2008 Coast to Coast

Yesterday was the annual Coast to Coast run to raise money for the local rescue helicopter and for a nice change the weather decided to play ball guaranteeing a good turn-out.

Mark and I headed out to Himatangi at around 9 and joined up with a lot of bikers along the way. Parking up at Himatangi we soon ran into Brian, Horse and a few others while we registered and milled around waiting for a start. While registering a certain red Connie also turned up and parked next to me.

Leaving Himatangi we took the boring route up to Sanson and then into Fielding where we stopped so that Mark could top up the Bandit before heading on to Ashhurst, the Saddle and into Woodville for lunch. Along the straights past Colyton we had our first experience with the usual idiots that like to come out for the ride and have to pass everyone else regardless of any safety concerns.

Coming into Woodville was a very slow process as all the bikes had bunched up and were crawling - I even got stuck behind my old K6 Bandit, 2-up with a couple of mods since I traded it. It was here that I noticed that my temperature gauge was getting a fair bit higher than normal and I couldn't hear the fan (thought it was because of all the other bike noise). When I pointed it out to Mark he looked down and said that he could see that the fan was not turning. No sooner had he said that the high temp warning came up on the bike's screen. I quickly got out of the traffic, went up a side street and parked the bike with a fair bit of worry kicking in.

Once stopped I pulled the seat off and started looking for fuses, hoping that this would be the cause of my problems. I found the correct fuse but had a bit of trouble getting it out. Luckily the old man had popped down from Napier to check out the ride and he was able to pull it and confirm that the fuse was toast. We replaced it with one of the spares and hey presto the fan was back in action.

After this wee drama we grabbed our lunch and then snuck out of Woodville a bit early to stay clear of the main bunch of bikes. We had a fantastic ride over to the beach as the roads were dry and in better than normal condition. We passed a few slower riders and got to Akito before the big rush for cold drinks and a bit of a breather.

Not long after we stopped the rest of the bikes started rolling in and it was entertaining checking out all the different breeds (bikes & bikers) that turn up for the ride. There was even a picture of our bike's (parked up in the pouring rain) from the 2007 ride stuck to the shop window. One of the organisers mentioned that there was over 500 bikes so a pretty good effort and plenty of money raised for the helicopter.

Mark, Brian and I flagged the prize giving as we had to be back in Palmy and had a great ride back through Weber & Danniverke only stopping at Woodville to gas up the Connies before arriving home at around 5pm. A great day out riding and my 8th Coast to Coast badge to add to the collection.