tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-352296042024-03-16T11:54:10.215+13:00Bandit RiderAndrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.comBlogger1669125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-87108636938396741842024-03-09T16:59:00.004+13:002024-03-09T16:59:33.198+13:00PootlingPopped over to the folks for a visit and took a slightly longer route home. Tried out Sport mode, think I like it...Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-18430798573160317212024-03-06T20:41:00.002+13:002024-03-06T20:41:52.960+13:002024 TT2000You'll never guess but I've actually finished the write-up! Record time eh?Here it be: http://banditrider.weebly.com/2024-tt2000.htmlOh, and we followed up the 350km on Sunday morning with a wee ride up SH1 to Kaikoura (approx 590km including one 445km hop where we didn't get off the bikes) in the afternoon.Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-84894580244308899872024-03-03T16:41:00.003+13:002024-03-03T16:41:50.309+13:002023 TT2000Yeah, it's all about the TT2000 at the moment. And as far as I'm concerned that's just great!I thought that having just finished teh '24 event that I should definitely get my '23 write-up done. Actually, it's not that slack of me as we only just completed it in October...Without further ado, here it is: 2023 TT2000Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-13981815703456917492024-02-29T18:24:00.003+13:002024-02-29T18:24:31.308+13:00Getting organised early...(function(d, s, id) { var js, pjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//www.tickcounter.com/static/js/loader.js"; pjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, pjs); }(document, "script", "tickcounter-sdk"));2025 TT2000 Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-23463886956625401452024-02-27T16:14:00.003+13:002024-02-27T16:14:51.735+13:00All Done! Might even try and do a write-up at some stage...Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-70431597639893195432024-02-20T18:17:00.002+13:002024-02-20T18:17:15.726+13:00An overdue post...Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-85086245078828678672024-01-04T19:46:00.000+13:002024-01-04T19:46:47.475+13:00I think I like it ...two photo stops on a short ride from Feilding to home...How did this make it in here?Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-75322521517317878992024-01-04T16:34:00.002+13:002024-01-04T16:34:54.174+13:00Kick-offTime off must be put to good use. This means riding!Prior to Christmas, Colin and I had been kinda planning out which rides we might want to tick off over the break and one that I'd suggested was a trip through the forgotten highway as we hadn't been through there in quite a while. With it being the holiday break and summer we thought that the road would be busy and running with Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-44680072101127116182023-12-28T14:54:00.001+13:002024-01-04T15:43:04.895+13:00A dusty end... to 2023A couple of days after Christmas and still getting used to this holidaying lark, a ride was needed. And there just happened to be a local World Raid T7 needing an introduction to gravel. And Colin and I were just the guys to show Dave some of our favourite bits of the local countryside.I thought that I had left home early, but when I hit the gravel of Tararua Road and Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-55343144027514232552023-12-25T17:54:00.004+13:002023-12-25T17:54:29.132+13:00Merry Xmas!Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-40579331148549785452023-12-24T15:51:00.000+13:002023-12-24T15:51:17.115+13:00Xmas Trail Ride Yesterday was the Bush Riders Xmas Trail ride. Today I am sore...Totally worth it!The ride was just 40mins ute drive from my place and by the time I got there, there were plenty of vehicles parked up and bikes being unloaded. I parked between two very flash utes towing even flasher trailers, one of them had led lighting and a fridge was keeping the drinks cool. I had ice Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-90680722212230137712023-12-18T17:50:00.002+13:002023-12-18T17:54:06.676+13:00Sunday SaunterSo, yesterday it was raining in Colin's neck of the woods but it wasn't here and I didn't care anyway so decided to zip up to Taihape to catch up with Glen.After a nice little warm up around the Manawatu Scenic Route (including a couple of lovely sections of un-signposted new seal) I hit the cruise control for the short bit of SH1 and rolled on into catch up with Glen - who wasn't there ☹️. Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-74130276852833629452023-12-12T19:05:00.001+13:002023-12-12T19:05:00.329+13:00Intermission While the new Trumpy was getting its first service I had a few hours to kill. And the bike shop gave me just thing to go for a short pootle.The tiniest 1200 twin I've ever ridden. And what a little cracker!It was easy for short me to be flat footed and the bike was not very long so felt like it wanted to turn in pretty quickly but was actually nice and stable. The motor Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-22290463549069494852023-12-11T17:42:00.001+13:002023-12-11T17:42:53.548+13:00Merry Christmas to me...This post starts with me buying my T7 and then kitting it out to be the great long distance adventure bike that it is. After getting it, my intention was to part ways with the Super Tenere and use the Connie for road stuff and the T7 for adventure riding - including rides like the TT2000 where there is often some Adv options.Fast forward to October this year and the Super Ten Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-31281366642484404642023-12-10T19:16:00.003+13:002023-12-10T19:16:51.296+13:002023 NI800 Part 2Ok, it's been a while since the first NI800 Post and there's a reason for this.Following our burgers we climbed back into our wet gear and headed back out into the night.to carry on South. Glen got away on us as apparently his fire needed some company so Colin, Brett and I let him clear the path for us 🚓.As we pottered through Taihape, I noticed that Glen had only just beaten us as I Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-26488525087822150412023-11-27T19:51:00.002+13:002023-11-27T19:51:54.179+13:00Bouncing off rocksSo, as per normal, Colin and I needed to go for a ride on Sunday. And I was very keen to get out the yellow bike and see if I could still ride it. I somehow managed to talk Colin into a trip into his backyard.The ride was great and as usual a real workout for this unfit old fart. I pretty much stayed on the bike except for a couple of drops (no proper offs). We took in Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-70558158503163951852023-11-13T20:27:00.002+13:002023-11-13T20:27:48.077+13:00Starbucks rideMaybe I should start blogging the odd ride again...Yeah, I have been riding quite a bit lately and not posting a heck of a lot so let's see if I can still string something together from yesterday's wee galivant.After the usual we gravel shortcut across Tararua Road to Pahiatua, I stuck 18L of gas (took out a new mortgage) into the T7 and awaited the arrival of an 890.Well, the 890 never arrived Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-84737072729202722012023-10-24T20:46:00.002+13:002023-12-11T19:07:29.418+13:002023 NI800The weekend before last, Colin and I kicked off a decent bit of motorcycle therapy by taking on the New Zealand Distance Riders North Island 800 (800km in 12hrs). We even managed to convince Brett, Glen and John to join us. Unfortunately John had to pull after catching some dodgy Ozzie virus...For us, our adventure started with getting up to the ride start in Ohakune. After a Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-52367946011612744632023-10-23T09:00:00.001+13:002023-10-23T09:00:00.139+13:00Shedding a little lightAfter a not so nice trip in the dark (and before a big trip) on the Super Ten I decided that she needed some more watts pointing up road. Previously I had a set of expensive Denali D4's on the Super Ten but I've moved them over to the T7 as I was supposed to be selling the S10...(The selling bit hasn't happened yet and the bike performed as flawlessly as ever on a very quick 3,000 odd kms Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-62084794200216086832023-10-22T18:31:00.007+13:002023-10-22T18:31:55.183+13:00Pol again I went for a ride on the T7 today. Managed to avoid any of these sorts of shenanigans:Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-6158768974012732542023-09-30T16:25:00.003+13:002023-09-30T16:25:33.257+13:00It's raining again Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-79792038520283957592023-09-04T18:49:00.005+12:002023-09-04T18:49:52.608+12:00Go Courtney Just another title... View this post on Instagram A post shared by MXGP (@mxgp) Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-61835843954184748982023-08-30T19:34:00.001+12:002023-08-30T19:34:15.576+12:00Tyre changing Mr Birch not only makes offroad riding look easy...Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-63334461485040767812023-08-25T18:01:00.000+12:002023-08-25T18:01:07.963+12:00After work farkling Another wee delivery from Ali-express...Bigger footWater pump protectionAndrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35229604.post-75230158963187560142023-08-15T20:48:00.000+12:002023-08-15T20:48:12.441+12:00Just a short pootleNo riding on Saturday and a later start on Sunday saw me finally deciding to get out and take in a little ride around 11 in the morning.We'd had some pretty chilly weather earlier in the week and on Friday, Whariti got a big dump of snow on it. There were plenty of photos online of 4WD's clambering up through the snow and ice, towing sleds and all sorts of chilly shenanigans. With Andrew Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00716829007873864871noreply@blogger.com6