New skid lid

My old Shoei XR-1000 has been feeling a bit worn out for a while now so I've been kinda snooping around at new helmets.  A couple of weekends ago I test rode an HJC RPHA 10 Plus and then made a rash decision...

For years I've always just bought plain coloured (usually black) helmets but this time I ended up ordering one with the "Evoke" graphic.  A few days later it turned up and I have to say it is a great looking helmet that the pictures don't do justice.

The helmet came complete with breath guard, chin curtain, pin-lock visor and a second tinted visor.  The shop are hopefully arranging to swap the very dark tinted visor for a lighter tint for me as I don't want to carry two visors with me or get caught out after dark with a dark tint.  I'd rather take my sunnies with me...

I haven't had a chance to break it in properly yet (hoping for a nice weekend) but the demo one felt good and was reasonably quiet - I did try it with my ear plugs on as I wanted to ensure that it was comfortable with the plugs in.  The controls for the ventilation took a bit of finding but are very easy to use once you locate them - more practice required...

Next step is to get some speakers into the helmet - there is not a huge amount of room but I have a couple of options.  I still need to be able to wear the ear plugs comfortably too.  I will post up my results and hopefully a ride report...

More Picasa weirdness

So I was nosing around the old Autobackup folder in my Picasa web albums and discovered that not only was Picasa creating gifs of some of my pics but also stitching together some pics to make nice big wide panorama shots.  Some of them aren't perfect but others are not too bad at all.  I particularly like some of the one's from my South Island adventure.

Here's a selection (it's worth clicking on them to see them a bit larger):

And to prove it here's the source images for that last panorama:

Weird is cool!

BRR Damn the Duke Part Two

So, we left off last night with most of our merry band pulling into "the Duke" for a late lunch.

Here we were reunited with three of our missing riders but were still missing the two who had gone in search of them...

A well deserved lunch was quickly ordered and bike gear removed so we could sit in the sun without melting.  A cold drink was also very welcome after the morning's ride and there was even a new bike to gawk at as Colin had turned up on his new Wee - I forgot to get some snaps of it though, doh!

After lunch it was time to take a really interesting route back to Dannevirke.  First up was a steep climb out of Porangahau on Old Hill Road.  It's a good thing that the first bit of the road was tar as I spent a fair bit of time with my eyes off the road looking at the spectacular views out across Porangahau to the beach.  I'll stop there one day for some pics...Oh and the road did eventually go to gravel...

Old Hill Road eventually spat us out onto Porangahau Road which we followed towards Waipuk only until turning off to take Blackhead Road back to the coast.  After dropping back down the hill the tarseal road then becomes the most delicious gravel that you'd ever find.  I'd ridden it before and enjoyed it and on this occasion it was just as good - I think the video may demonstrate how much fun it was...

At the end of Blackhead Road we went left (instead of right and down to the beach) and made our way back yet again to Porangahau Road via some reasonably nice tar.  But we still hadn't finished with the gravel and turned off again to take in more back roads including some more good gravel.  It's here I get a bit lost with my video recordings - I have some video but can't remember which road is which so we'll just skip the video and carry on with the action.

It was now getting later in the afternoon and the low sun was a bit of a pain when trying to pick a line through the gravel so I definitely dialed it back a little and tried my best to duck down so the peak of my helmet blotted out the bright sun.

Our next bit of excitement was a certain Triumph coming into difficulties about oh, 15km from Danniverke and the nearest petrol station...Luckily we had a Kawasaki petrol tanker with us and were able to transfer some petrol between bikes.  Also luckily, the battery on my camera was not completely flat so I could document the operation...

How embarrassing!

Arriving back in Dannevirke we all went our separate ways, some stopping for coffee and others (including me) high-tailing it for home.  I did have one more stop for fuel in Woodville as my fuel gauge dropped to it's last bar immediately on leaving Dannevirke...I probably would have made it home ok but I didn't have a KLR accompanying me so played it safe.

In the end I got home just before 6pm after what was a reasonably eventful back road ride but a very enjoyable one.  Where are we going next Neil?

More pics here.

BRR Damn the Duke Part One

Yesterday was our monthly Back Road Riders Adventure ride and this time around Neil had planned an excursion over on the East Coast that would lead us to lunch at the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel in Porangahau.

First up though we had to meet in Pahiatua and take in as much gravel as possible between there and Porangahau.  I started by heading over the track and then getting my eye in on the short bit of gravel that is Tararua Road.  Then with plenty of time up my sleeve I stopped for a few pics just above Pahiatua.

While there a few of the boys started rocking up - or was that blasting past?

I wonder what the rear tyre on that beemer is like?

Our ride proper kicked off we a wee tar-sealed scoot through to Makuri where we turned off onto Coonoor Road and our first nice stretch of gravel.

Just before the climb up past the lime works we paused for a regroup and to discuss what we thought of graders and the work that they'd been doing (for the record I'm not a great fan of them or their work).

After the catch up it was time to climb that hill and make our way towards Waihi Falls.

Somewhere on our way to the falls there was a little miscommunication which resulted in our party splitting up a bit as some riders went one way and the others took off on their own adventure elsewhere.  The main group stopped before the falls to scratch their heads and wonder what had gone wrong.

Rather than ride down to visit the falls we back-tracked a little and made our way to Route 52 via Horoeka Road.  Somewhere along here we were reunited with a few of the other guys but when we stopped for a count up at Route 52 we were still missing 1 or 2.  Now it was time to lose a couple more as they volunteered to ride into Pongaroa to see if the others were waiting there - Pongaroa/Porangahau mix up?

With that Neil led the rest of us out to the turn-off to Weber but we carried on right on Route 52 for all of a couple of hundred metres to Tahuokaretu Road and then disappeared in a cloud of dust while we pulled over to try to fix a puncture in a Beemers rear tyre.

After trying a screw-in plug we ended up removing it and going for a string repair and while doing this Neil turned up just in time to help pump the tyre up.  Tyre sorted it was time for a great ride along Tahuokaretu and Birch Roads.  More great gravel with just the odd slippery bit to keep us on our toes.

Birch Road eventually dumped us back out onto Route 52 just South of Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukakapiki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­kitanatahu and leaving us just a short squirt on tarmac to our lunch stop in Porangahau.

Part Two tomorrow night...

Shame about the finish

Another fairly nice day today - by winter's standards anyway - so we managed to round up 5 of us to take in the Apiti-Rangiwahia-Mangaweka-Vinegar Hill loop (ARMVHL?).

View Larger Map

Mark had had a little pre-WOF issue earlier on and once that got sorted and he had his warrant we rode out to Ashhurst to meet up with Brian, Lloyd and Roscoe.  By 10:15 I was leading the guys out around the Pohangina Valley.

The riding was great but there was plenty of evidence of weather at work - slips on the road, dirt, mud and metal in places too.  There were also plenty of kamikaze magpies out and about too and I'm afraid one of them took on something a little bigger, faster and harder than it was...

At the top the hill we turned right onto Rangiwahia Road and made our way through to Mangaweka.  Once again there was plenty of road hazards to avoid but it is always a great ride through here.

Just South of Mangaweka we pulled into the Flat Hills cafe for an early lunch and the chance to yabber about the great ride we'd had so far.

After lunch it was time for the short ride home via Vinegar Hill.  This is where things went fairly badly wrong.  Brian, Lloyd, Mark and I were enjoying ourselves and ended up getting away on Roscoe.  We pulled up at a turn-off we had planned to take and set about waiting Roscoe.

While waiting I felt a vibrating in my pocket but didn't make before the call went to answerphone.  The message revealed the worst - Roscoe had come off, unhurt but not going anywhere.  We quickly remounted and started to retrace our steps.

We eventually found Roscoe near his poor wee GSX.  He had been avoiding a nasty patch in the road and ended up a fair bit too far left...once he was in some soft stuff he was just along for the ride...

Luckily he was fine but unfortunately the lovely little GSX was a bit worse for wear.  Brian and Lloyd took off home to fetch a trailer while the rest of us got the bike down off the hill to a flat area where it was a bit better for parking and loading the bike up.  An hour or so later Brian and Lloyd were back and we quickly had the bike loaded.

Mark and I ended up doing Vinegar Hill three times but the incident definitely put a damper on an otherwise great day out on the bikes.

The good news is that Roscoe is ok and not too down after the whoopsie and already there are plans on the first steps to get the bike sorted and back out on the road - good stuff!