The Mightiest of Mouses

 I can't imagine selling my quarter of an R1...

Oh, and there's a guy on AdvRider with 160,000 miles on his.  Mine's still a fair way off needing that valve check.

And slightly off topic: there's a chap with 375,000 miles on his Super Ten!

Answering an important question?

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

A Magic Mousecapade

The weather was supposed to be a bit dodgy over the weekend, it being winter I 'spose, but after walkies on Sunday the sun was actually out and while it was a bit chilly, the rain appeared to be holding off.  Right, better get a skid in then...

A few weekends ago the Mighty WR had a bit of a birthday and I'd kinda been hanging out to find an excuse to give it some exercise.  A bit of rain during the week also promised nicely settled gravel and even perhaps the prospect of some mud!  A trip up the valley beckoned.

After getting some fuel, I made my way to the closest bit of gravel.  This involved following another loaded up Adv bike (no idea who he was but he wasn't fast enough to outrun the WR) out of Ashhust and then up Ulysses Road which has tragically had the top gravel section sealed recently.

At the top, he went left while I turned right onto the gravel section of Watershed Road.  And was it good?  Yes, it was!  There was actually very little gravel and in some places there was dirt showing through, occasionally this was deliciously slippery to keep me on my toes.

I was grinning almost straight away and starting to remember what a great little bike I was on.  It is so easy to ride and very forgiving as you can manhandle it all over the place, catch slides easily and in places where the big bikes are a handful or slow. the little bike is just easy.  The Motoz Desert H/T rubber is perfect on the bike too.

Eventually I dropped off the ridge and down into Pohangina do I could go up one side of the valley and then return down the other side.  It also meant I could take in one of my favourites:

Somewhere after I hit the short seal section I got a fairly decent scare when a pheasant flew across my bows.  It was that close that I got hit in the face (visor up) my small stones and dust that were coming out of its feathers - it must have been having a dust bath when I disturbed it.

Next up was the short bit of Makoura Road to take me across towards Apiti.  More good gravel with a quick photo stop at the bridge.

By now it was about 12pm and I was kinda keen to head back for some lunch, but naturally, I'd not had enough gravel so it was time for Ridge Road.

There was a bit more gravel on the road but it was still awesome fun on the little bike.  Cue video number two:

Following the Ridge, I eventually got back onto Finnis Road and reversed my earlier ride through to the Ulysses Road turn-off and then home for lunch.

A great little ride of somewhere just over 130km and a fantastic average speed of (including stops) of about 53km/h.  Go the little WR!

Spoiling the little one

 This post completed without AI...

Somehow there are two WR's living in my shed and every now and again I visit them to fire them up for a while as they haven't been getting in too many outings these days.  Last time I went out to do this a tragedy occurred - more poor wee bike wouldn't start and all things pointed to a very old and much abused (no tender and nowhere near enough riding) battery.

But, the battery had lasted well.  It's definitely been in the bike since I've had it and I have a sneaking suspicion that may have been the original - so potentially in the bike since 2011!

Deciding on a replacement was pretty easy.  The Poweroad Li-ion one in Colin's bike always fires his one up (after being ignored for months) and I also have one in the RMX which so far seems to be just as reliable.  And look at the size difference!  It weighs probably less than a quarter of the other one too!

Fitting the battery, I had to pack it out with the stick on foam rubber that comes with the battery so it would fit more snuggly in the battery box and not rattle itself to death when being a passenger on our usual death-defying WR rides...

And then it was time to see if the new battery would breath life into the mighty beast.  Damn straight!  And then Colin's one needed to be checked as well.

After fitting the battery, I then got very extravagant and dropped the oil out of the WR and gave it some fresh stuff along with a new filter.  Heck, I even pumped up the tyres to make pushing it around the shed easier...

And added an appropriate mascot...

Terrorizing Takapari

After having a blast on the yellow bike last weekend, I decided that maybe I'd like to see if it was still as much fun this weekend.  I then managed to persuade Rhys from work and Colin to join on WR's - Rhys borrowing mine for the day.  The idiots took the bait...

Come Saturday morning and Rhys only just bet Colin to my place where all that was required was loading the RMX onto the ute and the other guys going in search of fuel.  I took the direct route out to the bottom of Takapari Road and once again somehow managed to persuade the others to go via Pohangina so they could have a wee gravel warm-up.

I beat them out to the bottom of the hill, had the bike unloaded and was just starting to get my gear on when I started hearing some revs approaching.  It took a while but I could hear them for ages before they arrived with grins already plastered on their faces.  Yeah, WR's are a blast!

Geared up, we hit the gravel up to the first gate.  I played tail-end charlie and had fun sitting behind Rhys who was riding fairly well for someone who hadn't been on a bike for a few years.  The RMX was a hoot on some of the gravel corners.

The next leg was the squirt up the farm track to the top gate.  Once again I stayed at the back for a while until Rhys made a slight navigational error (gave a bank a bit of a scare) and I snuck past and chased after Colin.

Missing a WR somewhere...

We waited for a few minutes wondering what was keeping Rhys and then:

Is that dirt hanging off the bike?

Well, it turned out that Rhys had had a little bit of excitement back at one of the gates and ended up hitting the ground fairly hard.  He managed to dislocate a finger (which he fixed straight away) and pick up the odd graze along with getting the wind knocked out of him.

We sort of commiserated (and also gave him a bit of stick) with him and let him have a bit of a breather for a bit before he said he was up for the next bit.

The next bit is the climb up to the corner where we usually stop for photos and it includes those 4WD churned up bits.  These were also fairly muddy and slippery from rain the day before and we also had to get past three 4WD's on the way up.  They were great though and saw us coming and then let us through easily.

Unfortunately, I somehow started the camera recording in hyperlapse - doh!

One of the things about the 450 is that it goes fairly well and eats up most terrain up there fairly well too.  This meant that I may have got away on the other chaps just a little.  It did enable me to get a few cool shots of them making their way up though - I really like the ones as they are crossing the ridge.

Rhys looking good up on the pegs

Here comes Colin!

Time to take in the scenery:

On the next wee leg to the hutt I finally managed to persuade Colin to have a spin on the yellow bike while I tried out the sofa on his WR.  I think it went well enough for him...

At the hut there were already some 4WD's and we let them know about the other three on their way up so that they knew to expect them.  Shortly after they left (and while we were enjoying a snack), the other three vehicles arrived and we spent a bit of time yarning to them.

Seeing as there were three of us to help each other get out of trouble, we decided to head on past the hutt and check out the track a bit more (I'd last done this about 25 years ago).  The 3 4WD's tagged along too.

The first bit involved a reasonably steep and rocky descent which was no issue but the next uphill was a different story.  The track split off to the left or right and taking the left one we quickly came unstuck in some fairly soft (not muddy) rock and dirt.  The 450 proved very good at digging holes in this stuff.

We did a 180 and dropped back to the bottom for another try on the right side track.  Colin got away first and disappeared up the track with a Pajero chasing him.  Rhys and I went next.

Nearing the fork in the track the Pajero was blocking my way (actually backing down for another crack at the climb) so I was forced to go left again and hit the soft stuff again.  I quickly got bogged down again and Rhys and I had a bit of a go at trying some different paths but we seemed to always end up getting stuck again.  

Looking up the hill we could just see this sort of thing continuing all the way up the hill.  Maybe if we could have had a good run at it with plenty of pace we might have got up it but it was also fairly rough.  I'd pretty much had enough of getting stuck, stalling the bike and lifting it around (even with Rhys' help) so we ended up parking up to take in the views and wait for Colin.

Back at the hut is was my turn to ride Mighty Mouse so that Rhys could have a bit of fun on the 450.  Heading across the tops, I got away on the guys again and managed a few more action shots:

And then it was time for the downhill.  I was a bit more careful in the slippery bits this time with the WR not quite having a front tyre as good as the RMX's and the rear brake peddle a little hard to find for some reason 😉.  There was also an added hazard of a dick in a Hilux not stopping or pulling over at all for us - check it out on the video.

Safely back at the bottom, the RMX was loaded back up and we trundled off back to my place for a drink and a debrief.  Yet another great day out playing in the dirt and mud 👍