Women’s Motorcycle Training Day, Manfeild, Tuesday, March 30th.
By Steve Green
www.sportsimages.co.nz
On Tuesday, March 30th, the race track at Manfeild was the venue for a training day for Women motorcyclists which attracted 42 women from the lower North Island including six from the local area. The women who entered rode a very diverse range of motorcycles from Trail bikes and Custom bikes to full on Sports bikes.
The local riders entered had a similarly wide range of bikes including Jennifer Hamilton of Otaki on her Triumph Legend, Linda Burling of Foxton on her 1200cc Harley Davidson Sportster, Vicki Payne of Raumati on her Kawasaki ZX600 and Mischelle Dacre of Manakau on her Suzuki SV650. For others like Maria Van Noorden of Foxton and Karen Slobbe of Foxton Beach, their bikes where both Honda VT750 Customs.
Although the event was at the race track, the main emphasis of the day was on learning riding skills and not speed, with training sessions on braking, cornering, clutch operation, slow speed riding and rider safety. After each track riding session, the group reassembled in the shade of the pits buildings for a drink of water and a feed back session. The idea of the day was for the women riders to learn more riding skills, learn about their bike’s capabilities and to become safer riders.
Head instructor for the day was Karel Pavich of Nelson who has been riding and racing motorcycles for over 30 years, and is a former New Zealand 250GP Road Racing Champion. Now an NZTA approved instructor, Pavich is using her experience to teach her fellow motorcyclists how to ride safely on today’s busy roads and to improve their basic riding skills. All of the riders entered where able to ride their bikes with varying levels of skills from the woman with the L plate on the back of her bike, through to the woman on the Sportsbike. By the end of the day, all the women I spoke to were happy that they had learnt new techniques that would improve their day to day riding skills and safety.
For more information about upcoming riding courses visit: www.prorider.co.nz
For more photos of this event see: www.sportsimages.co.nz
