3 seconds....

It was a beautiful day when me and a couple of mates decided to tackle the Coro loop. For those not familiar with the Coro loop, it is a loop of road a few hundred kms long, which takes you from Thames, Coromandel, Whitiangi and back to Thames.  This roughly is the loop.  It is motorcycling heaven with continual sweeping corners, tight bends and incredible scenery.....it also has become a grave yard for far to many riders.

I had been back into riding for a bout 10 months and was still struggling with with getting to grips with the whole biking thing.  I was riding my new 675 Daytona, it is a superb bike, it has always been one of the easiest bikes I have every ridden, especially when it comes to throwing  it around corners.

On this particular day I was riding with a mate on a 1098, another on a GSXR1000 , and another on a fire blade.  You could say that I was probably underpowered!

On the ride north from Thames to Coromandel I was leading, and I was impressed by how I was riding, the two big jap bikes were not keeping up, only the 1098 was hanging on to my tail.  I was though, in no doubt riding at the edge of my ability.  And as local blogger from here will testify, this is one road you do not want to get it wrong, if you do, you end up on the rocks, and in the firth of Thames.

Once in Coromandel and refuelled we headed over the hill towards Whitianga, here the road turns into some very fast sweeping bends as well as some short but quick pieces of straight roads.  These roads played into the bigger bikes hands and all three whipped past me at well over lost license speeds.

It was about now that I felt an enormous amount of pressure to keep up. The bigger bikes were pulling away from me and I did not want to get mocked when I finally got into Whitianga.

Entering a average to tight left hander, I was pushing hard to keep up with the other bikes, I was travelling far to quick, and before I realised it I was on the wrong side of the road, it took all my efforts of concentration and focus to ad void running off the road completely.  Finally after what seemed an eternity I gathered some form of control and got back onto my side of the road, moments later, probably no more than 3 seconds, a four x four towing a trailer passed me  coming the other way.  It was then I realised how incredible close I had come to having a  head on...one that would of no doubt claimed my life.

A few moments later I pulled over and sat on on the side of the road, the need to regather my thoughts was uppermost in my mind.  I realised then that what a complete and utter idiot I had been, trying to impress my mates had nearly claimed my life.  The unwritten law to be quick and keep up had over ridden common sense.  I had been riding on a adrenalin high, and it was almost enough to kill me..

A few months later Alex from work was killed while riding his bike to work....

I took a break from riding for a few months, but the passion always remained.  Perhaps I grew up, perhaps I  decided I would rather be a plodder than a dead biker,  perhaps I realised that I was missing some great scenery in an attempt to get some where quick,   Perhaps I became aware of my own mortality.....

Just three seconds from leaving my children fatherless, three seconds from my parents burying their son, and three seconds from leaving my partner devasted....all because I was trying to prove something.

I have no need or desire any more to prove anything to any one on a bike.  But I shall not forget those three seconds.