The Britten Museum

Just back from the TT2000, but you'll need to wait for the write-up...

We had plenty of time this year to get the to the ride start in Christchurch so ended up there early with time to kill.  A good thing that the Britten Museum had just opened its doors for the first time the day before we got to Christchurch...

I've previously seen the large Britten display at Motorcycle Mecca in Invercargill on a previous trip and now I believe that all the Britten stuff has been moved to the new museum along with a whole lot more.  

Along with the memorabilia (including 2 of the 10 final version Brittens currently) there was plenty of information about Johns life and birth of the Britten.  There was even an AI hologram of him chatting about the bike.

Anyway, here's some of the pics and a video I took of one of the Brittens:

A wee short cut

 Taking a more interesting ride home from Feilding on the first day of daylight savings time.  Not much day left, and I needed to bring my own light...

Fast gravel in the dark is interesting...

Best of '24

After much (well, some) pestering from Steve at Road to Nowhere, I've climbed into another blog challenge.

Steve's challenge was to post your top ten motorcycling photos of 2024.  Here's his effort.  But seeing as his bro broke the rules then I might as well too.  I may as well use the opportunity to do a bit of a year in review as well. - even if I didn't do quite as much riding (or blogging) last year.  Here we go:

January

The Tiger was new and I was smitten (still am) and this was just coming home from Feilding.  But I like the photo because of a the light it captured, those clouds in the blues sky, the old truck and of course, Tigger.

February

This time it is more around the event than the quality of the photo.  Pictured is a resting Tiger after successfully completing its first TT2000.  Less than a month to the next one...can't wait.

March

Time to break the rules.  This time there's no bikes, but is just one of a bunch of great pics I got while on the 6 day Maverick Muster in Central Otago.  Something completely different but in a place I love and where much fun was had!

April

I really like this one of Chris and Stella coming around Pohangina Valley East road, about half way through a Saddlesore 1000 (Egsanity edition).  I ended up joining them for a while.

May

Just some random gravel ride through Manawatu back roads.  Digging the clouds and blue sky again, along with those rolling hills.

June

The T7 again and some mint winter gravel.

July

An unblogged ride with no photos so a video grab from the Desert Road as Colin and I came back from Chris's "big" birthday in Raglan.  We were the only ones to brave the ice on our bikes - just sayin...

August

And I can't find any biking ones from August so here's a photo taken by someone else (Raveen) on a wee 4WD excursion I organised for some of the guys from work.  That's me and Colin in my ute dropping down Towai Road on our way to Waihi Falls.

September

Back on the T7 and here's another pic I like 'cos of the old building in Apiti.

October

In October four Tigers escaped for a day of delicious tarmac surfing and Harley baiting.  I love Fields Track!

November

Two pics again this time as the two wee ones have not featured yet.  First the RMX up in the Maungatuks before it had a dip.

And then the mightiest of mouses, out from hibernation and after singing it's head off up the valley.

December

Not bike related (although the yellow bike was in attendance) but a cool pic from the farm of Mount Taranaki.

And there's the winning entry in the blog challenge then...

The Project

Ok, so I hinted that I was undertaking a project.  Don't worry, it's not too strenuous and won't stop me riding all over the countryside.  In fact it might very well encourage me to carry on riding all over the countryside...

On the Adventure Rider forum there is a Photos subforum where there are all sorts of threads featuring "your bike somewhere or other" or "your bike next to a" and things like that.  I post in a few of them from time to time but decided to start my own.

Dairy pays for my riding (and the pies) and with about a billion old dairy factories around NZ - I know, I've ridden past a bunch, now I just have to find them all again...

So, I've created the thread (and so far nobody else has shown a lot of interest 🤣) and posted up about four local ones and created a GoogleMap that will hopefully capture a few more old factories over time.

Here's my pics so far (more info in the Adv Rider thread):

Anyway, on yer bike and join in...

Intermission

 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 was absolutely lovely too - plenty of torque everywhere and I dunno if the pipes are standard but man she sure sounded good!

My pootle took me around the bays to Days Bay where I had an eggs benny, made a couple of calls and generally fended off people drooling all over the bike.

I then carried on a bit further to the end of the road (where I discovered where potholes go to breed) before turning around and getting some more pics of the bike just past the Wahine memorial.

Then it was back to the shop where I had to give it back ☹️

Lovely little bike which was great fun to ride quietly (except for the music it made) around the bays.  I really needed an open-faced helmet and an old leather jacket...

Come on lotto...