The Longest Ride

Last Sunday was my next chance to get the new bike out and get it nearer to its first service. Stu from Adventure Tours & Moto hire had organised a ride out from Wellington and I had the opportunity to meet up with them at Masterton.

This meant an earlish start for me and after getting up too early I hit the road with my riding gear still setup for summer riding - no liners.  No problem, it was a nice morning in Ashhurst...

Unfortunately, as soon as I crossed the hill I started encountering wet roads and the odd little patch of light rain.  It wasn't that warm either, I was glad that I'd fitted the hot grips the day before.

Naturally I needed to avoid main roads as much as possible so took the normal gravel route down to Eketahuna, stopping at the same place as the weekend before for more glamour shots.

Nice firewood supply...

South of Eketahuna, I was once again got off the main road and took the road through to Mauriceville.  Along the way I spotted a gravel road that I've been meaning to explore and nearly took it but did not want to be late in meeting the guys so carried on down the seal "enjoying" the odd shower along the way.

In Masterton, I fueled up (13L for the 300km I'd ridden, 30 since the fuel warning came up and still supposedly 3L to go) and tried to stay out of the drizzle while waiting for the others.  Chevvy made quite the entrance on his silent DR but laughing his head off.  He'd managed to run out of fuel South of Masterton and had to get a tow into town...

Once we'd all arrived, we had a quick briefing before tearing off into the drizzle.  We ended up retracing my track up towards Mauriceville but South of Mauriceville we turned off onto our first delicious bit of gravel.  Straight away I was loving the T7 on the stony stuff...and guess what?  We hit that gravel I'd missed on the way down.

What with being on a new bike and all, I took a lot of video, so, rather than post it all here, if you are interested there is this playlist with all of it.

With 8 (I think) bikes in the group we were running the cornerman system so we all had a go at it and this gave me a chance for some pictures.

Back on familiar territory

Once few a couple of "new to me" roads we ended up some more familiar gravel roads through to Alfredton.  From there we did a short stretch of seal before turning off to tackle Pori Road.

The East Coast of the North Island has had some pretty foul weather over the last week or so (some areas have had a metre of rainfall) and Pori Road had obviously had the odd drop of rain as there were some muddy spots to negotiate on the scramble up the hill.  It was great and the T7 appeared to enjoy it quite a bit...

We stopped just below the summit as we were flagging Puketoi Road (it possibly would have been fairly challenging after all the rain) for an early lunch and to enjoy the views - a bit murkier than usual...

After lunch, Colin and I got Stu's blessing to shoot off ahead of the pack and to meet up at Tinui for coffee.  The ride down Pori Road was nearly as good as the ride up...

Turning off just North of Alfredton, we were soon back on some outstanding gravel and making for Tinui.  This was another fantastic ride on great gravel.  The only dodgy bit was near Tinui where there had been some flooding which had covered the road in some fairly slippery stuff.

Arriving at Tinui, Colin and I ordered coffee and it wasn't long before the rest of the gang joined us.  Perhaps I shouldn't mention Chevvy's arrival but it was fairly avant-garde and entertaining for the onlookers...

A DR the right way up

Next up was a scoot through towards Riversdale which was actually bypassed as we hit the gravel on Homewood and Kaiwhata Roads.  I'll post the video only 'cos it's short courtesy of me somehow selecting Hyplerlapse mode...

Not far from where the above pics were taken Colin and I turned North while everyone else made their way South.  This meant that we got to have a quick coffee and fuel up in Eketahuna before taking those same favourite back roads back to the Pahiatua Track and then home.

I've already forgotten about getting damp and cold as the ride was so much fun and the new bike pretty darn good on the gravel - actually, it's better than that, it's awesome!  So easy to ride...

About time you got home, is it walkies now?

2022 TT2000 write-up

 Finally done: http://banditrider.weebly.com/2022-tt2000.html

Farkling...

 So yeah, stuff has been arriving in the mail and stuff needs to be fitted...

First up a tank ring for my Givi bag.  Easy job but I'm not exactly in love with how it all goes together - a little flimsy.  Hopefully it'll be all good.

The courier also brought a set of hot grips and an Eastern Beaver 4CS accessory power wing-ding.

The 4CS has one hot-all-the-time circuit and 3 switched.  As with the S10, the hot grips won't go onto this system as the controller (as the PC-8 on the S10 does) might detect a voltage drop and not allow the grips to stay on.  Direct to the battery they went...

Having installed a few sets of grips now, the job was pretty easy except for getting the LHS grip off.  Man was it glued on!  The heat gun didn't do any damage to the glue and the compressor couldn't get a look in.  In the end the grip died...

Then it was time for the 4CS.

Before shot

This couldn't have been easier as EB make a pug and play kit for the Tenere (pretty sure they do an AT one too Steve, Dave).  The harness plugs directly into one of the handy accessory plugs (see pic) that Yamaha provide and then it's just tidying up the wiring, fitting the fuses and hooking it up to the battery and hey presto.

After:  I'll tidy up more once I connect the GPS and...

Also made up a cable to plug into the tank bag for USB charging and that's currently the only thing plugged into the 4CS.  The GPS will be hooked up once I get a mount - I'm gonna try just running it off the USB, sitting in the see-thru pocket of the tank bag tomorrow/

The only other thing I've done is attached a GoPro mount to the crash bars.  It's one I've had lying around for a while.  I had to move it down the front of the bars so that I just didn't end up with the indicator on film...

Feeding the addiction...

With four bikes in the shed and generally using any excuse to get out and enjoy two wheels, you might say that I have a bit of an addiction.  You could be right, and that addiction is definitely encouraged by a couple of "pushers", namely Colin and John.

Yes, they are definitely to blame...

And thus a new designer drug appeared on the scene:

Yeah, my first brand new bike in fifteen years (remember that silver bike languishing in my shed) and ain't she pretty?

I picked it up from Upper Hutt on Saturday morning and then one of the aforementioned drug dealers joined me in a fairly cruisy ride home via the Wairarapa.

After a not too bad (it can be very slow and busy) trip over the Rimutakas we puttered out to Martinborough and took more back roads (all seal) to Masterton for lunch.

Right away I really liked the sweet little motor.  It's very smooth and offers up some pretty reasonable torque.  With it's great Adv bike riding position and (relative to the S10) light weight it was very easy to ride and I was immediately at home.

After putting some gas into at Masterton (just $3/l) we carried on up through Mauriceville to Eketahuna where I just had to have a wee play on the gravel.  It's safe to say the bike likes the gravel too.  Once again that smooth little donk really is nice, giving you nice smooth acceleration out corners.  I wasn't game enough to switch the ABS off but had no issues with brakes and tyres on the gravel.

Purdy!

A quick jaunt over to Feilding to show the olds and then it was time to introduce the bike to it's stable mates.

Yeah, there's an extra WR making itself at home at the moment

Team Yamaha

And so, now for the farkling...

There's are a few things already on order but the stuff that I had put on before delivery was: rad guard, bark busters, crash bars, Givi luggage racks and a tank ring.  My old luggage from the S10 goes straight on but I am considering soft luggage for use on both Teneres.

And in the above pictures you can also see one of the other farkles that turned up while I was picking the bike up.  Another Cool Cover to help the comfort - yes, they work.

Still to come are the hot grips, an Eastern Beaver 4 circuit aux power thingee to run 'lectrical stuff off and a mount for my GPS.  That may do for now...

Really looking forward to getting it all setup and putting plenty of dirty miles on it.  The big Ten can have a wee relax from that duty...