2018 1KC

This Saturday there was a pretty decent excuse for a wee ride - the NZDR's 1KC.  That's a quick 1,000km jaunt around the North Island that John runs to raise some funds for Muscular Dystrophy - nice to help out a good cause while getting in a little fun.

In the lead up to the ride I'd been tossing up on which bike to take as the Connie had just had a decent run and the Tenere has been missing out.  I ended up registering to ride the Connie and taking the Tenere...

There was also a few other reasons to take the Tenere:

• I need to get the last few km out of the current tyres as I have a new set ready to go for the TT.
• I had half a tank of gas and that would get me to Upper Hutt and mean I was on a 3 fill ride - less stops.
• Glen decided to come along, so I thought the photos would look good with 2 Tenere's in them...

Anyway, back to action.  As per normal, we start earlier in Palmy and ride down to the Wellington start with those kms helping make up our 1,000km total (all the Welly riders have to come back down the West Coast anyway so we pretty much ride exactly the same route).

So after a reasonable sleep (I can't complain as Glen had to get up a fair bit earlier to ride from Taihape to Palmy), I got up just before 4am (alarm set for 4:10), had a quick brekkie and was forced to put on my wet weather gear...

At the local BP I met up with a few of the other riders from Palmy and chatted while waiting for Glen.  While there some idiot Tenere rider discovered that they were missing their wallet and had to zap home to pick it up off the driveway...

First and last piccy with only 1 Tenere

After this wee faux pas, we were a bit late getting away (probably about 20 minutes) but headed off as a group of 5 on wet roads and the odd bit of drizzle.

The ride down was pretty uneventful and there wasn't too much rain but it meant that we were probably some of the last riders to arrive at the official ride start.  We quickly gassed up and signed on.

Count 'em!

Somehow we'd arrived before the other 3 Palmy chaps and then got away just as they were arriving.  The ride up over the hill consisted of more wet roads, rain, fog, idiot car drivers and a B-train that had us down to 20km/h at times...

After the 'takas we settled into cruise mode, riding up SH2 to Masterton and then to the first checkpoint at Mauriceville.

The weather was definitely trying to improve with only the occasional rain and drying roads as we took Dreyers Rock Road over to Route 52.

Route 52 got us to Alfredton where we turned off onto Pa Valley Road to take us to the next CP at the corner of Estcort Road.

More familiar roads took the Teneres out to Pahiatua and then over the track to CP3 at Aokautere School where Glen did a quick check of his bike for pukeko feathers...

The next leg took us further North up over Vinegar Hill and then SH1 into Taihape for our first fuels stop.  We both had a quick drink and bite to eat before losing our wet weather gear - the day was definitely on the improve.

Fueled up, we carried on up to Turangi and then took a right at Kuratau to take us to Whakamaru and up past the Waipapa dam.

The next CP was one from a past NI1600 and to get to it required ignoring the Zumo's instruction to ride through a paddock and instead take a great little winding road through to Ngaroma.

Leaving Ngaroma there were more nifty back roads that needed to be ridden...

Back roads meant plenty of interesting turns to take and after nearly overshooting one turn we got onto Barber Road which took us to the next CP.  This one had been a bit tricky to nail down for a GPS coordinate but I needn't have worried - there was a welcoming party waiting for us.

The next CP was another one pinched from the same NI1600 and last time around I was in a group that road right past it and had to do a "few" extra kms to find it.  This time around I'd nailed it on the GPS route and also noticed the slight widening in the road at the Rangitoto Hall.

Cruising past the Rangitoto School we noticed a couple of riders parked up.  They gave us a wave and I just assumed that they'd missed the CP - they were exactly where I'd got to on the NI1600 before having to turn around...

Just up the road from Rangitoto was Te Kuiti where it was time for more fuel and a really big cold drink while another layer was lost.  Two sheepish riders rolled up while we were getting ready to leave and confirmed that the Rangitoto Hall is easy to miss...

The next leg was a pootle across to Taumarunui where we both managed to dodge a car that decided to stop right in front of us with no warning (Glen reckoned Mum was yelling at Dad) and then a cruise down to Raetihi before taking on the Paraparas :)

BTW: we were being very good boys...

Really, we were!

The final checkpoint was at Upo where we were forced to park near some dirty old KLR's...

The last leg of course, was to get me home.  We had a quick stop at Fordell where I said toodle-loo to Glen who had to make his way home via some disgustingly neat roads to Hunterville on then on to Taihape - he ended up with just under 1,200km for the day. Not enough for him to miss out on a Sunday ride too apparently...

I was home just after 5, so happy with the pretty easy 12 hour time.  The Tenere seemed pretty happy with itself but the damn tyres still look good - the front now has 18,600km on it...

Great ride!