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?