A conversation with Claude

(and putting him right).

In the previous episode of this oft ignored blog, I mentioned that the rear of the T7 was getting a wee bit out of control in a slightly exciting way.  Here's a pic of the old E-07 compared with a the new replacement - an E-07+ (first time on T7 but ok on Super Ten).

So, where does Claude come in?  Well, Claude is an AI that I play around in every now and again and I had a question for him.  I'd seen someone suggesting putting the tube (slightly inflated) into the tyre before fitting the first side of the tyre to the rim and I thought this was a stupid idea that was just asking for a pinched tube.  Turns out Claude agreed.  But, he (pretty sure Claude is a bloke's name) wasn't to clear with some of his suggestions/instructions and I had to put him right - more later.

Anyway, last night I pulled the old tyre off in expectation of a tyre delivery today (my guess on delivery was correct).  Less than fifteen minutes had the wheel off the bike and tyre off - only one tool required to remove the rear unlike the Tiger which requires all of the tools...

Ok, I needed the mallet as well as socket and bar...that's two tools...

Bead-breaker has been a good investment

I must investigate a tubeless solution (I say this every time)

Easy peasy.  So tonight was the slightly trickier job of getting the new tyre on and wheel refitted to the bike.  It appears that I am getting a little better at the job and didn't have too much trouble getting the tyre on.  I did muck around a bit fitting the wheel - I had a little trouble lining up the brake calliper carrier which meant pulling the wheel out again and giving it another shot.  But she's on!

Mmmmmm, rubber

Gotta have a little bit of blood involved but no tears...

Anyway, after the event, I decided to go back and fill in Claude on some of my other tips and it was interesting to see him agree with me (not unusual, AI's are great at agreeing when you give them the learn and sometimes apologise if they get it wrong).  Claude even suggested I write up my own how-to guide so that's almost what this is...

Here's the conversation with Claude: Claude doesn't know it all

Next maintenance item might be rear pads as the bike eats them - there's still plenty there but maybe another 5k to got, best I keep an eye on them.  Might even check the front ones...

Playing around

Not much of a ride over the weekend but I tried a cheap Temu mount for the camera to see if I could get some decent audio of the T7 in action.  I think it worked except it can spin around (last video) with vibration.  Need a more solid mount that I can hang off the bike in the same position.

Mind the wee tractor!

Not me...

 

Answering an important question?

Yeah, everyone wants to know.  And now the excitement is over!

Saturday sojurn

Saturday was a cracker and with the weather supposed to be turning bad I decided that I needed to get a ride in.

On last week's ride, we'd finished up really early and as we were coming back from Dannevirke I couldn't help but being drawn to the sight of Wharite sticking out from the ranges.  I was very tempted to lead the crew up there but it may have made Andy late and there was also a chance of a dousing as there were plenty of clouds hanging out up there.  Oh well, another day...

So, yep, Wharite was my target.  I pictured a quick trip to the top and then a pie in Woodville and home.  A quick little blast in the late morning sunshine...

I was also in the mood for playing with different GoPro mounting options.  (Reviewing the footage later, I got a bit moody about the missing sound in some of the videos).

The ride up the hill was pretty nice except for the sun hiding a lot of the corners.  This knocks the pace back (funny that) a bit as does the skinny road that often has a bit of traffic on it.

But still, I made it up to the views...

Then it was time for the descent and a different camera position.

Back on the flat, it was not quite lunchtime so I decided that I'd go for a bit more of a wander, work on a little project of mine (more in another post) and then get that pie in Pahiatua.

The cow may be a giveaway...

After crossing SH2, I made my way through Hopelands and towards Millers Road where I'd take in that neat bit of gravel before heading into Pahiatua.  Along the way though, I noticed another wee road disappearing off to the left.  

I'd ridden past it a few times before and wondered where it went (with at least some inling) and as you can see from the map, I did ride past it again before doing a 180 and checking it out.  Pahaheke Road soon went to gravel and after hooking onto a few more roads (again following my nose a bit), I hit Makairo Track and confirmed my "inkling".

Being alone and not in the mood for dropping a T7 off the side of Makairo Track, I decided to skip what would have been a fairly adventurous ride and popped out at another old building.

There's that cow again...

Now it was time for that lovely Millers Road:

Well, that was fun, now to find a pie...

And that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment - my pepper steak was only just warm.  At least it didn't kill me overnight...

Time to head home on the most excellent Tararua Road:

That was even funner!  And after a quick squirt over the track, that was the ride.  Cracker of a day and some neat roads.  We now have a cooler route to Makairo track Colin...

Pol again

 I went for a ride on the T7 today.  Managed to avoid any of these sorts of shenanigans:

It's raining again

 

After work farkling

 Another wee delivery from Ali-express...

Bigger foot

Water pump protection

Just a short pootle

No riding on Saturday and a later start on Sunday saw me finally deciding to get out and take in a little ride around 11 in the morning.

We'd had some pretty chilly weather earlier in the week and on Friday, Whariti got a big dump of snow on it.  There were plenty of photos online of 4WD's clambering up through the snow and ice, towing sleds and all sorts of chilly shenanigans.  With Saturday being warmer, I thought that it wouldn't be an icy trip up but that there still might be some snow to check out.

So that was the plan.  After crossing the Saddle, I turned up towards the peak, stopped briefly to attempt to start a GoPro with a flat battery, waited for two 4WD's to go past and then took off up the gravel road.

Rounding a corner, I encountered a bit of slippery stuff, pulled my head in a little and then popped out of the trees and into...wind.

Now, for those that don't know, it blows up there.  That's why there's windmills all over the place and sometimes it's too windy for them as well.  On one BRR ride, a group us got a bit further up the hill and then nearly got blown off it.  Turning the bikes around was a mission...

Being on my lonesome, I was not keen to be blown off the side of the hill (and not even having got up as high as that BRR ride), I decided to change my plans.

On our last ride out East (no blog 😟) I'd really enjoyed our last squirt of gravel on Tararua Road and decided that I could just nip over to Pahiatua or ride through Ballance to get there before the short bit of gravel and then home for lunch.

Or I could meander my way all over the place and then do Tararua Road.

After plugging in the GoPro to sort out its lack of ergs, I made my way through to Woodville and then onwards.  The weather didn't look the best so as I rode through Hopelands I kept my options open with a number of different ways I could wimp out and still take in Tararua Road or skedaddle home.  The thing was though, I was enjoying myself too much and kept coming up with other options to extend the ride and get in more good gravel.

In the end I picked a route through Coonoor and Waitahora Roads and then back into Dannevirke for lunch before making my way to Pahiatua and Taraura Road.  

I picked up the odd little shower on my way to Coonoor and the roads (sealed) were certainly a bit slippery but did have one other rider on a Beemer come past heading the other way. 

Hitting the gravel on Coonoor road, I stopped briefly to refit and turn on the GoPro and managed to capture 16 seconds of video and 20 odd minutes of audio of the ride - awesome.  So what you don't see in that awesome footage is a slightly slippery (slippery hard clay with marbles on top) start to the gravel followed by some much better fast gravel.  The gravel section of Waitahora Road was much the same and life was good.

All pics taken at the Northern (Dannevirke) end of Waitahora Road. 

Cruising into Dannevirke, it was only about 1pm and the worms weren't getting too carried away and there was still fuel in the tank so I decided to carry on to Pahiatua and check those items out there.  No gravel on my route but I did stick to the back roads to keep off the main roads and enjoy the slippery, winter seal.

Somewhere near Mangatainoka, the fuel gauge finally started giving me the evil eye so I made for the BP in Pahiatua where I put just under $60 in the tank!  And discovered (yet again) that they had some pies that could be had if one was peckish.

19.3L and we were ready for the next 400+ kms...

Leaving Pahiatua I had my objective in sight and have to say that Tararua Road was just as much fun as it was the last time I went through.  Well worth my little tiki-tour to get there 😜

And then there was my last little bit of excitement - testing out the wet weather performance of my E-09 front.  Not too shabby for what looks a lot like a knobbly...

And ten minutes later I was home and hooking into a coffee after a pretty neat little ride.

Winter gravel

 ...is the best!

With that extensive maintenance and farkling complete, Sunday was the day to put the T7 through her paces.  As per usual Colin had to get in on the act and dragged Andy along too.

Leaving my place, we road tarmac across to Cheltenham and up past Beaconsfield where we eventually hit some gravel on Beaconsfield Valley Road.  

Further up the road we started to drop down the hill on Upper Pakihikura Road and I really enjoyed the ride through here all the way back to the seal on Otara Road.  The views are great and the gravel was mostly fast with the odd little slippery bit to keep things interesting - good stuff.

Not long after the bridge crossing we were out onto SH1 for a short cruise up to Mangaweka where I got fuel and we all got coffee and ummmm, pies.

After popping over the hill, we turned off again and made for some our favourite gravel through to the summit of the Napier-Taihape.  No snow (except the odd bit in shady spots) but once again the gravel was mint and again included the odd little slippery surprise.

After failing me to this point, the GoPro decided to play ball on the last section up to the Napier-Taihape and as you can see it was pretty fast, fun gravel.  Video not the best - blame YouTube...

Ford at around 6:00.

A few weeks ago Colin and Andy went through here and couldn't cross the ford as it was in major flood.  Maybe all the damage was caused then:

From the summit, we turned towards Taihape but managed to get in some more gravel on Moawhango Valley Road.  I hadn't ridden this in ages but it was well worth it and like most of the other gravel on the ride - fast and fun.  There was just that one surprise one lane bridge that stepped out in front of me...

Back in Taihape the KTM's needed fuel and the riders needed coffee so we hit the BP before wandering on down the road a bit and turning East just South of Utiku.  After a bit of seal we got in some more gravel on Auputa Road.

Auputa got us back onto the seal just out of Rangiwahia but we skipped Rangi and headed around the Manawatu Scenic Route to Apiti.  Ran into a small road block along the way.

The run from Apiti along Ridge Road to Pohangina was our last bit of gravel and while it was a good run, there was a bit of traffic on the road and the low sun was a bit of a pain as we road in and out of shaded spots.

Back at my place we had another coffee while discussing the awesomeness of the ride.  Another goodee in the books.