2015 NI1600

Ride write-up here.

Planning

Not long to go now until the Southern Cross. Ferry tickets arranged and most of the accommodation sorted. Bike washed but needs a polish and maybe an oil change. Routes all designed and ready to load onto the GPS.

Approx distances below - can you guess where we're going?

Day 1: approx 270km

Day 2: 734km

Day 3: 374km

Day 4: 815km

Day 5: approx 370km

Day 6: 843km

Day 7: 872km

Day 8: 467km

Day 9: 801km

Can't wait...

Hard Ride 4 - A bit damp...

After all the great rides I've been on lately I thought that it was time to share another hard ride.

This one was a couple of years ago and the hard part occurred when coming home from a toy run in Wanganui. 

I'd arrived early in Wanganui in fine weather but before we were due to head off it started raining.  So before the ride left I put on my wet weather gear and stashed my camera in it's little bag (not waterproof) then inside the bum bag (waterproof?) my wet weather comes in and finally in my back pack.

The ride headed off in damp conditions and wound it's way via back roads to Marton where it stopped so riders could take a break and have a drink etc.  Looking at the weather I decided to carry on home to Palmy so I didn't get drowned.  Yeah right.

Just coming out of Marton the rain a started.  Turning onto SH1 it got up a bit more momentum (bucketing down) and then it hit redline with the wind kicking in for good measure.  I have never ever ridden in conditions like this - I've ridden 3 hours in "West Coast" rain and not seen so much water.  It was like a helicopter dumping a bottomless monsoon bucket over me - rotor wash and all.  No, it was actually worse than that...

It got so bad that I had to pull over because I could not see and thought I was going to get blown/washed off the road.  Cars & trucks also started pulling over - no visibility, just rain.  I still don't know how I stayed on the bike - when I pulled up my front wheel ran into some quite deep metal but somehow I stayed on.  It was that windy that I could not take my left foot off the ground to put the bike in neutral - I just flicked the kill switch.  It was a struggle just staying vertical - the bike was being blown around even with both my feet on the ground and me hanging on for dear life.

By now and in the space of a couple of minutes the water had got completely through my wet weather gear and riding jacket and pants.  It had even got through my visor (slightly cracked open to stop fogging up) and got my glasses wet.

After a while the rain seemed to ease up so I hit the starter and attempted to roll on down the road (with glasses in pocket).  I got about 10m and had to pull over again - still too wild.  I tried again in a few minutes but still the same - at least I was able to pull over into a larger area where the trucks couldn't get me.

Eventually the rain slowed up to a gentle downpour so I pottered on up the road.  Just standing in the weather and holding the Bandit up had been an effort so I decided to pull in at Bulls and see if the rain was going to ease up any more.  I spotted a nice looking veranda sticking out from a pub so I turned into the driveway.  What I didn't see was the foot of water running along the gutter (no glasses - blurry visor).  I hit the water at about 10-20km/h and this caused a tidal wave to wash over the entire bike and poor old me.  Talk about wet Trev...

Some people in the pub had been watching the weather and had seen me surf on up onto the footpath and came out to see if I was ok and wanted to come in out of the weather.  I looked down at the water pouring off my gear and said that maybe I'd be better off waiting outside...

After a while the rain stopped completely and the sun actually came out and as I was starting to feel a bit cool I decided to break for home.  Turning the corner into the main street of Bulls it was amazing to see how much water was on the ground.  The only place where there was no standing water was the centre of the road but this was no place to be if you wanted to avoid being splattered by a truck so I ended up weaving in and out of the water until finally out of the flooding.  I was also not the only idiot on a bike out in it - I saw another guy on a Blackbird doing exactly what I was doing.

After all the drama the ride home was pretty boring - no rain, just wet road and sunshine.  Shoulda had a coffee in Marton...

And what makes things worse - I never even got a badge for the ride, they'd sold out before I could get one!

BTW: the water got through my pack, the bum bag and the camera bag was starting to absorb water prior to transferring it to the camera!  The camera looked ok but I chucked it in the hot water cupboard anyway and it still lives!

Hard Ride Three - The Puncture

PART ONE

This hard ride starts off on the 2005 Rusty Nuts Southern Cross. After having a great trip around the South Island and completing the first two checkpoints (Bluff and Cape Reinga) there were only two to go before heading home.

Check point three was at East Cape and this involved riding from Te Araroa to the Cape and back on a mostly gravel road. This was a bit of blast but once back on the tar and heading over the hill to Hicks Bay the bike started misbehaving in the corners - it was sliding all over the road.

I quickly realised that the rear tyre was going down and turned off into Hicks Bay and parked up at the store. Here we confirmed the diagnosis and pulled a small piece of wire out of the tyre. Now what?

In the bottom of my pack I had an old tyre pando that I'd had for at least 15 years and never used. We whacked this in and were loaned a foot pump (brand new, off the shelf) by the good folk at the shop which we used to put plenty of pressure in the tyre.

Things looked pretty good - no goop or air leaking out the hole but I was looking at a 200km ride back to Whakatane to get the tyre repaired - would it hold the whole way? What if it didn't - would I get to that last checkpoint at Cape Egmont by 12pm the next day? Was I doomed to bomb out on my first Southern Cross?

I started off taking things really easy - especially in the corners - expecting the repair to let go at any stage. After about the first 20km or so everything was still all good so I upped the pace a bit. After all it was either going to let go all at once or go down slowly - may as well get as close to civilisation as possible.

Miraculously I made it into Opotoki where I went into the first garage I saw to check the tyre pressure. The repair was holding up awesomely well - I didn't even put any more air in it! Now to get to Whakatane and get the tyre fixed properly.

We got into Whakatane at around 2pm and found the local Suzuki shop (Underwood & Wilkins) and they set to work on the puncture. By the time Mark & I had a late lunch they were finished and we were ready to hit the road again - but not before visiting Repco for another tyre pando, after all that first one had proved to be a good investment.

We made it into Te Kuiti by about 7pm and knew that we had the ride beat. Sure enough, no more dramas - just a quiet ride down to Cape Egmont, pick up the badge and off home. Mission accomplished but not without a little drama!

Part Two

This damn tyre is cursed!

I can't remember exactly where we'd been but we were coming back from Wanganui and we'd taken some of the back roads out behind Marton and ended up on the gravel. We'd just got back onto the tar again and the rear end got that wayward feeling - oh no, not again.

I limped it into Marton and pulled into a garage. Whipped out the month or two old tyre pando and stuck it in. I then pumped the tyre up pretty hard and we hit the road home.

This time I'd either done something wrong or the hole was just to big for the pando to seal (or maybe the pando was just too damn new). Every now and again Mark could see a squirt of sticky goo shoot out of the tyre and he was wondering if we were going to make it home. I was pretty oblivious to this and kept on going.

I must have really pumped that tyre up 'cause it made it home and I never had a problem with it. I did have a problem cleaning the goo off the swingarm and muffler though and the inside of the mudguard had a nice stripe on it for the rest of it's days...

Never the less I wasn't going to trust that tyre again and it was off to the bike shop for a new one first thing Monday morning. Oh and a tubeless tyre puncture repair kit which lives permanently under my seat - I hope I never have to use it!

Hard Ride 2 - Leaving the Nest

Well, I guess everybody has to leave home at some stage and at least I had my trusty steed (the mighty RG) to carry me and my gear off.

I'd signed up to do some study in Palmerston North and so had to pack my bags and leave the comforts of home.  And what a day I picked to leave...

I left Napier on a reasonable day but by the time I hit the Takapau Plains the winds were blowing gale force.  The poor little RG only weighed about 130 odd kg and even with a heavy pack on was getting blown all over the show.  I ended up crossing the plains at about 35mph with the bike hardly ever vertical and getting hit by some pretty good gusts that would have me wobbling all over the place.

Somehow I got off the plains and into some slightly more sheltered conditions but by the time I got to Woodville I was feeling pretty stuffed so I pulled over for a breather.  And naturally the first thing that happened was the bike blowing over.

Luckily I caught it before it hit the deck but do you think I could get it upright?  With the bike being so light and the pack on the back, the bike was sort of pivoting on the side-stand with the front wheel waving in the air.  If I tried to lift it from the back the front would be off the ground and if I lifted it from the front the pack was making the bike try and fall over again.  It didn't help that the road was on a bit of a slope and I had to lift up from the low side of the road...

Eventually I got it on 2 wheels and just stood there leaning against it to keep it blowing over again.  Finally, when I had my breath back I had to carefully climb on board, get the stand up, kick the bike over, engage gear and pull away without toppling over again.  I somehow managed this and had no more trouble the rest of the way.

It's funny how when you're pretty inexperienced small things like this can really stuff you up.  Nowadays in a similar situation with the Bandit loaded with gear etc, I just wouldn't get in the same situation - you always check the lay of the land before you park up and the weight of the bike helps in the wind.  Never mind, you've gotta learn from your experiences eh?

Well that's 2 hard rides now and all on the same bike.  I still say she was a great bike - must have been the idiot at the handlebars...

Hard Rides - The Fouled Plug

Hard Ride 1: The Fouled Plug

Once upon a time I was a learned rider and restricted to a 250. After 3 months or so on a Yamaha XS250 Dog I finally moved up to something a bit better - a Suzuki RG250.

250ccs of two-stroke power! It was great: really light, handled properly and when you gave it some you got a kick in the pants when the power finally chimed in.

Anyway she was a great bike and I did 10,000 miles on it - commuting and chasing my old man's GSX1100 around.

One day Dad had heard that a bunch of guys on old classic bikes were doing the Napier-Taupo, re-creating the old mail run (which would have been a real mission when those old bikes were new). And so we headed off with a few other guys.

Once out in the Esk valley the poor old RG started to miss a bit with one cylinder cutting out every now and again. I stopped and told the old man about it. His suggestion - keep the revs up and maybe she'd clear her lungs a bit. So off we went again.

Almost as soon as we started heading up into the hills the weather started to pack it in and pretty soon it was raining quite heavily. Now we come to the interesting bit: I'd enter a wet slippery corner pulling 7,000rpm on a 125cc and all of a sudden the other cylinder would kick in and I'd be right in the good old power band - interesting all right.

I managed to stay on the bike and we got up on the tops where we promptly hit both road works and fog. After a while I had no choice but to lift my visor to see and then my glasses started to get all wet and fogged up - great stuff.

Never mind, we battled on and eventually met up with the old bikes and stopped to have a look at them before battling the weather back home. Maybe not one of the "hardest" rides I've ever done but to a newbe it was a bit of an eye-opener and definitely an adventure. Still cracks me up when I think about that 2nd cylinder kicking in...

Hard Rides

So far I've posted three "Great Rides", so how about some not so great rides.

Ones that have been difficult, trying, tough, dangerous or just plain hard.

Yunno, ones that make you question whether you should have attempted them or should even be on a bike and then once they're in the past you look back on them and can't help having a good laugh!

Watch this space...