Answering an important question?

Yeah, everyone wants to know.  And now the excitement is over!

Rinse and repeat

Saturday was an absolutely magnificent winter's day: still, sunny and reasonably warm.  What a fantastic day to muck around at home and ignore the bikes...Even better - listening to the pouring rain as I nodded off in bed that night!

Naturally it was still raining in the morning.  But as the morning progressed we started to get the odd break in the weather and I managed to walk the dog without getting wet.  Come lunchtime there was still the odd wee shower but I was starting to climb the walls and needed to get out.  By oneish I decided that the weather wasn't going to stop me so wheeled out the T7 and clambered into my Klim gear.

A few spits  of rain followed me up the road to the servo but as I headed out the valley things continued to improve and eventually I was riding under blue skies again.  Given all the rain I decided that I'd take in exactly the same ride as the previous weekend just because I really enjoyed it and wanted to sample it on a different horse.

Watershed and Midland Roads were the muddiest due to the same lack of metal on the road that I'd experienced the weekend before and I was certainly a bit more cautious on the heavier bike - it did tend to move around a bit more on the soft stuff.

For some reason I really enjoyed the drop down Finnis Road into Pohangina - perhaps it was the better engine braking and brakes on the T7, I dunno.  Anyway, this meant that the delicious bit of gravel just out of Pohangina came next.

Yeah, that was fun.  Same thing with the next bit of gravel that took me to the end of Pohangina Road and onto Makoura Road.  More gravel in great nick - have I mentioned that winter gravel is the best?

Just up the road, I decided that I should probably pause for some pics.  I'd noticed that nice looking farm house across the valley the weekend before - shame that phones aren't really cameras and I couldn't zoom in a tad. 

Sun!

The trip back along Ridge Road was another good wee blast and as I was following last weekends route so was Midland and Watershed Road,  This time around I decided to capture those two crackers on video.

I'd left my ride on the ride a fair bit later than the last one but was home by around 4 just as the skies were turning a wee bit less friendly - nice timing.

Another great ride, but perhaps I should go somewhere different next weekend...

A Magic Mousecapade

The weather was supposed to be a bit dodgy over the weekend, it being winter I 'spose, but after walkies on Sunday the sun was actually out and while it was a bit chilly, the rain appeared to be holding off.  Right, better get a skid in then...

A few weekends ago the Mighty WR had a bit of a birthday and I'd kinda been hanging out to find an excuse to give it some exercise.  A bit of rain during the week also promised nicely settled gravel and even perhaps the prospect of some mud!  A trip up the valley beckoned.

After getting some fuel, I made my way to the closest bit of gravel.  This involved following another loaded up Adv bike (no idea who he was but he wasn't fast enough to outrun the WR) out of Ashhust and then up Ulysses Road which has tragically had the top gravel section sealed recently.

At the top, he went left while I turned right onto the gravel section of Watershed Road.  And was it good?  Yes, it was!  There was actually very little gravel and in some places there was dirt showing through, occasionally this was deliciously slippery to keep me on my toes.

I was grinning almost straight away and starting to remember what a great little bike I was on.  It is so easy to ride and very forgiving as you can manhandle it all over the place, catch slides easily and in places where the big bikes are a handful or slow. the little bike is just easy.  The Motoz Desert H/T rubber is perfect on the bike too.

Eventually I dropped off the ridge and down into Pohangina do I could go up one side of the valley and then return down the other side.  It also meant I could take in one of my favourites:

Somewhere after I hit the short seal section I got a fairly decent scare when a pheasant flew across my bows.  It was that close that I got hit in the face (visor up) my small stones and dust that were coming out of its feathers - it must have been having a dust bath when I disturbed it.

Next up was the short bit of Makoura Road to take me across towards Apiti.  More good gravel with a quick photo stop at the bridge.

By now it was about 12pm and I was kinda keen to head back for some lunch, but naturally, I'd not had enough gravel so it was time for Ridge Road.

There was a bit more gravel on the road but it was still awesome fun on the little bike.  Cue video number two:

Following the Ridge, I eventually got back onto Finnis Road and reversed my earlier ride through to the Ulysses Road turn-off and then home for lunch.

A great little ride of somewhere just over 130km and a fantastic average speed of (including stops) of about 53km/h.  Go the little WR!

The Project

Ok, so I hinted that I was undertaking a project.  Don't worry, it's not too strenuous and won't stop me riding all over the countryside.  In fact it might very well encourage me to carry on riding all over the countryside...

On the Adventure Rider forum there is a Photos subforum where there are all sorts of threads featuring "your bike somewhere or other" or "your bike next to a" and things like that.  I post in a few of them from time to time but decided to start my own.

Dairy pays for my riding (and the pies) and with about a billion old dairy factories around NZ - I know, I've ridden past a bunch, now I just have to find them all again...

So, I've created the thread (and so far nobody else has shown a lot of interest 🤣) and posted up about four local ones and created a GoogleMap that will hopefully capture a few more old factories over time.

Here's my pics so far (more info in the Adv Rider thread):

Anyway, on yer bike and join in...

Saturday sojurn

Saturday was a cracker and with the weather supposed to be turning bad I decided that I needed to get a ride in.

On last week's ride, we'd finished up really early and as we were coming back from Dannevirke I couldn't help but being drawn to the sight of Wharite sticking out from the ranges.  I was very tempted to lead the crew up there but it may have made Andy late and there was also a chance of a dousing as there were plenty of clouds hanging out up there.  Oh well, another day...

So, yep, Wharite was my target.  I pictured a quick trip to the top and then a pie in Woodville and home.  A quick little blast in the late morning sunshine...

I was also in the mood for playing with different GoPro mounting options.  (Reviewing the footage later, I got a bit moody about the missing sound in some of the videos).

The ride up the hill was pretty nice except for the sun hiding a lot of the corners.  This knocks the pace back (funny that) a bit as does the skinny road that often has a bit of traffic on it.

But still, I made it up to the views...

Then it was time for the descent and a different camera position.

Back on the flat, it was not quite lunchtime so I decided that I'd go for a bit more of a wander, work on a little project of mine (more in another post) and then get that pie in Pahiatua.

The cow may be a giveaway...

After crossing SH2, I made my way through Hopelands and towards Millers Road where I'd take in that neat bit of gravel before heading into Pahiatua.  Along the way though, I noticed another wee road disappearing off to the left.  

I'd ridden past it a few times before and wondered where it went (with at least some inling) and as you can see from the map, I did ride past it again before doing a 180 and checking it out.  Pahaheke Road soon went to gravel and after hooking onto a few more roads (again following my nose a bit), I hit Makairo Track and confirmed my "inkling".

Being alone and not in the mood for dropping a T7 off the side of Makairo Track, I decided to skip what would have been a fairly adventurous ride and popped out at another old building.

There's that cow again...

Now it was time for that lovely Millers Road:

Well, that was fun, now to find a pie...

And that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - my pepper steak was only just warm.  At least it didn't kill me overnight...

Time to head home on the most excellent Tararua Road:

That was even funner!  And after a quick squirt over the track, that was the ride.  Cracker of a day and some neat roads.  We now have a cooler route to Makairo track Colin...