Accidental Gravel ride

The weather has changed again here - after nearly a week of nice cold, frosty but sunny days we've changed back to warmer drizzly days.  This morning I got a few chores done and then happened to notice that it wasn't raining so thought that I might be able to squeeze in a short ride on the Yammy.

The folks were off exploring Woodville/Pahiatua in their bus so I thought that I might just pootle across and see if they had any coffee.  I didn't bother with any of my Adv gear and even forgot to change over to contacts - it was going to be a short ride after all...

After riding through town and on to Ashhurst I hit a hold-up in the gorge.  It seems that a tin-top couldn't manage to stay out of trouble and had ended up wrapping itself around something.  After 5 mins or so of waiting it had finally been scraped up and carted off and I was on my way again.

Just before exciting the gorge i ducked down into the reserve where campers often park and had a nosey for the olds.

No bus in these pictures 'cos I never found them...

There was no sign of them in Woodville either so I carried on through some light rain to Pahiatua.  Once again they were MIA so I chucked around a few ideas before deciding on riding a bit further South and the taking some gravel roads back up along the ranges towards Mangamire.

The first bit of gravel up Cliff Road and along Quarry Road was in really nice condition and I zipped through fairly nicely.  There was a bit more gravel on Mangaraupiu Road and the combination of rain on my visor and old Tourance's kept my speed down.  Contacts and a visor that would stay up would have been nice...

Pukehoi Road was in much better nick and the bike really enjoyed the chance to boogie along a bit more.  The only other traffic I saw was a couple of kids on a little XR tearing off on some errand for Dad I 'spose.

The light rain was still hanging around (yes, it was even raining in the pictures above) but I was really enjoying the riding and I might even be getting used to how the big girl handles the gravel - hint: very well.  Plenty of good views along the way too.

By now I was getting near to the end of the gravel but it was all nice and open so I got the opportunity to dial up a few more herbs and experience a little yellow light on the dash flashing away at me.  Traction control is pretty damn neat!  I had it in mode 2 which allows for a little bit of misbehaving and I managed a short power slide coming out of one nice fast corner followed by the previously mentioned flashing as we pounded on up the road - fantastic fun!

And then it was all over, I was back on the seal of Nikau Road.  A blustery ride on damp roads over the track ended with me finally back in town.  A couple of km in harder rain saw me home about one and a half hours later than I'd planned...