Ok, I should be writing up a wee ride from two weeks ago - but, I've been busy.
Colin and I are about three weeks back from another South Island adventure. This time around we took his Can-Am Maverick down and joined up with 6 other buggies for 6 days of magic mahem in the Central Otago region.
We had an absolute ball and covered quite a few tracks that we've done before on the WR's but it was a different experience in a buggy - they go anywhere and it doesn't really matter what the terrain is like.
Well, sometimes things happen...
Anyway, I'm not sure if I want to blog the trip on here unless readers are interested? But, I have created a new YouTube channel (there's a Maverick Muster playlist with all the videos) where most of the video has been uploaded.
So, please comment if you're interested in this stuff - there's 500+ photos to go with the video and we also had a play in the buggy last weekend...
A few weekends ago I was somehow persuaded to accompany Colin on another outing in his side-by-side. He'd already taken me for a run on the beach at Red Rocks (see below pics/video) and demonstrated that 200hp in a wee buggy makes for a bit of fun so the persuading job wasn't too difficult...
This time around we were joining up with a trail ride organised by AFC motorcycles. The event was in Lismore forest, just North of Whanganui and comprised of two loops (one with an expert loop) through some closed off forestry roads.
The ride started off pretty much the same as a bike trail ride with a briefing where all the rules were laid out and then we tore into it.
We started off on the left loop and soon were splashing through mud and bouncing over the odd obstacle - there was one neat little diversion where a couple of short but steep climbs had to be negotiated. Colin had mud tyres on and it was soon very apparent that grip was never going to be an issue - the thing will go anywhere.
After the first loop we then took in the right hand one where the track was mostly fairly quick but there were a couple of very muddy bits to negotiate before we tackled the expert section which was more overgrown and had a reasonably steep and bumpy descent back onto the main track. Then it was a much faster section back to the carpark.
Once Colin had had a couple of laps of each loop we stopped for a coffee and then he did something silly. He let me swap seats...
So yeah, first drive of what is a serious offroad weapon, what could possibly go wrong?
As it happened, nothing went wrong as I was nervous as and didn't want anything to go wrong. One of my first problems was getting used to LHD and working out where my wheels were. The navigator was quick to point me in the right direction.
I got to do both loops (skipping the expert section) and really enjoyed the drive, even though we were going a lot slower, I got to "feel" the course properly, didn't crash and didn't get stuck.
Swapping seats again, Colin had had his warm-up laps and was starting to get his eye in. We did at least 2 more laps (probably more) of each loop and Colin got quicker each time. Even his navigator enjoyed it, laughing my head off as we surfed into corners and then hammered it out of them. The thing has grip!
Eventually we had to pack it in and you can see the results below...
Different riding gear today...
Setting new fashion statements wherever we go
Just the lightest wee bit of mud splatter
Oh, and here's some video of our first few laps, I should have saved the battery for our last ones instead...
Not a bad way to spend the day without motorcycles...
And not just at work. After about an 18 month hunt, a little disappointment and stress I've finally bought a new home just outside of Palmy. And in even more good news, the old place went unconditional just before Christmas so I won't be in debt to the bank forever...
My search for a new place has been hampered somewhat with the ridiculous housing market here and of course my criteria. I am not really that fussy but one of the things I needed was a decent shed - more poor ute has never been out of the weather and I wanted a decent space for playing around with bikes and what not. Most modern places seem to be big houses (not a requirement for me) on postage stamp sections with (if you are lucky) a single garage. And often they do weird stuff like stuffing the laundry in the garage - why?
Anyway, without further ado, here's what the shed looks like 😉
The shed is yet to be completely sorted out, there's still stuff in boxes etc but as you can see the important things are sorted out and there's still oodles of room for the ute (although it's currently parked under the carport) and working on things. I've also got heaps of other storage out there so all my gear will be able to live there instead of having to find a place for it in the house.
And I've even done the first job out there...
Cable operated clutches suck!
Before I started the job I undertook a training course for it (watched a Youtube video) where the guy just taped the new cable to the old and pulled it through using the old one. Yeah, nah, that was never going to work. I had to get a little more serious.
250 powerhouse
Hate those fuel line clips - but they work
It was a finicky little job with not much room to get at some things (particularly the little bottom mount bolts for the cable) and the Chinese did not make the cable 1mm longer than it needed to be.
As it happened to be bucketing down when I did the job, the only way I could test the cable was in the shed...It seemed ok and eventually I managed a little ride around the village and I think it's ok - still need to try a "high speed" run to make sure there's no slip anywhere...
So, apart from riding the Connie (Colin rode the Ten and the little bikes came out on the ute) from old place to new, there's not been much riding going on (I have not blogged aride we did just before I got busy so maybe I'll get to it one day) but now I'm relocated and have some time off...
A fair bit off topic but hey it's got Suzuki in the title...
A couple of weekends ago Colin and I popped over to Turakina to check out the Suzuki Extreme 4WD Challenge - any excuse to see some V8's being gouged on eh?
I last went to something like this as a teenager and back then the vehicles were generally modified Suzuki's, Land Rovers and Land Cruisers. Yeah, some of them might have had a bit more horsepower under the hood than standard and some big tyres but they were nothing like what we have now. Also, the trials were not as extreme but did often included a bog/swamp that the vehicles often ended up getting dragged out of...
While there are different classes in the sport (some were on display), for this event it was all about the big boys. These are purpose built machines, all of them sporting V8's (some supercharged), all with independent braking on all four wheels and some with 4 wheel steer. Big tyres running about 2psi of pressure and phenomenally long travel suspension allow them to tackle stuff that a trials bike would turn its nose up at...
All that grunt and grip launches them from zero to hang onto your hat in the blink of an eye and things like steep climbs are a walk in the park. None of the photos really give you a proper idea of how steep the obstacles were.
As you can see often plenty of power is applied "just in case" resulting in plenty of crowd pleasing aerial antics. But, the drivers have to be careful as they need to get out of the power real quick once airborne. If they don't they run the risk of breaking driveshafts on landing - this happened quite a few times but they obviously keep a supply on hand to get the cars ready for the next trial.
V8 powered winch in action
So with the mud mostly gone, the trials require all sorts of tight maneuvering through obstacle courses (generally on the side of a steep hill) with points off for hitting a flag and instant disqualification if the car touches the tape lined course. They are also only given so much time to complete but could back up and have another go at a particular part of the course as long as they stayed within the time allowed. A couple of courses were speed sections where the shortest time was what they were after.
One of the things that struck was how quick the driver and navigators (the guys on the brakes) got themselves out of trouble if they muffed one of the obstacles. Often when you thought that they should probably just tumble down the hill or roll, they somehow got the truck pointed in a better direction or spun it it around for another go. The 4 wheel steer an independent brakes mean that they can turn at least 90 degrees inside the length of the truck.
Checkout these guys getting through a decent set of obstacles:
Pretty sure the #6 flag may have been clipped here...
This truck wasn't so lucky:
Anyway, it was a great way to spend the day, wandering from course to course, listening to the V8's and taking photos. I also shot a bit of video and by highlights video is getting plenty of views on Youtube. Here it is:
Oh, and by the way, one of the trucks was for sale at 100k (including transporter), Colin managed to avoid taking it home...
So, in the last blog we had been forced to leave a feral feline fending for itself somewhere in the wilds of Makairo Track. Well, we couldn't leave it there forever so last Saturday another expedition was undertaken to track down the wayward Tiger.
Plenty of planning took place during the week, equipment was prepared and a team of volunteers organised. Colin came up from Waikanae in his work cruiser with a quad to carry all of his Tiger trapping equipment and Stephen also drove up from Wellington to join him in the cruiser. Darren was more keen, riding down from Taihape (yes, there was rain) so he could have a bit of a scoot after the retrieval and I picked up Stefan on our way out of town.
Our convoy left Palmy around 9:30 and apparently I stuffed up by not stopping in Pahiatua for pastry and coffee but hey, we were supposed to be on a mission. The rain had really sorted out the gravel roads out to the bottom of Makairo track and although it was a lot of fun in the ute, a big blue Yamaha would have meant even more fun.
After unloading the trailer and grabbing our gear we set off up the hill. Colin probably enjoyed the quad ride more than I enjoyed the walk but hey, my gumboots got me up the hill.
Arriving at the wee clearing where we'd parked our bikes the previous weekend, we then went to find the Tiger.
It's in there somewhere...
As it turned out, the big cat hadn't slunk off anywhere and was sitting there patiently awaiting some sort of attention. After checking things out we made a wee plan and prepped the gear.
We ended up anchoring the quad to a decent tree and backed it back close the edge (it ended up sitting in the rut to the right of it in the photo above) so that the winch wire could be as vertical as possible and not need to drag across the ground.
Darren and Stefan also trimmed a bit of foliage back to give us a clearer path up the bank.
And then the winching began. Initially we had the bike hooked up around top of the forks and Stefan and I stayed down below to steady the bike as it slowly climbed the hill. Darren roped himself in so he could grab it once the Tiger started to poke it's head out of the hole.
Nope, I'm not sitting on it (photo: Darren)
About half way up, we paused to move the winch cable to the left footpeg and do some track maintenance to help get it up the more vertical bank near the top.
Photo sort of by Darren (he's hanging off the bank)
This pretty much got the bike out of the hole and to finally get it back onto the track itself we resorted to man-power and out she came.
Now all that remained was to see if the beast could be cajoled into life. Initially things did not look good as there was very little life on the dash and no response from the starter button. Eventually even the little bit of life we could see dimmed to nothingness - uh-oh, RIP battery...
Colin was dispatched to the ute to grab my battery pack and once we worked out how to use it we actually got the bike to fire up. Darren then suited up to ride it out...
But unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy. Darren accidentally stalled the bike and we couldn't get it to fire again off the battery or by attempting to crash start it so we were back to man power.
Darren and I ended up getting a decent bit of exercise pushing it down the hill. This sounds easier than it actually was. There were actually a couple of little rises (including a slip across the track) to negotiate and it was quite hard for me to see where I was putting my feet with a bike in my way - I was in and out of ruts and all over the place. We were both happy to get to the bottom of the hill.
Loading it up onto the ute ended up being the easy bit.
Then it was time for a bit of a celebration before departing the scene.
Back in civilisation we just had to stop at the place where the ride started and finally deal to those pies we missed on the way over.
One last hop got us back to Palmy and around to Marty's to deliver the puddy-tat. He was pretty happy to be reunited with it and is now hobbling around working through the list (a small one actually) of repairs needed to get the bike back on the road. It'll probably be fixed before he is...
So, a slightly different sort of adventure for us but it was a lot of fun and really good to be able to get the bike out relatively easily and back into Marty's hands. Also neat that we could organise all this ourselves (and that Colin had all the gear) and just get it done quickly rather than having to wait and pay for someone to do it.
Finally, here's some video of the extraction that I managed to get. Unfortunately the camera blew over before the beast completely emerged but you'll get the idea 😁
