Sleeping in...

 ...is a waste of good riding time.

On Sunday, Colin and Andy got up early and were at my place just before 8am.  I was even ready for them too...

After coffee it was time to make tracks with the initial plan (based on our usual detailed planning session) being to head for Turakina Valley.  But first I had to show off and demonstrate that I was only 5 minutes from gravel - ok, so it was only a short bit of gravel on Watershed Road, but it got us over towards Colyton, Feilding and then Halcombe and Marton.

North of Marton we got back onto gravel on Galpins Road and dropped down Taurimu Road onto Turakina Valley Road.  The drop down Taurimu is particularly nice as there are some good views at the top and then a cool dive into the valley of Peacocks.

Did I mention peacocks?  Oh yeah, this time around they were out to get me.  I didn't see the damn thing until I was nearly on top of it but luckily it went for a near vertical take-off next to me rather than head butting me.  Damn, they are pretty big when they're taking to the air - even Andy mentioned it after watching it all from behind me.  Oh, and there was another one just up the road a bit too...

Once North of the peacocks, the gravel was good, but we had to deal with quite an unusually large number of vehicles along with plenty of sheep to keep us on our toes.  Still totally worth it 😉

The last bit of gravel (North of the above pics) was its usual sublime self.  Plenty of pace could be applied and Andy sat just behind me eating my dust as I slithered around a fair bit.  Great fun!

In 'kune we stopped for an early lunch and fuel before crossing over to Raetihi and turning South for a bit, aiming for the gravel of Oruakukuru Road.

This was another cracker with the gravel being more fun than the seal at the start of the road.  Once again there were a heap of sheep all over the place and even one taking a permanent break in the middle of the road courtesy of something bigger than a bike (I hope).

Not far from the resting mutton I had my next run in of the feathered variety.  Coming out of a right-hander, I disturbed a snacking hawk, and it was blimin close - I reckon I could have given his nails (big ones at that) a trim for him.  I dunno what he was doing there when the feast of a lifetime was just down the road - probably a bit much for a hawk to takeaway...

After the last stretch of fast but very corrugated gravel we hit Whangaehu Valley road and enjoyed its tight and twisty corners before it turned to gravel and took us up over Burma Hill.  This time around we had to deal with cattle as well as sheep, but the big chooks left us alone.

At lunch and because we had plenty of daylight left, I floated the idea of adding in a trip through the Badlands, North of Whanganui.  The two others both thought this was a reasonable idea so we decided to use Te Rimu Road as a short-cut to get over that way.  It's always fun and though the bulls were hiding today (I'm not complaining), there was the odd bit of silt from flooding around the (dry) fords that behaved a lot like the dreaded sand, and everyone hates sand...

Not being able to ford the Whanganui River (might have got run over by the paddle steamer) and not being naughty enough to sneak across the pedestrian bridge, we had to briefly dip into Whanganui to cross and then make our way back up the other side of the river before the great run through the Badlands.

What a blast it was!  This is a really neat little track that gets narrower the further you head in and you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.  This is why we have adventure bikes.  Oh, and once again, there was plenty of slithering around.

Andy ready for a breather

Colin makin' dust

Luckily, the end of Kauarapaoa Road doesn't mean the end of the gravel.  The ride out on Rangitatau East Road is on 20+km of wider, faster gravel and it was good!

Expensive!

Rangitatau East was the last of the gravel for the day and after a cool drink just out of Whanganui it was time to slab it back on the seal and wave off the guys at Sanson before parking the trusty T7 up.  About 510km for me and 700ish for the Southern contingent.  Great ride!  Oh, and I need a new rear...

Foiled!

One sunny Sunday afternoon I found myself a little bored.  Never fear, there were some bikes in the shed and I had a hankering to visit Takapari Road so that meant that the correct tool was the WR.

After topping up the tank, I thrashed my way out the valley towards my target.  As I fair motored my way along, I once again couldn't help but grin at how much fun you can have on a little bike with no fairing and less than 30hp - and I hadn't even got offroad yet!

Eventually I was able to turn towards the ranges and start climbing up Takapari Road.  The first bit is easy gravel which then (after the first gate) changes to a farm track.  The track looked like it had even had a bit of work done on it and the little digger parked slightly off to the side pretty much proved the point.

At the top gate, the track the heads up to the bush and becomes much more challenging.  There currently is a gate that prevents larger vehicles from continuing any further, but this is no barrier for a Mighty Mouse.  We easily rode around it and through a deep puddle before hitting some pretty rough stuff.

I was really out of practice and I really fouled up the first snotty bit and of course, stalled.  I'd like to think that I would normally have flown up it (particularly on the now departed 450 😢) but not today.  I'd ended up in a bit of a yucky position and simply restarting the bike and having another bash was probably just going to result in going nowhere (picture jammed up against a big step) so I decided to turn the bike around (much heaving and sweating) and chicken out on the whole idea...what a wuss!

Back at the gate, it was time to enjoy the scenery:

Back on the seal again, I decided that I hadn't had enough of the Mouse yet so turned right and rode up the valley a bit more before turning onto Makoura Road and then Pohangina Road.

The short bit of Makoura Road (gravel) I did is great on the WR as you can take it darn nearly flat out and while Pohangina is a little slower there's some great views and great corners.  There was also a surprise...

My favourite bit of Pohangina Road was closed!  And I thought that I was going to have to ride all the way back and around the valley again - a couple of years ago Cyclone Gabrielle took out the bridge that crosses the river to Totara Park got washed away:

But to my surprise, someone had been busy!  I had to take several photos!

 

So, my route home wasn't going to be quite as long and I got to cross the new bridge before buzzing my way home on the seal.  I nice little ride on my favourite 250.

Magic Metal

Roads that is...

It's spring here.  That means it's wet.  We've had decent rain most days for at least 3 weeks and even some hail just before I wrote this.  That means that it's been a bit of a lottery on whether (ha, ha) I manage to get in a decent ride in the weekend without drowning.  On Sunday I was riding regardless.

It was the T7's turn even though the Tiger needed a new tyre to be scrubbed in before this weekend (yeah, I'm definitely riding this weekend too).  Reason?  All that rain maketh the gravel good!

I left home in sunshine and made my way over the track and then onto the usual gravel superhighway to Eketahuna.  Yes, the gravel was good but the weather not so much.  Along the way I managed to get caught in several reasonable showers and had to put up with a wet and fogging visor (I'd thrown out the old, worn-out Pinlock and not replaced it) which mad some of the gravel a little more interesting.

In Eke, I stopped for fuel and an early lunch before pointing the bike East on the always enjoyable Mangaoranga Road.  At the next turn, I went right instead of left and took Mangamahoe Central Road through to the Mauriceville Road.  We don't go this way very often, but Mangamahoe was great with the only issue being loose ewes and their lambs all over the road.

Next up was plenty of seal up of over Dreyers Rock Road, one minute in bright sunshine, the next in rain, before cruising South on Route 52 and then on towards Bideford.  Northeast of Bideford, I got back onto the gravel of Wairiri Road and got an interesting surprise.

Wairiri dropped me down onto Daggs Road and then back onto 52.  From here the stunningly good Bartons line (if you watched the video, you'll know that there's no video of it due to camera issues - dammit) where the gravel was amazing - plenty of grip but it was also very easy to get the tail out and enjoy some rear wheel steering.  Magic!

Pori Road was more of the same really.  I was surprised how dry and "unslippery" it was.  The charge up the hill was spectacular and even though there was cold water in my old Formas, my temperature came up with the workout I got.  Who says I don't exercise enough?

The ride home took in a little more gravel around Makairo which also was fun and the T7 took its first pootle over the new road before we got back to sunny Ashhurst.  Mint ride of somewhere around 300km in less than 4 hours - including stops which means that the gravel was definitely good!

A wee short cut

 Taking a more interesting ride home from Feilding on the first day of daylight savings time.  Not much day left, and I needed to bring my own light...

Fast gravel in the dark is interesting...

A quick lap one frosty Sunday

A message from Glen on Saturday night was hinting at a possible excursion the next day and come Sunday morning there was a follow-up where I confirmed I was keen, and Glen confirmed that it was still only -2 in Taihape.  I think that may have been the reason why he took his time and only got to my place just before ten...

The purpose of the ride was for Glen to get to ride the new road and from there we had to get him back to Taihape eventually and me back here.  We discussed a few different options while also considering which roads might possibly be icy.  Later on, the plan was modified on the fly with no discussion - a Triumph rider just took whatever turn he thought was right and even included some roads he'd thought could be frosty...

Crossing over the new road and dropping into Woodville, the temperature dropped from 8 degrees to 4 and we actually descended into some murky fog.  I attempted to flick the camera on to capture the scene as it looked pretty cool (hee hee) looking down onto the fog covered town.  Unfortunately, it must have been too cold for the camera - oh well, I had the grips and seat on...

In Dannevirke we turned onto the Weber road for a while before taking a left to head northwards through to Te Uri, Ormondville and eventually Takapau.  The roads through here didn't appear to be too frosty but there were definitely some cold damp bits in the shade which caused us to tip-toe through carefully and also other bits with a lot of crap across the road - including mud in one place.

In Takapau we were both nearly taken out by a woman who never looked and then followed right behind Glen until he pulled over and had a chat with her only to discover that we'd been speeding through the town (nope) and were dangerous riders.  I'm pretty sure Glen let her know that she was mistaken and should attempt to open her eyes in future.

This diversion for Glen meant that I'd got away from him (in fact, I thought he'd missed a turn), so I stopped at the little rest area just before Waipuk.  Here I got a call from Glen and was able to hear a little of the story and let him know where I was waiting.

While waiting, a certain car that had tried to kill us went past and then did a U-turn and drove back towards me (perhaps to apologise to me?), but they thought better of it when they saw Glen arriving...

Reunited, we carried on up through Waipuk before turning in Waipawa for Patangata and a trip up through Elsthorpe to Havelock North.  Yet again, this was another fantastic little skid.

In Havelock we joined half the population at one of the pubs for a long wait for a nice lunch before securing some fuel and crossing over to Taradale.  In Taradale we took another little sight-seeing trip to check out whether the washed-out bridge in Puketapu had been fixed.  It turned out that it had and that everyone was there to check it out as the pub was overflowing and there were people everywhere.  No pics/video of the brand-new bridge or the jet boats playing in the river.

More familiar (the happy hunting ground of me and my wee RG250 when living in the Bay), but unridden for some time roads got us to Fernhill and the start of the trip over the Napier-Taihape.

What a great ride!  Well, it always is!  No frosty bits either.

Just after the above video the road seemed to be a bit "dirty".  There was obvious dust and dirt in places and the front end didn't feel quite a planted as earlier in the ride.  At the stop at the summit Glen agreed.

Anyway, it didn't matter, and it also didn't matter when we hit wet roads and then some rain near the old suspension bridge.  Luckily the rain didn't last too long, and it was sunny again as we pulled into Taihape.

I didn't muck around too long saying cheerio to Glen as the weather was trying to catch up, so I hit SH1 as far as Mangaweka before turning off to take the Manawatu scenic route home.

Still plenty of snow around

Plenty of grit on Ardi's bridge

I ended up home sometime after 4:30 and it was nice that it wasn't freezing as it may have been just a week or two ago.  Great to get out on the Tiger after having the bikes parked up for a bit while I killed the man-flu.  Looking forward to more longer, warmer pootles!