Fellow blogger Sonja has issued a challenge to post 10 photos taken in 2018 on specific topics. Geoff has already answered the challenge so now it's my turn...
1. In the city.
Ok, so I hate cities. Yes, I'm forced to live in one, but I prefer to avoid all the business as much as possible. But, Whanganui is a city right? So here's some city bikes (they're only 150's after all) tooling around in the city...
Cemetery Circuit Boxing Day races
2. In the countryside.
This is more like it! And the Molesworth (NZ's biggest station) definitely counts as the countryside.
Last weekend Colin and I had a little TT planning session and he mentioned that we had better go riding this weekend. So, on Friday night he contacted me and said that he and his mate Carl were coming up for a scoot.
The eagles beemwaas landed at around 9 and after a bit of messing around in town we headed off to hit the track.
From Pahiatua we crossed over onto Pahiatua-Pongaroa Road for the run through to Pongaroa. The roadworks and little bit of metal I slid on a month ago were still there but I can't remember the hawk from last time - it was a real close one and he made me duck. Very close to having to fight him off and pluck feathers/talons etc out of my jacket...
BMW's ruining an otherwise perfect shot...
They're at it again
From Pongaroa we slithered our way on slippery tar and unmarked new seal out to the Weber turn-off and hung a right for Wimbledon. The road out was its normal roller coaster of humps, bumps and broken up surface. I think it's getting worse every time I ride it and it can keep you on your toes - especially when heading into a shady spot where you can't see what's coming up...
Riding north from Wimbledon to Porangahau it was more of the same although the road does improve the further North you get. In Porangahau we stopped for lunch because fish and chips...
After lunch Colin was keen to ride Middle Road again so I led us out to Blackhead Road to start the ride up to Waipuk and Waipawa. You might be able to notice in the video that Blackhead Road has the odd bump too, but it's got nothing on the Weber-Wimbledon section of 52.
In Waipawa we turned off to ride through to Patangata and onto Middle Road. Middle Road is a cracker - it was a good thing Colin was with me to make sure I didn't get too excited...
Rather than ride into Havelock North we crossed SH2 and made our way onto SH50 to start the trip home. The video below has my favourite part but with the temperature at around 28 degrees the roads were melting and the tar very unpredictable. It's a little hard to see in the video but on the top (normally beautiful) corners the entire surface was slippery looking and you could definitely smell the tar. It tends to slow you down a bit...
Hitting Tiko my fuel light decided to come on so my fuel calculator started working overtime. I'm pretty sure I would have made Dannevirke (just not by the route we eventually took) but decided to play it safe and duck into Onga Onga. The others thought it wasn't a bad move as the shop had cold drinks too.
I had another devious plan in mind to avoid the main road but unfortunately for Carl, he had to do a disappearing act as he had something on - pretty sure he would have been late...
That left Colin and I to take a slightly different route back to SH2 before quickly abandoning it for more back roads through to Takapau and Ormonville. We had another quick stop in Dannevirke before turning off at Oringi to take the "short-cut" to Pahiatua. Another quick squirt in blustery conditions over the track had us back over the ranges and into calmer weather in Palmy.
A nice little 475km jaunt to hopefully get my butt into shape for a little ride happening soon...
You may remember the little trouble maker above from my Four Points excursion. It successfully stopped the LHS radiator fan and then because some idiot didn't remove the stone, killed said fan. Arrrgggggh!
Anyway, I've dragged the chain a bit sorting the issue out but finally I tracked a second-hand one down in Oz - new ones appear to be made of gold or something...
it's like a little metal flower...
Oh, and maybe the writing on it on the other side means it's good for another 40hp?
Anyway, once here, I was pretty keen to get it on the bike. So today I tore all the plastic off the LHS of the bike and went at it.
As you can see, everything is super easy to get at with plenty of room for XXXL hands...
Anyway, I got the old one out and (with difficulty) and then started the installation of the brand new second hand one. In the picture above you can see one bolt on the left of the fan bracket. Well, there also happens to be one on the right (and another easy to get one on the bottom) as well. Try imagining me getting my fat hands in that gap to start a little bolt...
What's wrong with this picture?
As you can see, somehow the plastic on the RHS of the bike has come off as well...
Crap everywhere!
To get the little bolt in, I had to unbolt the radiator so I could make enough room for fingers and tools. While I was there I also removed the original horn which has just been catching bugs since the Stebel was installed a hundred years ago...
Doing this made the job only just possible and gave me a fair bit more practice in pulling things apart. I think that everything is now mostly where it should be...
Before installing the last piece of fairing I thought that it was probably a good idea to see if everything worked...
Yeah, the original one was noisy too - the RHS one is actually quieter for some reason.
Anyway, pretty pleased to have that sorted as it's pretty hot here at the mo and I'd hate to cook my baby. Moral of the story:if you ever blow a fan on your radiator fans, check the fan before replacing the fuse and starting the bike!
Having got her warmed up I finished up my maintenance tasks by giving her some fresh oil front and rear. I reckon she still sounds sweet as a nut with 154,000km on the clock now eh?
Man, how I hate it...wrestling Adv tyres on and off is a serious wrestle when done in my shed...
Anyway, got a wee ride coming up next months and the bike also needs a WOF so today was the day to finally put on that front E-07 that has been in my shed for over a year and also to chuck one of the new E-07+'s on the rear.
Here's a couple of pictures to try and show what a new E-07 front looks like compared to one with a mere 19,500km on it...
It may have even passed another warrant...
The rear had managed to hang in there for 8,855km and here's what it looks like compared to the new E-07+. The Tenere is a bit hard on the centre of the tyres...and both tyres have no chicken strips so it shows you how good they are and also how hard they are!
I started with the front tyre as this is always the hardest. Popping the tyre off the bead was no sweat with my new bead breaker but getting the new one on is always a challenge. Anyway, I got there in the end...
Here's to the next 20,000kms!
The rear was next and it was a lot easier. Because the rear is wider I can even use the bead breaker to pop the tyre onto the bead too - mint! Checkout how chunky the new + is!
Somehow I don't think this tyre is going to last...
I just hope it hangs on in the wet...
Oh, and while I was pottering about I had to add another farkle...
Except it's more like: the continued work of Heath Robinson.
I needed to get the GPS up higher on the Tenere as it was blocking the very top line of the gauges. And because of the little bump in the cradle it wasn't as simple as using the little plate that Dad made up for me for the 550. Here's what I came up with:
Yeah, the bolts are still too long...
And no, it's not made out of wood - I'm not going to say what it's made of, you'll have to guess...
Front and centre
Now let's compare the before and after:
Ok, the camera angle is not the same but she's bang-on as as far I'm concerned - right chuffed like.
And of course I then had to tidy up the setup on the Connie too:
Gee, this holiday thing takes some getting used to...but I like it!
With Friday being my last official day of annual leave it would have been rude to waste it. So, I saddled up the Tenere and went searching for some gravel...
It was a fairly warm day so the vents in my gear were left open but riding out of Palmy and across to Feilding it was fairly windy so the vents were working especially well...
I was aiming to hit gravel somewhere near Mangaweka so rather than take Vinegar Hill and SH1, I rode through Kimbolton and Rangiwahia before popping out at Mangaweka. Apparently the old bridge is not long for this world so I thought I'd better stop and gets some pics of it.
At SH1 I turned left and rode a few hundred metres before taking a right onto my first bit of gravel. Te Kapua Road starts off with a nice (if a little tight) climb up a hill and pretty sure you get the feeling that you are well and truly in the wops. I was keen to try out a couple of new mounts (yeah, I know, more mounts) but it took a while to find a decent place to stop. Eventually I did though and if you check out the video you'll see how tight, narrow and slow the road is. Oh, and eventually it changes into Manui Road for what looks like no apparent reason...
Eventually (and without much warning) you emerge from the middle of nowhere right back out on SH1 just South of Taihape. The traffic was certainly a lot heavier on SH1 - I never saw another vehicle while off on the gravel.
In Taihape I stopped briefly to buy some lunch to take with me and then missed the turn I wanted. I had intended to climb up Pukenaua Road to Ridge Road and stop for lunch at the top of the hill - the views are awesome. But I missed the turn and rather than dice with death doing a U-turn on SH1, I carried on and took the sealed Mataroa and Rongoiti Roads to Rongoiti Junction.
Here I parked up and had my wrap while listening to music blaring from my helmet...
Top box picnic table and helmet sound system...
Knowing roughly (just roughly) where I was, I turned down Koeke Road to take me further West towards Papanui Junction. This route was all seal but has more corners than the length of SH1 (well, probably) and plenty of crap on the road to keep you on your toes. Big Adv bikes love this sort of stuff.
Rather than dropping down Okaka Road (another brilliant gravel road but much better in the opposite direction - think hill climb), I decided to take Pohonui Road instead. Pohonui Road pretty much runs parallel to Turakina Valley Road and so takes in a lot of the same sort of country but it is perhaps a bit narrower and slower than Turakina Valley. I love the views out across the valley.
Did ya spot the pheasant? No? Well here it is again:
I must have woken him up and what you can't see in the video is that he was still trying to get off the ground as I went past. He flew pretty much right beside me until he got moving properly and could veer off to safety. At least they are faster than hawks and don't try to turn at low speed in front of you...
Eventually Pohonui spat me out onto Turakina Valley Road and I decided that seeing it was a nice day, I'd stop and check out the waterfall.
To a hot (and hot?) motorcyclist the water looked pretty tempting but I'd probably have broken my neck trying to get down to it. There was only one thing for it - get some wind through those vents again. It turns out that if you turn the wick up a little the vents work even better - who'd thunk?
From Hunterville I then returned home via Vinegar Hill and Feilding with no other wildlife encounters or gravel flipping. Another nice little ride in the countryside but only 1 more day off before going back to work :(