Splish, splash, slither...

What's wrong with these two pictures?

Just in case it was too difficult to work out, the bottom pic shows the current tyre on the Tenere - a worn out Tourance.  The top picture shows a spanking new set of E-07's just waiting to be installed...

Enter a couple of devious BRR riders with a plan and I'm in trouble...it's not like I could pass on a ride is it?

Yep, yesterday an email arrived from Ross suggesting a wee gravel ride today and I jumped at it as I feel like I've hardly done any riding lately...Oh, and did I mention that its been raining on and off for well over a week now?

I left Palmy in fairly nice weather and arrived early in Bulls to meet the others.  Gas and a coffee purchased I parked up to wait.  First to arrive was Russell, followed a while later by Ross, Colin and John.  Oh, and by now it was raining...

Check out the knobblies on 4/5 of the bikes...

After the lads had dealt to their own coffee's we took off and made for Fordell.  From there we cut back across Kauangaroa Road before turning off up Mangamahu Road.  Funnily enough the roads were fairly damp through here and fairly slippery - I took things pretty easy and allowed the DR boys to clear out for a bit.

Eventually we ran out of tarmac and hit the gravel.  Did I mention its been raining a bit lately?  Well, yeah, it has - even up the Whangaehu Valley.  Where there wasn't gravel there was either mud or slippery clay type stuff.

The boys with tyres on soon left me to it as I took things quietly and tried to stay on the road.  The greasy bits were definitely a bit challenging with the front end just going where it felt like.  Out the back though the traction control did a pretty good job of keeping things under control - as long as the front was pointing in the right place and there was no mud I could just point and squirt.

Here's a bit of the excitement and if I do say so myself - some of the best video I've ever captured...

After a short break to help Colin eat some of his jet airplanes we were back into it and once again I was definitely tail end Charlie.

The next exciting bit for me was Burma Hill.  This is a pretty steep climb in places and yes, there were some boggy places that had me sweating a bit.  Once again, I think that the traction control and 1,200cc of torque got me up the hill and back onto some better gravel at the bottom.  There were a couple of butt clenching moments I have to say.

Next up was a short stretch of Fields Track in reasonably wet conditions before once again turning off onto the gravel of Owhakura Road.  This was much more my style with an awesome climb up a hill on good gravel - the big blue bike liked it and we got to let loose a few more ponies.  The others still cleared out on me...

A short section of tar then got us back to SH1 where I said goodbye to the troops and made for home, leaving the others to tackle Turakina Valley Road by themselves.  A quiet pootle down the main road got me back into Feilding in time to catch up with my Blister and family (who were visiting the olds) before heading how to get out of wet gear.

The ride was plenty of fun but I get this feeling that some tyre changing will be happening pretty shortly...

BTW: the rain washed a lot of the mud off the bike...

Pretty happy with that economy...

July BRR Adventure Ride

Sunday was our monthly Adventure ride, only it wasn't...

Our ride was planned to take us over into the Wairarapa and towards the end of the week the weather forecast was looking fairly dodgy.  On Saturday night it was looking even dodgier.  So, at 5am on Sunday morning Neil fired off an email cancelling the ride - I think this is a first for a BRR ride.

But, Neil was already down here, staying the night at Colin's - and he had to get back home to Ohakune...the weather would be better up on the plateau eh?

Well, maybe not.  Apparently he hit snow by the time he got to Ohingaiti and it tagged along with him all the way home.  It did mean he got some great pictures though:

SH1

Downtown Waiouru

Shot of the day!

Snow-cat

More pics here.

BRR Just Another Average Awesome Akitio Adventure Part Four

Well, not really.  Just Neil's video from Puketoi Road which I skipped to go and do battle with the wind on Rimu Road...

BRR Just Another Average Awesome Akitio Adventure Part Three

After our lunch break it was time to start making our way back home in the usual convoluted manner that tends to involve more fabulous gravel roads.

Heading out River Road we were on tarmac until reaching the turn-off to Glenora Road.  This and Esdaile Road took us back onto Route 52 about half way between Weber and Wimbledon.  It was a lot of fun too...

More tar took us through to Wimbledon and then a bit further North where we turned West onto Birch Road.  This is another cracker of a road that takes riders through a pine forest.  I was expecting some muddy conditions through here as we have seen this on previous rides through here but no, not this time - I guess the Hawkes Bay didn't get nearly as much rain as the Manawatu-Wanganui region.

In exposed places along Birch Road we found the wind again and got blown around a little but everyone managed to stay on the road this time.

Eventually we turned off Birch Road and onto Franklin Road which took us back to Route 52 again.  Somewhere along here I caught up to Ross and we had a nice little battle on some great gravel back to the main road.

At the main road I decided to head home while the rest of the guys carried on to take a bit more gravel up to the limestone quarry and then down into Coonor before returning to our starting point in Pahiatua.  I opted out as I was a bit cold and didn't fancy battling the wind back up on the tops again.  By all accounts the guys had a good ride over the hill and got back safe and sound with no unfortunate incidents.

Riding back on the tar to Dannevirke I still got blown around a fair bit and the wind was definitely on the chilly side.  In Dannevirke I stopped long enough to put on my neck warmer and swap to my warmer gloves.

A bit warmer, I hit the road again and carried on to Woodville where it was time to top up the Vee before tackling the Saddle again.  The Saddle was very busy with a lot of people heading home after the weekend and a few trucks slowing things down too.  I was surprised to see how much progress the guys had made on the road works since the morning - I guess with it being the only road open from the Manawatu through to Hawkes Bay there was a bit of pressure on.

I arrived home just after 4pm and after seeing to the horse (putting it away in the shed) my next priority was to get the fire going.  Another fantastic day out smashing the gravel with the BRR lads!

More pics here.

BRR Just Another Average Awesome Akitio Adventure Part Two

Eventually the coffees had been consumed and we were forced to gear up and go for a ride.

Luckily the weather had improved with the rain stopping and what looked suspiciously like the sun making an appearance.  Just after we turned off onto Pahiatua-Pongaroa Road we had to splash our way through a small puddle on the road but that would it in terms of "fording" the flood waters.

As we made our way towards the Makuri Gorge there was the odd small slip to avoid but there was already a road crew out with a truck and digger starting to clear the road - the Higgins guys were earning their O/T today.

Our first bit of gravel was on Pori Road and it was in really good condition so we all had a lot of fun getting to the traditional photo stop.

After the quick stop we were soon underway but not for long - if you watched the video above you may have noticed the small obstacle we came up against.

No through road me thinks...

So, about turn then eh?

Neil decided that this little road block meant that Puketoi Road was on the cards.  I wasn't too keen on that idea as on one winter ride down Puketoi Road we encountered massive bog holes and a number of bikes went down.  It turns out I wasn't the only nervous one in the group so the merry band split in half with Neil's group heading for Puketoi while I led my lot back out to the main road.

We road through to Makuri avoiding a few small slips and up over the hill to the Rimu Road turn-off.  Once again the gravel was in great condition but almost right away we rode into some serious windy conditions.  If you check out the video below you'll notice how much I was getting blown around and at about 1:50 you'll notice me have quite a moment.  I was pretty sure things were looking nasty but luckily got back a bit of control when I got off the brakes and added some herbs...

As you can see I pulled over at the bottom of the hill to wait for the guys who I hoped were following on behind me - I hadn't had time to check my mirrors while battling the wind!

It looks quite nice but it was still blowing a howling gale here...

I waited and I waited, getting a little concerned and not looking forward to perhaps having to retrace my steps back up tornado alley.  But with no signs of the others I eventually had to head back up into the wind.  As it happened it was not quite as bad going up the hill and I was almost back at the main road when I came across the other guys just getting underway.

It turned out that Steve got into trouble in the wind almost as soon as we turned onto Rimu Road.  Here's a pic Colin got of him parked up waiting for some help - he was quite lucky...

A V-Strom only weighs about 220kg...

Luckily the other guys were able to drag the bike out and they were still keen to chase me down.  I managed to convince them (Colin had actually got a bit further up the road before returning to help so knew how bad things were) that it was fairly breezy further down the hill and we decided to flag Rimu Road and make for Pongaroa.

From Pongaroa we took the fantastic Coast Road out to our lunch spot in Akitio.  It is possible that I may have mentioned this before, but too bad - I love Coast Road!  It is generally in good condition and is very fast gravel!  I probably used more fuel in the 30km to Akitio than I did on the previous 100km from Pahiatua!  Yes, I had a ball and the Vee approved as well.

We ended up beating the other chaps by about 20 minutes or so as they were out playing on some other fabulous gravel roads.  Apparently they enjoyed things so much that a couple of them stopped to roll around in the mud and dirt...one Triumph rider seemed to have picked up more dirt than the rest...

That Triumph rider

Ross

Paul

Trev

Everybody splashed out on $2 coffees at the shop and caught up with each other's stories.  Puketoi Road apparently was in pretty reasonable shape so Neil's group got it pretty easy - no howling gales for them...

A fairly eventful pootle so far, I wonder what the afternoon will bring...

BRR Just Another Average Awesome Akitio Adventure Part One

Yesterday was our monthly BRR Adventure ride and after the weather we had over Friday night and Saturday it was always going to be an interesting ride...

To say that we got a bit of rain is a slight understatement.  The entire lower North Island got hammered and in Palmy we experienced a fair bit flooding (other areas got even worse).  On Saturday I had to drive through some surface flooding to get across to my parents' house in Feilding and then on the way back got turned around by two roads that were flooded and blocked off.

This is a (poor) picture of the bridge over the Mangaone Stream very close to my house.  This one was taken early one morning with the stream running under normal conditions - you can just see the bridge in the picture.

Here it is (with the Vee parked on the same bridge) at around 8am on Sunday morning after the level had dropped overnight by approx a metre (I looked at the marks the water had made in the grass to guestimate the 1m).

Not far from disaster...

Anyway, with stories of closed roads, slips and flooding I simply couldn't miss the ride - it was going to be very interesting to see what sort of damage we came across.

I left home about 8am and rode into town to pick up some lunch.  While picking up my lunch it started to rain - a pathetic misty rain, not at all like the rain of the day before.

Cruising out to Ashhurst I saw plenty of flooding with plenty of water in the paddocks and some houses and vehicles that definitely had had water through them.  I also had my first bit of excitement when I had to ride through about a foot of water in one of the low sections of the road.

Meanwhile Colin L and Ross were making there way up SH1 to Palmy.  SH1 had been closed earlier with plenty of flooded sections but they got through ok and then attempted to try to go over the (closed) Pahiatua Track.  They managed to get around the fallen tree below (alternate route around it) but eventually were stopped by a little slip...

Here's the damage from above:

The Manawatu Gorge was also down due to slips so our only route over to Pahiatua was the Saddle.  The Saddle had actually got off lightly with few slips and just a fairly rough section of road works at the bottom of the hill on the Ashhurst side - no problems for Adventure bikes!

I had heard that the road from Woodville to Pahiatua had also been closed for a period due to flooding so wasn't quite sure what the ride into Pahiatua would be like.  It turned out that it was fine but of course there was plenty of signs of flooding in the paddocks by the road and the river was pumping.

Pulling into the garage I filled up the bike and grabbed something hot to eat and drink - it was fairly chilly out.  Pretty soon the rest of the guys (the brave 8) showed up and the garage did a good trade in hot coffees while we caught up about our interesting rides in.

Looking like blue skies in the Wairarapa...

That's the direction I'd come from and where we were heading...

I think that's enough excitement for Part One eh?

More BRR video

More video from last Sunday.  First up a couple from Neil:

And finally, some video from Nick, including his little adventure off the road.  Hopefully he's on the road to recovery and will back on the bike soon.

Nev's video

An interesting video from Sunday's ride.  Nev does a good edit...

May BRR

Neil was that excited to get back onto the gravel that he didn't get around to making up a funny name for this month's BRR Adv ride...but never mind it was a doesey!

With I think it was about 8 bikes expected on the ride it was a little bit of a surprise to end up with about a dozen of us at the starting point in Halcombe.  One keen rider must have begged, borrowed or more than likely stolen a bike to come on the ride - it was only a KTM so the owner probably wasn't that bothered...

More bikes showed up after these pics...

Our first little squirt took us over to Beaconsfield via a couple of really neat and fast little gravel roads.  It was a lot of fun and gave me a bit of confidence in my new front tyre that I had been wondering how well it would handle the gravel...it helped that the gravel was in perfect condition.

After some more great gravel and a short stop (see above) we got onto one of our favourite roads - Peep-O-Day Road.  Once again the gravel was in great nick and I had a blast trying to keep up with Ross.

Unfortunately, when we nearly were back out onto the tar, Neil got a phone call telling him that someone had gone down and hurt themselves.  We all doubled back and were soon at the scene where a F650 was lying down and Nick the rider in a bit of grief.  Emergency services were soon on their way (although we were officially in the middle of nowhere) and we righted the bike and got Nick vertical.  Surprisingly we were soon joined by several (3!) fire service vehicles and a cop with an ambulance still to come.

Nick's corner.  Bike already parked in a farmer's shed.

Not a bad spot to stop - just for the wrong reason

Nick holding fence up and practising his swearing

Colin looking like he wants to make a fast getaway...

Seeing the Emergency Services guys (thanks heaps) had things under control most of us got underway again and were soon out on the tar to Pemberton where we turned left to point for Ohingaiti.  But no, as I had suspected we turned off onto more gravel to eventually take us through to Pakihikura and then the last bit of Vinegar Hill and into Hunterville for lunch.  Through here the gravel was a bit more of a challenge for me as it was freshly laid and fairly deep so the tended to float around a bit...

After lunch it was time take in another favourite - Watershed Road.  My new tyre handled this bit a bit better than the deep stuff before lunch but as you can see I did get left behind a bit.

A couple of stretches of seal then took us to our last bit of gravel of the day - Pohonui Road.  We've also done this one a few times and it's a great ride - not only is the ride fun but the views are really nice as you cruise down the valley.  The Road eventually spits you out at Turakina Valley Road and this is where we stopped and said goodbye to Neil who got to ride home via Turakina Valley Road - lucky sod!

The rest of the ride was all seal - from the quick squirt back into Hunterville (where the Welly riders turned South) and then home via Vinegar Hill with a KTM in tow.

The first BRR Adv ride in a while was a blast and we're not too sure when the next one will be but there's bound to be a keen bunch of blokes keen for more gravel action...