Thanks for the feedback Neil - and so complimentary.
The first was luck - but luck followed by twenty minutes of laying still in the gravel on the side of the road w/ all my gear on and my helmet.......I guess it isn't just luck.
The curves in the second are pretty nice, it's one of my favourite rides, and this is taken from the series I did of my last ride this year on Oct 11th. (The bike in question is a baby ninja, ZZR-250)
I did a few of the pumpkins, I'll probably post another similiar to the IR shot that is lit by pumpkin glow - the feel of the IR one though I liked. (I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea.)
Thanks for the compliments on the last one. I did it with the camera balanced on a chairback w/ the 10 sec timer on and prefocused. I ran to join the group - but it did work out nicely after a crop and straighten, some vignettes and some vibrance/saturation tweaking with some warmth to make up for my white balance which was a bit off.
It did turn out good, looking back at it - thanks for calling my attention to it - in my mind it was just a quick shot of us all who did pumpkins - but the overall photo is actually pretty good itself.