Well, not really, but it is a little story from the TT...
On the Thursday night before the TT, Glen and I wandered into town to meet up with some of the other TT riders at a local pub for drinks and dinner.
On our way we bumped into Chris and Julian parked up at a different pub so stopped to say hello to them. While listening to some of their mad IBA stories and plans I hear a delightful sound approaching us.
I thought, "that sounds nice", and turned to see what was coming up the street. Ah, I nice red VTR, just like my old one...
As it went past, I noticed tinted front screen and the Two Bros mufflers (they can set off car alarms not you know), which definitely started ringing some bells. Could it be?
And then, of course there was the number plate - that clinched it. My old girl was in Greymouth. But why?
A bit later, Glen and I wandered off to find the pub where were all meeting and stumbled across the VTR parked outside another pub (there appears to be a lot of pubs in Greymouth). The fact that it was outside the "wrong" pub made me wonder if the bike was not here for the TT or had found its way into the hands of a Coaster.
I had to grab a few pics.
Fast forward to Friday and after registering at the TT HQ, Glen and I had plenty of time to wander around looking at bikes and chatting to others. Then I heard that sound again...the old girl was off on a wee 2,000km ride then.
This time I was able to catch up with the rider who had bought the bike in the 'naki where I had sold it to, and it had somewhere in the mid 50kms on it - I sold it in 2011 with around 32k on it. It looks like the current owner might be planning to put a few more kms on it than it's done in the last 14 years..
Glen and I finished the TT pretty early in the morning (9am) and only hung around for about an hour and I didn't get to hear the old girl again, but I hope she got the job done and the owner had a good ride visiting a lot of gas stations...
Early November always heralds the running of the NZDR 1KC - it's a 1,000km cruise that also happens to raise a little cash for Muscular Dystrophy - and it's also a favourite of mine. The Connie seems to enjoy it too...
After the weather had just seemed to sort itself out a bit, it was a bit of a blow seeing a pretty rubbish forecast for the weekend. Oh well, I was going anyway...
As per usual, the Palmy riders start early to arrive in the Hutt around when the Wellington riders are leaving. For this sacrifice, we also get to finish in Palmy rather than Wellington while still ticking off 1,000km.
Unfortunately, James and Monie had to pull out with James' bike having a couple of leaky fork seals. This left just one other local to join me for the ride down. At least he had decent choice in bikes.
The "new" and the old. Guess which has more kms on it...
As both Murray and I were early and nobody else was supposed to be joining us, we got away just before five. The was a little early morning mist around Palmy but it wasn't too bad and by the time we hit Opiki it was pretty much gone.
The trip over the Paekok Hill was fun (even if there were a few damp patches) and I warmed up quite a bit for some reason - must have been my waterproof liners and the thin sweatshirt I was wearing...
We hit the ride HQ just before 6:30 and there wasn't a lot of action going on with most of the other riders already on the road. Murray went in to use the facilities, while I got moving again in the futile hope that I might catch up with Colin somewhere...
I had a pretty good run over the 'takas, only getting held up a couple of times. It was a little windy on the Eastern side but Featherston came up pretty quickly, soon to be followed by Greytown and Carterton.
In Masterton I stopped early for gas as there wasn't much gas to be had where I was heading (Pongaroa was an expensive option) and I hadn't filled since home. I also took the opportunity to scoff down a pie while losing my jersey and fitting my tinted visor.
As I was leaving Murray went through so I tucked in behind him for the next section to Checkpoint One, a sign outside a sheep station.
My stop was a bit quicker than Murray's so I got away before him and enjoyed a nice romp up to CP2 at Alfredton.
Next up was a squirt over Pa Valley Road and then up Mangaone Valley towards Pahiatua. But, instead of riding into town we had to cross over to Pahiatua-Pongaroa Road to CP3. It was here that I first started catching some of the other riders - my quick photo stops letting me get away from a reasonably large group of other riders.
On towards Pongaroa, it was nice to be on dry roads through the Makuri Gorge and then up over the hill. I managed to haul in another rider before Pongaroa and arrived at the checkpoint where another team were getting there CP4 photos.
I was stopped a bit longer here as nature had been calling for a while and you can only ignore it so long. I got away shortly after the other guys but caught them cruising, just up the road a bit.
Once again, Route 52 out to the Weber road was a lot nicer in the dry and by turning left towards Dannevirke we were going to avoid the worst section of 52 to Wimbledon. CP5 was just on the outskirts of Dannevirke.
Next up was a quiet pootle down SH2 to Woodville before hitting a busy and now quite slow Saddle Road. In Ashhurst I once again stopped early for fuel and letting the 3 other guys I'd passed out of Pongaroa sneak past me - for a while...
North of Kimbolton there was a few spits of rain and the road was even a little greasy in places. There was also some mobile hazards coming the other way - a charity ride out of Taihape was rolling through and they had a pretty good turnout. I even snapped a picture of Glen going past on his WR450...
Trust me, he's in the pic...
CP6 - Pemberton Historic place
From Pemberton it was off to SH1 for a while to Marton before making for the 'naki. By now it was fairly warm (especially in Whanganui) and there was a bit more traffic to deal with. However, the further North I rode the darker the skies got. I eventually ran into some light rain at Stratford and the road was quite wet through to Inglewood.
Luckily it dried up not long after just as I caught John and Steve at CP7.
My fuel light had come on just South of Inglewood so New Plymouth was my next stop where I sorted the fuel out and answered another call. Funnily enough, I'd got hungry along the way but by the time I stopped the worms had given up biting so I just carried on around the mountain.
CP8
At the last checkpoint I caught John and Steve again and was quicker at my stop so snuck away ahead of them for the trip home.
They caught me up fairly quickly just South of Opunake when we all caught up to a slower, unpassable driver. It was an ever so slightly slower trip stuck behind him to Mania.
The other two pretty much sat behind me for the rest of the trip South (through an even hotter Whanganui) until Sanson where they turned off onto SH1 for their trip back to Wellywood. Quarter of an hour later and I was home having a cold drink and finally something to eat.
Another great day out on the old girl and a reasonably good time for my 1,030km. Even better that the forecasted thunderstorms waited until Sunday to hit - good stuff!
This Saturday there was a pretty decent excuse for a wee ride - the NZDR's 1KC. That's a quick 1,000km jaunt around the North Island that John runs to raise some funds for Muscular Dystrophy - nice to help out a good cause while getting in a little fun.
In the lead up to the ride I'd been tossing up on which bike to take as the Connie had just had a decent run and the Tenere has been missing out. I ended up registering to ride the Connie and taking the Tenere...
There was also a few other reasons to take the Tenere:
I need to get the last few km out of the current tyres as I have a new set ready to go for the TT.
I had half a tank of gas and that would get me to Upper Hutt and mean I was on a 3 fill ride - less stops.
Glen decided to come along, so I thought the photos would look good with 2 Tenere's in them...
Anyway, back to action. As per normal, we start earlier in Palmy and ride down to the Wellington start with those kms helping make up our 1,000km total (all the Welly riders have to come back down the West Coast anyway so we pretty much ride exactly the same route).
So after a reasonable sleep (I can't complain as Glen had to get up a fair bit earlier to ride from Taihape to Palmy), I got up just before 4am (alarm set for 4:10), had a quick brekkie and was forced to put on my wet weather gear...
At the local BP I met up with a few of the other riders from Palmy and chatted while waiting for Glen. While there some idiot Tenere rider discovered that they were missing their wallet and had to zap home to pick it up off the driveway...
First and last piccy with only 1 Tenere
After this wee faux pas, we were a bit late getting away (probably about 20 minutes) but headed off as a group of 5 on wet roads and the odd bit of drizzle.
The ride down was pretty uneventful and there wasn't too much rain but it meant that we were probably some of the last riders to arrive at the official ride start. We quickly gassed up and signed on.
Count 'em!
Somehow we'd arrived before the other 3 Palmy chaps and then got away just as they were arriving. The ride up over the hill consisted of more wet roads, rain, fog, idiot car drivers and a B-train that had us down to 20km/h at times...
After the 'takas we settled into cruise mode, riding up SH2 to Masterton and then to the first checkpoint at Mauriceville.
The weather was definitely trying to improve with only the occasional rain and drying roads as we took Dreyers Rock Road over to Route 52.
Route 52 got us to Alfredton where we turned off onto Pa Valley Road to take us to the next CP at the corner of Estcort Road.
More familiar roads took the Teneres out to Pahiatua and then over the track to CP3 at Aokautere School where Glen did a quick check of his bike for pukeko feathers...
The next leg took us further North up over Vinegar Hill and then SH1 into Taihape for our first fuels stop. We both had a quick drink and bite to eat before losing our wet weather gear - the day was definitely on the improve.
Fueled up, we carried on up to Turangi and then took a right at Kuratau to take us to Whakamaru and up past the Waipapa dam.
The next CP was one from a past NI1600 and to get to it required ignoring the Zumo's instruction to ride through a paddock and instead take a great little winding road through to Ngaroma.
Leaving Ngaroma there were more nifty back roads that needed to be ridden...
Back roads meant plenty of interesting turns to take and after nearly overshooting one turn we got onto Barber Road which took us to the next CP. This one had been a bit tricky to nail down for a GPS coordinate but I needn't have worried - there was a welcoming party waiting for us.
The next CP was another one pinched from the same NI1600 and last time around I was in a group that road right past it and had to do a "few" extra kms to find it. This time around I'd nailed it on the GPS route and also noticed the slight widening in the road at the Rangitoto Hall.
Cruising past the Rangitoto School we noticed a couple of riders parked up. They gave us a wave and I just assumed that they'd missed the CP - they were exactly where I'd got to on the NI1600 before having to turn around...
Just up the road from Rangitoto was Te Kuiti where it was time for more fuel and a really big cold drink while another layer was lost. Two sheepish riders rolled up while we were getting ready to leave and confirmed that the Rangitoto Hall is easy to miss...
The next leg was a pootle across to Taumarunui where we both managed to dodge a car that decided to stop right in front of us with no warning (Glen reckoned Mum was yelling at Dad) and then a cruise down to Raetihi before taking on the Paraparas :)
BTW: we were being very good boys...
Really, we were!
The final checkpoint was at Upo where we were forced to park near some dirty old KLR's...
The last leg of course, was to get me home. We had a quick stop at Fordell where I said toodle-loo to Glen who had to make his way home via some disgustingly neat roads to Hunterville on then on to Taihape - he ended up with just under 1,200km for the day. Not enough for him to miss out on a Sunday ride too apparently...
I was home just after 5, so happy with the pretty easy 12 hour time. The Tenere seemed pretty happy with itself but the damn tyres still look good - the front now has 18,600km on it...
