A short warm-up

Tomorrow is this month's BRR ride but Neil has already arrived in Palmy for the night so today I met up with him and Colin for a bit of pre-BRR ride.

First up we went and checked out some new Suzy's, Triumph's and Yamaha's - some of them were even adv bikes.  We managed to leave the bike shops on the bikes we arrived on and only left fingerprints and drool...

Next we met up with Graeme for an early lunch and a catch up before heading off on a quiet pootle.

Our first stop was for some fuel in Ashhurst before we tackled the Saddle.  The road was a bit wet and slippery in places and there's some roadworks where they're taking out a few corners (sods!) but it's always a nice little ride.  I decided that we needed to stop at the windmill lookout so as I could get some photos for the blog...only had the phone with me though...

A Wee & a Vee and not a Triumph in sight...

Oh, there it is...

Another nice winter's day

ergs a generating

From the lookout we dropped on down towards Woodville but turned right instead of left and made for Ballance.  Through here I pulled a swiftee on Colin by turning onto Tararua Road - Colin says he's given up gravel but I just wanted to see if it was true.

It was a nice little squirt on the gravel and Colin must still secretly like gravel (apparently he is keen on a set of E-09's for the Wee) as Neil and I didn't have to wait long for him at the other end of Tararua Road.  Next up was a quick squirt over the track followed by a catch up at the bottom of the hill.

Here the other two turned off to make for Feilding while I pootled home to a waiting lawn mower.  Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be as nice as today's...