Sunday Arvo

With only a couple of hundred k's to put on the Concours before it's first service and the weather playing ball there was nothing for it but to have a nice quiet Sunday afternoon ride.

After humming and harring over where to go I finally decided to head on over to Wanganui and come back via Fordell, Hunterville and Vinegar Hill. After a quick squirt over to Bulls I stopped for a quick bite before heading on to Wanganui. This is probably one of my least favourite roads to ride as it is a great piece of road but you have to take it quietly as the cops like to keep a close eye on it.

Never mind, I soon was in Wanganui and then out on the road to Fordell. Time for a bit of fun. Out the other side of Fordell you start to enter some proper back roads and have to keep a close eye out for unmarked roadworks, gravel and stock so a bit of caution is in order.

I was coming around a corner in some loose stuff when I noticed a group of bikes pulled over on the side of the road. I recognised them as some of the Kiwi Bikers I'd ridden with a few weeks ago so I pulled up to say gidday. I soon found out that a couple of them had been unlucky enough to get caught out in the crap on the road and had fallen off - one quite dramatically (over the handlebars). Luckily all were pretty much ok but a bit sore and their horses were able to be fixed up enough for them to continue on.

Had a great little ride through with them to Hunterville where it was time to stop for fuel and a drink before tackling Vinegar Hill. There were also some other guys at the cafe taking a breather - one on a new BMW HP2 which looked as though it'd been enjoying some back roads.

On the road again and I was chaffing at the bit to hit Vinegar Hill as I'd missed out on doing it last weekend. I ended up chasing a Triumph 595 and Yamaha Thunderace up the hill and had a ball. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Concours's handling!

I said goodbye to the rest of the guys at Bunnythorpe and headed home. Didn't quite get to 1,000k's on the odo - only 979, never mind, I'll book her in for a service this week.

Great way to cap off the weekend.