First Service

 ...and a pootle

Somehow it took me nearly two weeks to get the T7 near it's first service but on Saturday I was booked in to get the deed done.

Wanting to be there by 9am, I left home at about 6:45 and got to test out the 4 LED's sticking out the front of the bike - yes, they work just fine!

After a quite potter down to Waikanae, I stopped in to pick up a KTM rider and off we went, pointing the bikes to the recently opened Transmission Gully to try out the new road.  Well, after a heap of delays it was nice to see that it's a fairly decent strip of tar that will save motorists a fair bit of time getting into Wellington.  There were a few others out trying the road, including some boys in blue and a reasonable line up of Ferrari's, Porsches, Audi's, Maclaren's and the like - all zipping along at the ridiculous pace of 100km/h.

Ditching the new road, we turned off onto the Haywards to make our way over to the Hutt.  Along the way we rode past a big gaggle of T7's turning out of Moonshine Valley where some idiot went trail riding once.  Colin and I suspect that they were all part of the orgainised Tenere tour on over the few days prior.  Ross was probably in there somewhere.

Ten minutes or so later we were at the bike shop and the bike was soon being seen too.

While we were waiting we spent the time chatting to Mac and checking out the shop.  We also met another bloke with good taste - his T7 still has a few k's to go before it's first service - hope he sorts that out pronto 😉

Once the bike was finished, we zoomed off to get some fuel and then popped over the hill to Featherston in search of brekkie.  This proved futile and I even discovered a bakery that didn't deserve the name - no pies!  Back onto the bikes we went.

Eventually we stopped in Masterton where we found a cafe we hadn't been to in a while and actually got a nice breakfast lunch.

After lunch we took off Route 52 and made our way to Tiraumea via the short bit of gravel on Bartons Road which after a bit of drying out during the week was a slightly different ball game than just 6 days ago - it wasn't as hard packed and the bikes moved around a bit more on the marbles.

North of Tiraumea, we turned East to make our way through the Waihoki Valley - one of our regular stretches of fun gravel.  The road here definitely had had some weather with even the first section through to Huia Road showing the odd damp and slippery patch.  Stopping at the turn-off, we both agreed that Spur Road might end up being "interesting".

And yes, it was...

After stopping at the usual spot, we dropped back down the other side and made our way through some more slippery stuff and out to the Coast Road turn-off.

There we stopped briefly and traded bikes so that Colin could sample a quality machine 😉 and I could see what the orange attraction was all about.  Actually, we both enjoyed comparing the bikes and it gave us something to talk about when we stopped in Pongaroa for a drink and a snack.

Eventually we had to make our way home so we took the seal as far as Millers Road where we got to taste a tiny bit of gravel before making our way through Hopelands to Woodville and then back over the Saddle to my place for another coffee at my place.

Another great little ride on the new bike and yes, I'm really enjoying it - it is so easy to ride fairly quickly on gravel and has pretty good manners on the seal as well 👍

Where to next?