Sunday, January 31, 2016

Woodville MX

Today was the annual Woodville Motocross meet and Dad and I went along for a while to watch some great racing and get a bit sunburned.

Plenty of action to be seen:








It was all a bit much for one local Yamaha dealer...


He had his fan club there though...


And looked pretty good out there on the track too:




One of the highlights of the day is the River Race.  Lots of laughs and it looks like fun too:


Anyway, I nice way to fill in a chunk of Sunday and if you're going to get sunburned it may as well be while watching bikes in action!

More pics here.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Try not to melt

After a good night's sleep (possibly dreaming of Africa Twins) on Saturday night, I awoke to a nice clear day with a very energetic sun already warming things up and the prospect of a short ride to meet up with Neil and Colin for coffee.

After filling up in Feilding the Connie led me out to Cheltenham and insisted on having a bit of a boogie over Vinegar Hill to Hunterville.  Arriving at the cafe there was already a V-Strom rider on the scene with just a Triumph rider to arrive.  
Pretty sure I've taken this photo before...
Neil arrived not long after me and while we had coffee showed off one of his new toys and discussed that little test ride I'd had on Saturday.  After coffee, the others departed to see if the Paraparas were still where we'd left them while I decided on a roundabout way to get home - there was a tag that needed nabbing.

By now things were really getting warm and for the first time I opened up all of the vents and mesh panels that my gear has before leaving the cafe.

The ride down SH1 was boring, well, actually hot and boring but at least there was only 3 cops between Hunterville and Bulls...

In Bulls I went straight ahead and made for Scotts Ferry.  I'd never actually ridden out there before (been out there fishing though) and enjoyed the ride as there were a few nice corners in places.  The bugs were out and about though...



Arriving at the little settlement I set about trying to find the tag with only a dim memory of what the sign in the photo said.  I eventually found it in the car park by the beach.


Next up was the return journey back to Bulls and the task of finding a new tag.  I kept my eye out for something interesting.  I eventually settled on this flash little bus stop.

I didn't check out how big the TV was...
My next mission was to get myself home and out of hot riding gear and see if I'd been beaten to the tag.  No worries there - nobody else was mad enough to be out in the heat...


Sunday, January 17, 2016

Summer?

Yesterday Mark and I had a bit of mission to take care of in Lower Hutt and with it being summer and all, I ditched the waterproof liners from my gear.  As it turns out this wasn't the smartest move...

Mark rocked up to my place just before 8 and we hit the road South.  We were very well behaved on the way down but by the time we got to the Paicok Hill turn-off there were the odd patches of damp road and a few spits in the air.  The higher we clambered up the hill the damper it got until we were slithering around inside some low flying clouds.  A light drizzle chased us all the way into the Hutt.

Before leaving we decided that we had better not take the same route home as we did coming down so took off into the rain, aiming for the Rimutakas which were somewhere out in the murk...

The ride over the 'takas was not too bad but we did get stuck behind a lot of slow traffic as we dropped into Featherston.  I was also not in any fear of overheating as I was fairly damp under by gear...

In Carterton we stopped for lunch before carrying on up to Masterton for fuel.  By now the weather was a lot better and I was boiling off the water underneath my jacket and starting to think about opening some vents in the gear...

From Masterton we road through to Mauriceville and then crossed over to Route 52 and hammered it up to Alfredton.  There we stopped so that Mark could sample the might Vee and I his dirty óle Bandit.  We had a blast cruising through to Pahiatua and then back over the track into Palmy.


Oh, and we managed to get that little chore done too...


Saturday, January 09, 2016

2015 Highlights

Following on from:
2013 Highlights
2014 Highlights
January

I got test ride an XT660R and ride the Chateau to Plateau but the highlight was a nice quiet ride up Route 52 - one of my favourites.  It was a beautiful day!




February

There's no question that the highlight of February was Scooter Bob's visit and the chance to show him the South Island on the TT2000.




March

In March I test rode an S10 and did some gravel riding and the highlight was our monthly BRRBT ride over the Annie.




April

April's top ride was a ride with Neil and Colin up the Paraparas - one of our favourite roads.  It was a beautiful day too!




May

In may the BRRBT ride took us up a mountain and the BRR Adv ride was full of action.




June

In June the weather affected the Adv ride so much I had to break the story up into three parts!

http://banditrider.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/brr-just-another-average-awesome-akitio.html
http://banditrider.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/brr-just-another-average-awesome-akitio_23.html
http://banditrider.blogspot.co.nz/2015/06/brr-just-another-average-awesome-akitio_24.html





July

In July we had a great BRRBT ride but my favourite ride of the month was a quiet little trip up the Pohangina Valley on the DL.




August

In August we had another great BRRBT ride where I got plenty of puncture fixing practice but one non-riding highlight was changing the tyres on the Connie and also replacing the batteries in the TPS sensors - something I'd never done and where Dad came in pretty handy...




September

In September Neil and I were glad to see the beginnings of Spring and had ourselves a fantastic gravel ride.





October

In October I was a little disappointed to miss out on completing the NI1600 but I did have a cracker of a ride up through the Waioeka Gorge - even if it rained for half of the ride and I got no pictures...


November

In November I did something a little out of the ordinary but the highlight was completing another C1K.





December

I ended the year with just a few small rides, the Coast to Coast being one of the best.




So, between the two bikes I managed to clock up around 19-20,000km and there are definitely plans afoot for plenty of riding in 2016...I can't wait...