Happy New Year!

Yep, a new year eh?  Better get started on some riding then...

Today it was the Connie's turn and I was dead keen for a decent little pootle.  So much so that I never even took any photos...you'll have to make do with videos...

I left home just before 10am and it was already fairly warm so before I left I opened up all the vents in my gear and man, they are good!

My ride started with a quick fang over the track and into Pahiatua for fuel.  Then it was time for some fun on Pahiatua-Pongaroa Road.  It was a great and possibly getting close to what Geoff would call a "spirited ride".

Here's a snippet of the climb up out of Makuri - lots of great corners but also a lot of crap on the road in places...

Did you spot my little bit of excitement?  Well, here it is again:

Ok, so not too bad but it did give me a bit of a wake-up and probably felt worse than it actually was.  As you can see in the first video, there was plenty of crap on the road in places - it pays to keep awake eh?

Further on up the road there was another more mobile hazard (or hazards) but I was good enough to push them down the road a bit for the farmer...

Not a lot was happening in Pongaroa when I got there (just some campers parked up emptying out their black water tanks - eeewww!) so I carried on.  There was more interesting hazards along the way: unmarked new seal and my favourite hot, slippery tar...

At the Weber Road I turned left to ride back towards Dannevirke and had a sweet ride except for some more slithering on hot tar - damn, our roads really are crap in places!

A short bit of SH2 got me South to Oringi where I turned off again to ride more nice back roads to Mangatainoka.

Still enjoying the ride I decided to spice it up the ride back over the track by first riding through to Ballance and following the hill along until I hit the track again.  Another quick squirt over the hill and then I had to settle down for the cruise home.

Home just after half twelve and even though those vents in my gear had worked well, it was good to get my gear off and hook into a cold drink.  By now it was around 27-28 degrees and sun was fair blazing down.

Anyway, a very nice way to start off the New Year!  I hope everyone else has had a great New Years and perhaps got it off to a good start with a ride :)