Mouse on the loose

So, yesterday there was what looked like a pretty good trail ride pretty close to home in Colyton.  I was gonna go and even had the yellow bike ready to go but come Sunday morning just wasn't feeling it so for a while pretended that it wasn't a nice sunny day and did other exciting stuff like laundry, dog walking and mowing the lawns - perhaps I'll post that excitement later...

But, by lunchtime I'd decided that something even more exciting needed to happen.  And it needed to involve the poorly neglected WR.  Naturally, after such an extended period of neglect, the bike needed some extensive maintenance - air in the tyres and 6L of super.  Then I just needed some sort of ride plan...

(Hopefully I've dithered around enough to continue to keep some AdvRiders in suspense and caused at least some sort of semi-permanent psychiatric damage?  You guys know who I'm talking about 😝)

So, on with the ride.

After the expensive fill-up in Ashhurst I turned back into the village and then thundered off out the valley, relearning the intricacies of the mightiest of mouses.  At an indicated 110km/h (GPS about 95), the little bike fair powered its way around Pohangina Valley East with the not so road-friendly rubber providing a little excitement when perhaps a little too much was expected of it.  The rider also had to relearn how to tame the beast and to remember that if you throttle off for a corner then you need to down change as well...

(Some more most excellent dithering in that last paragraph eh?)

Now I really need to fess up on the destination I 'spose...

On the aforementioned AdvRider there has been some enquiry about the current state of Takapari Road and certain people were suggesting that I needed to be the guinea pig.  Well, with a WR and its superior capabilities, this kinda made sense.

The reason why everyone was keen to know about the road was that it has been gated off by the council due to severe damage by 4WD's and the council not being prepared to pay to fix the road.  (Apparently the 4WD club are going to look at repairing the road themselves - I hope they do).  But, apparently it is possible to get a bike around the gate...

The road up to the old top gate was actually in really good condition (no 4WD's tearing it up in winter is my guess) and it didn't take me long to get up there and then onto the investigating.  Yes, a bike can get around the gate.

I can probably leave the next bit to the video but remember to factor in that the video makes the road look less steep and even a little less gnarly.  Also remember that the rider was still getting to grips with the mighty beast and made plenty of wee stuff ups...

Yeah, maybe it doesn't look that bad in the video and pics but it's fairly impassable.  In front of the step, all the water coming off the hill is creating a bog which would quickly suck a bike in - I avoided the worst of it as best I could but still sunk in halfway up my boots.  

The step itself is steeper than it looks and probably pretty close to 2 metres high.  That's pretty slippery looking clay too.  Maybe without the bog I'd give it a crack on the 450.  But maybe I'd fall off too...

Looks pretty greasy to this kid

Look at that weapon!

Mouse for scale

Just to the right (in the above pic) of the main track someone has been hacking at the bush.  I'm not sure if it was so vehicles could turn around or if this is someone attempting a diversion.  I didn't explore it as it looked a bit soft in there too and I didn't want to get my boots dirty...

So, after an almost 3-minute ride from the gate it was all over and I had turn around and bimble my way back down the hill.

And bimble I did too, 'cos damn there's some great views across the valley as you drop down the hill.

Reaching the bottom of the hill, I still hadn't had my fill of the awesomeness that is the WR so turned right and made my way over to Makoura Road to take in some most excellent gravel before the next turn onto Pohangina Road.

Halfway back (or maybe halfway through video #3 below), I stopped to check out the washed out bridge that used to cross over to Pohangina East.  Yeah, it's still not there and it actually looks like they've demolished it.  They seem to have moved a bit of stuff but I'm not sure whether the bridge will get replaced or not - possibly a low priority considering even worse damage up in the Bay.

Not even a WR could cross that

A fair bit of hill fell in the river

A log enjoying supporting quality machinery

Yep, definitely no bridge

Rest over, it was time to fang that favourite bit of Pohangina Road and get back so the WR could let the other bikes know what they'd missed out on.

Thoroughly enjoyable ride on the little bike.  Someone slap me if I ever talk about parting ways with it...

New gizmo

My GoPro (Hero 9 black) has been giving me a lot of grief lately with it deciding on the day whether it wanted to record or not and for how long.  I persevered with it (even when it lost what would have been some sensational video of us blasting out of the Nevis in Colin's buggy) and tried different cards and what not, but it sucks when it dies halfway through recording a hyperlapse of the NI800 and things like that.

Over Labour weekend there were all sorts of sales on and there were deals on GoPros and others, so I decided to go for it.  I had already decided that if it was going to be a GoPro that it would be a 12 rather than a 13 as I didn't really see any benefit in the 13 over the 12 for my basic uses but then I saw the DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro on a site - then the umming and arring really started...

With the Action 5 being dearer than the 12 but cheaper than the 13 and me loving the video and photo quality from my DJI drone, I really needed to do some research.  Naturally, there were plenty of differences to mull over but in the end, it came down to memories of past issues with other GoPros (as well as the current one), the apparent build quality of the DJI and nearly double the battery life that had me going for the DJI.  The two OLED touchscreens are nice but really just gimmicks - one rear screen would be fine.

It's actually a whisker smaller (height) than my 9 but very solid little sucker and it came with the protective cage and quite a sexy mount that of course is compatible with all my GoPro mounts.  Ali-Express and Temu seem to have plenty of accessories for it too...

Apparently the DJI App for editing video on your phone is pretty good (and I've edited drone footage pretty easily on the phone too) but I'll be using the computer mostly for this.

Anyway, it needed a trial run last Sunday.  I only recorded in 1080 and then Youtube stuffs the quality anyway, so you'll have to believe me that the video looked good on my computer.  But most importantly it worked on the day...

Bikes and Burgers

Escaped work tonight and drove home to swap over to the Tiger and head back into town for the Bikes and Burgers event.  This was the second event - I missed the first one because...I forgot.

The event seems to be an excuse for riders to get together to ogle each other's bikes and talk bikes while waiting for a burger.

Rocking up about 10-15mins early, I certainly wasn't the first there and quickly found the Tiger parking zone.

Parked next to Colins Tigers doppelganger

Another Tiger sport found the correct parking spot and yes, that's another one behind the 900

The burger cart was fairly swamped and the people running it were flat out, but the burger was pretty good and I chatted to Murray while waiting.

After taking my burger back to the bike and dispatching it I caught up with a couple more of the old Ashhurst riders and then went for a wander to check out more bikes and see if there was anyone else around that I knew - I had spotted Steve from work earlier but he disappeared somewhere while I was queuing for grub.

These guys resisted the urge to cut some grass

One picture I wish I had got (I had a burger in my hand - priorities) was of a guy on a M109 towing a one-wheeled trailer behind.  In the trailer was his dog and they were both wearing matching hoodies.  Very cool.

Come 7pm there was a raffle drawn (free entry) where some of the 170 odd riders were lucky enough to score some donated bits and pieces.

Following the raffle, people started taking off and I did the same.  Only I got lost on my way home but managed to find my way back (in sport mode) from Colyton via Valley Road.  The outing was worth it just for that 😉

Toothless

Well, it seems that I don't only procrastinate on blogging...

On its last outing Geoff noticed a wee issue with the RMX.

This is it after the ride.  I bet it wasn't quite as bad earlier in the ride but would have been wearing pretty fast.  I could have kicked myself - I checked the chain tension before loading the bike up and failed to look at the sprocket.

Anyway, I made it back to the ute ok and got a couple of sprockets and a chain ordered.  Then it was time to spanner.

The front sprocket was actually pretty easy (especially compared to the drama I had with the T7) as it is just a circlip holding it on.  I should get some circlip pliers at some stage though...

Getting the chain off was pretty easy too.  I got to finally use my $7 Aliexpress chain breaker too and it worked a treat.

Chain off, it was then time to whip the wheel out and change the rear sprocket.  Once again this was pretty easy and the wheel was soon back on the new chain fed over the shiny new sprockets.

I quick ride up the road to check things out and the job was done.  Nice to have got rid of the traction control system...

Anyone want some lightly used sprockets and chain?

Tigers on the loose

In what is becoming something of a habit, this is a blog of a ride that happened in the distant past - well, the weekend before last anyway...

But it did involve four Tigers!

Well, perhaps not those tigers.  Let's try 2 800's, a 900 and a 1200.

Grrrrrrrrr!

The ride started in the magnificent metropolis of Ashhurst where I met up with Colin, his bro Dayal and Dayal's mate Brendan.

Coffee mugs empty, we mounted up and started our ride around "the loop" to Apiti.

I have to say that the roads are in really good shape given the weather we have had.  Nowhere near the amount of crap over the roads that we normally see following winter.  As we carried on past Rangiwahia and on towards Mangaweka the road was still pretty good and it was even pretty tidy through the last section which often has rock falls and mud on the road.  Just one slide on the patch of gravel that is always present where a farmer crosses the road to his woolshed...

Turning again onto Kawhatau Road we continued to avoid SH1 and stopped just short of it at the bridge to discuss where we wanted to go from there.

In the end we decided to carry on to Waiouru for lunch before making our way over to the Paraparas.  At the cafe we had the usual awesome feed but also had a run in with another dangerous looking feline.

Tiger?

At some stage during our break I floated the idea of taking Fields Track (rather than main-roading it to Ohakune and Raetihi) to Colin and he proved pretty easy to convince.  The others were unaware of the road so that meant that we really had to do it...

Fields track was also in pretty good nick but being fairly tight, windy and rough in places, it does pay to show it a little respect.  Soon we were at the bridge, and we had to show the guys the hole in the rock.

Next up was the short climb up the hill to check out the view.

I really like that blue one...

Dropping down the hill, we got stuck behind a ute but got past him pretty quickly once on the Para's proper.  We also then picked up a new buddy on a Harley.

He initially went through on us as we were being our typical law-abiding selves, but we then caught him at the first set of lights.

Somehow Colin and I got ahead of him and led him through to Upokongaro just to make sure he didn't get lost.  Safe to say that he was riding the wheels off his compressor and managed quite well to stay with the two dirt bikes.

In Upo we waited for the other two and discovered that Brendan's bike was getting a little thirsty.  Some bad maths based on guessing the distance to Marton had me assuring him that he'd make it and we were off again.

After riding through Okoia my maths started working a bit better and I also remembered that there was pumps at Fordell now.  Unfortunately said pumps were not card operated, and the tiny servo was shut.  Oh well, it wasn't my bike that was running low...

Further up the road, my maths was working overtime again and I was working out how much of Brendan's "50km remaining" we had used and were going to use before Marton.  I figured we were probably going to use all of it and a bit more so instead of taking the delightful Makuhou Road into Marton, we carried on Turikina Valley Road into Turakina where some pumps were awaiting a very thirsty Tiger.  Apparently the 800's can go a wee ways on zero remaining...

After the three smaller fur-bags fuelled up (I still had 230km remaining - love that 30L tank) we cruised on into Sanson where I said goodbye to the chaps as they continued South on the dreaded SH1.

Great little ride of around 370km on what was a cracker of a day.