Yeah baby!

 

Shedding a little light

After a not so nice trip in the dark (and before a big trip) on the Super Ten I decided that she needed some more watts pointing up road.  Previously I had a set of expensive Denali D4's on the Super Ten but I've moved them over to the T7 as I was supposed to be selling the S10...(The selling bit hasn't happened yet and the bike performed as flawlessly as ever on a very quick 3,000 odd kms down South last week).

Anyway, back to the lights.  I'd been browsing on Supercheaps website (as ya do) and noticed a set that looked like they might work on the bike and for $89 I thought, let's give it a go...

They are Ridge Ryder branded lights with each unit holding 6 x 5 watt leds.  They even came with a flash harry harness which I didn't need as I already had one on the bike with some junk chinese leds.  In about ten minutes the junk ones were gone and the new ones installed.

The Allen bolts allow adjustment of lights

Well, they work in the shed...

Once fitted, I had to wait a while for it to get dark so I could do a little road test.  one of the things I liked about the Denalis is that each housing had two spots and two floods giving both a long range peek while also lighting up quite a wide swathe immediately in front of the bike.  The Ridge Ryder units were all spots.

I needn't have worried...

Not bad at all and about 1/7th of the cost of the Denalis...and I just got a credit as they put the lights on sale this weekend...

I can also confirm that they were perfect for running the Buller Gorge at 5:30am last week...

Now sporting a nice bug collection...

It's coming along...

 Yeah, honestly, I've started the TT write-up and have been editing videos in between all the other stuff that's going on.

Today I pumped up the S10's rear tyre so I could check where all the air is going.  There may be a slight leak around the bead...

And then it was onto some major maintenance:

And there is some other news, but it will have to wait...

More shed time

 Best give the Ten a bit of love, she's got work to do...

Yep, 'tis the season to change air filters.  And the Tenere is a little more involved than the WR...

Some of the plastic needs to be removed or at least have some bolts removed to gain access to the four bolts that hold the tank on.  The two vent hoses need to be removed (see below) so that the tank can be tilted back and secured.

Then there's plenty of screws holding the airbox together.

This middle one goes tight through the to hold the filter in place.

And then hey, presto, you're in.

Probably about due?

And in goes the new one.  Lot's of pics cause I reckon those intakes look cool 😁

The bike even looks ready for something...

Oh, and now that I've changed filters in all the bikes, let's rank them in order of ease to do (because some Connie owners reckon they're tricky when they're actually not):

1. RMX.  It wins as there's less tools required and from memory I don't think the seat needed to come off.
2. WR250
3. Connie
4. Super Tenere

Did you see that coming?

Shed time

Ok, so there is a ride write-up in the works but first something a little more simple.

Today it was time to give a couple of Yamaha's a little love.

First, the mighty WR was given a quick bath in preparation for going into town to get a WOF.  Of course, she passed the warrant with flying colours although they keep telling me it needs a reflector for some reason...

Art shot...

Next was a bigger job.  The Shinko on the back of the Tenere needed swapping for a fresh one.  The first one lasted 5,349km - the second one should just about be toast after the TT2000 me thinks (ergo I might get 2 months out of it).  So it didn't last that long (and to be fair was pretty knackered around 7-800km ago) but they are cheap...

I'll be going back to an E-07 next time (ordered from my friendly tyre supplier already) but will definitely consider the Shinko again - especially for winter riding where they are probably better on wet seal than an E-07.  They're just not great on summer gravel (especially when poked).

The tyre change went really well with a lot less cursing and no blood.  The bead even went on perfectly.  Nice, maybe I'm getting a wee bit better at it...

It's great having heaps of room in the shed to do the work too...

After that, it was time for morning smoko and then, rather than changing two more tyres that need changing, I gave the Tenere it's bath.  This took a bit longer than the WR (I think it was even dirtier than the WR even though the WR had just been up Takapari Road) and I even took the screen off to give the dragon a scrub behind the ears too 😉

Dirty girl...

Good to get those little jobs done, and even better, it wasn't 30 plus degrees to do it in...

Herding Hondas

Just prior to the NI800, Brian, one of the Goldwing brigade had been chatting to Colin about wanting to get something else in his stable for exploring back roads.  Fast forward a week or two and we get sent some photos of the new bike and then a request to join us on a gravel excursion somewhere so that Brian could work on his gravel riding skills.

Come Saturday and when Colin and I rocked up to the meet in Pahiatua and were soon joined by not one but two new Hondas.  It turns out the Goldwing guys like to stick together...

Graham and Brian

Brian lives in Pahiatua and knows a lot of the roads in the area but was keen to check out both Pori Road and the Rising Sun.  Who were we to deny him...

After the short stretch of seal to the start of the Makuri Gorge we turned off onto Pori Road.  I decided to go TEC so that I could get both Graham and Brian on camera while Colin led the way.

Of course we had to stop at the usual spot...

Waiting for a couple of Hondas when we got to the end of the road, we were buzzed by a large group of riders heading North on Route 52.  This included a few bods we know including Chevvy and his wife.  They were all off on a bit of a tour over the long weekend.

They disappeared on us but we caught them again at our next turn-off at Waihoki Valley Road.  They were having a regroup and a wee roadside chat so we hauled up to and had a yarn to a few of them.  We then let them go while we had a bit of chat about the ride so far, tyres and techniques and then we were into it again.

This time I led off and onto a road that had a bit more gravel on it than normal.  Good practice riding on marbles for the boys...

Huia Road was more of the same, but once we turned onto Spur Road the marbles gave way to the normal combination of dirt track and good gravel.  Plenty of time today for photo stops and roadside gum flapping.

At the bottom end of Spur Road we even had another stop to get a photo of an interesting sign.

The first bit of Marainanga Road was a little chopped up by logging trucks so there were  afew ruts, potholes and uneven surfaces to negotiate.  At least it wasn't wet and gave the Honda lads a bit of practice at standing on the pegs.  Then the road came right again for a quick blast out to Coast Road and then into Pongaroa for yet another burger.

While at the pub a large group of hoodlums (😉) on ag bikes roared into town in a cloud of two-stroke.  They then bowled on in to check out the pub.  They were all loaded up with gear and out causing mischief with a trip through Makairo Track on their agenda and good bikes for it too.  I bet they had a ball.

After lunch we managed to find some magic gravel (smooth and fast) through to check out Waihi Falls.

Next up was that trip up Towai Road to the Rising Sun.  Another nice day up there with little wind.

Our last bit of gravel was probably the best of the day.  Towai and Coonoor Roads were in great, hard, fast condition and well suited to putting smiles on dials...

A not so sedate pootle then had us back into Pahiatua where we had a bit of a debrief over coffee and perhaps laid some future plans...

Naturally my ride ended with a wee jaunt over the track and nearing the bottom I had a wee bird associated incident.  Pulling out to pass a car as we were coming out of a corner, I got surprised by about 6 ducks wandering into my path.  

They were somewhat startled by the sudden appearance of a shiny blue Tenere and attempted to flee in multiple directions - all without using those big flappy arms of theirs.  But today was their lucky day, somehow I managed to thread my way through the lot of them without disturbing a feather.  They probably all hussled off to get a lotto ticket...