turbo" mode.  One of our members has one for commuting to work in Auckland, a round trip of 38 km and absolutely loves it.  Methinks that one would be handy to replace my 2 decades old mountain bike with all the hills where we live!

 Alan on the Scott e-bike

We also had a presentation by an engineer from Helite, the people who manufacture airbag clothing for motorcyclists.  Everything from inflating hi-vis vests through to adventure riding jackets.  Externally, they looked like a normal jacket and it was an impressive presentation.  Prices were similar to normal higher end motorcycle jackets.

In the afternoon,  it was off to Rotorua, some 90km away to play on the luge.  This is a concrete track  winding down the side of Mt Ngongotaha, hurtling downhill on an unsprung plastic cart.  The more competitive of us kept our leathers on in case of wipeouts, haha!

Lee and I queuing in full leathers - no quarter given or expected!

A long way down....  (file photo)

Stunning views over Lake Rotorua from the top of the luge

Lee's magnificent MV F3 675 triple in the luge car park

After the excitement of the afternoon, it was a brisk ride back to Taupo for a delightful buffet dinner.  The following morning, there was a superb session on accident scene protocols and rendering immediate assistance by an ex-military paramedic and fellow biker.  He was down to earth and debunked a few myths - a great learning experience.  I'll also be doing a re-think on the medical kit I carry and will certainly be adding Celox gel packs to safely stop bleeding.

Mike Nicolle explaining an aspect of scene management

After a mercifully short AGM (IAM does not thrive on bureaucracy!), it was time to head home.  It was in the delightful company of Street Triple owner Joanne, who is the IAM co-ordinator from Christchurch in NZ's South Island.  Jo hadn't previously visited the Coromandel Peninsula so it was a good opportunity to show her the sights by bike and car.  Jo is dual-qualified as an IAM Observer for both bikes and cars and I'm not!  Found it vaguely unsettling driving her around by car, despite her protestations that she was off duty!

Dr. Jo and her Street Triple R on the western side of the Coromandel Peninsula

On the fantastic Driving Creek pottery railway in Coromandel

The day after Jo began her long trek back to Christchurch, and in the company of some other IAM members from our region, I attended a suspension clinic in the Auckland area with Dave Moss, one of the world's authorities on how to set up motorcycle suspension. (His website HERE and his YouTube masterclass HERE , among many others). I thought I was "reasonably" ok on the basics of suspension adjustment but just how wrong can you be???  The clinic was a trial initiative between an Auckland-based riding instructor Chris Smith of Passmasters , Dave Moss and amazingly, our regional council authority.  The rationale was that properly adjusted suspension has the potential to save lives from a bike which handles better with improved grip, less fatigue plus all sorts of peripheral benefits.  The Waikato Regional Council has long championed motorcycle safety with a range of motorcycle training courses but this was the first foray into suspension as a safety initiative.

Arriving in Auckland, Dave checked all the initial settings of the bikes and made some preliminary adjustments based on rider weight.  He then explained what he was doing and why in easy to understand terms and made sure that everyone was comfortable to ask questions, no matter how dumb they thought they were - Dave is a patient and natural communicator.

He then explained that we would be going for a ride of some 150 km covering all sorts of conditions with several stops to make adjustments whist the bikes were at normal operating temperature - the only way to do it properly.  

Dave adjusting my rebound at the first stop (photo: Tony Knight)

Dave holding a Q&A on the ride

Adjusting IAM member Goose's Honda Crosstourer

Bike porn on a GSX-R 600

To cut a long story short, the improvement to my GSX-S was massive, which was a bit of a shock (no pun intended!) and all the attendees felt the same way.  No longer did it wander about over surface irregularities and the effort required to countersteer through a tight series of bends had diminished by a large amount - far less fatiguing.  In fact, I initially tended to over-correct with far more effort than now required, thanks to muscle memory kicking in! All this from fairly tired suspension.  On the way home, the last 50 km was in heavy rain and an indifferent road surface from the recent storm.  I've never previously felt so much confidence in riding in less than optimum conditions whilst still able to make good progress.  Massive thanks to Dave Moss, Chris Smith and the Waikato Regional Council for the enlightened attitude of making this genuine safety-related opportunity available to a wide range of riders!

What a day, what a week!

Summer's here! (well, almost)

Friday morning, all the main chores completed yesterday and it's sunny and warm.  Jennie is off into the village to have coffee with a girlfriend so it's the perfect opportunity to jump on the bike for a couple of hours.  The leathers have already been cleaned and conditioned in anticipation and today is the day!

Tomorrow, I have to ride to Auckland to carry out some coaching so today, I just want to be alone with my thoughts and take in the scenery but where to go?  I know!  The last time I headed north up the Peninsula from Coromandel, it was over 2 years ago when I took the spirit of the late Canadian moto-blogger, Bob Leong in the shape of  ScooterBob, his wooden scooter to see the places I love.  That part of the story is HERE .  I'd been thinking about Bob recently so it seemed a good time to revisit some of those places.

The twisty road north of Coromandel is light of traffic apart from the main holiday season and being a weekday, it was virtually empty apart from the odd local.  First stop was Waitete Bay.  One of the Peninsula's best-kept secrets, it's about a kilometre down a dirt road.

Waitete Bay

There are a handful of houses at the bay but most of them are holiday homes.  Wherever the permanent residents are, they're certainly not on the kilometre-long beach 'cos I'm the only one!

Not exactly over-populated!

Handy helmet stand

Next stop was the Colville General Store for an ice cream.  It's the only shop and fuel stop for about 30 km and carries all sorts of things to meet the daily needs of the alternative lifestylers who inhabit the area.  Not quite "Deliverance" country but getting that way with a few communes and a Buddhist retreat in the area.

Calling in for some banjo strings.....

Buddhist shrine by the roadside

Next stop was Colville Bay, a couple of km up the road.  The shallow bay is a trap for whales and sadly, mass strandings are not unknown.  Today, the tide was out and again, I was the only person there.  So nice to just stand there and appreciate the beautiful scenery.

Colville Bay - tide is way out

The coast is dotted with small islands which provide a great location for sheltered fishing.  Tomorrow, there will quite a few boats out in search of snapper and kingfish.

The Happy Jacks and other nearby islands

Stopping just a few hundred metres short of home, I notice that a Pohutukawa tree (also known as the NZ Christmas Tree) is coming into flower so stop for a photo op.  In another week or two, millions of these trees will be covered in bright scarlet blooms; an overwhelmingly beautiful sight.

McGregor Bay - where we live

Pohutukawa coming into bloom

The ride only lasted just over 2 hours but boy, was it good for the soul.  Amazing what a bit of solitude, spectacular scenery and a motorcycle does for the spirit!  So nice to think about Bob Leong again too and how much he'd have enjoyed being here.