BRR Taranaki Tunnel Tour Part One

Last weekend was our monthly BRR gravel ride but with it starting pretty early on Sunday morning in Stratford, I like a few others made the trip up to the 'naki on Saturday.  In my case I got to cadge a bed and a feed off my sister and catch up with my nephews and niece which was a bit of a bonus.

After depositing the dog at my folks place (where I'm sure he was helpful to Dad when they working on the bus) I raced home and swapped from the car to the mighty Vee and hit the road.  It wasn't too bad a day but from about Bulls there was a nasty little breeze to prevent the motorcyclist from getting too hot in their riding gear.  Also missing from the ride was the nice view of the mountain that I'd enjoyed a fortnight earlier.

Then

Saturday

On Friday night I'd decided that it would be cool to see if I could find a few back roads (preferably gravel) to take in on my way up and after a bit of poking around in Mapsource and on GoogleMaps I ended up with a route that I thought would offer up a change from the main roads.

Firstly I turned off to take my usual diversion around Hawera but then instead of popping out at Normanby I zig-zagged my way East of the main road and found a lot of new roads.  Most were all sealed but a lot of them were deliciously windy and there was one that even had "saddle" in it's name which of course means "fun".

In my route planning I discovered a lot of other roads tearing off into the wop-wops but didn't take any of them as they all seemed to peter out somewhere.  A couple will definitely be worth looking at in the future as there are lakes and rivers tucked away up there.

Unfortunately the only decent bit of gravel was on Wingrove Road and it wasn't a very long stretch.  It was quite fun though as it started off pretty open and fast before a small climb up over a hill surrounded by a forestry block.  Add in stock on the road and it felt like a mini-adventure...

Further on up the road I took in a small section of the start of the Forgotten Highway before turning off at Toko onto some more new roads taking me closer to the farm.  The roads got a fair bit skinner and a lot more windier - I was really hating it...

At Stanley Road I turned right as that's where my GPS said to go but couldn't help but notice the no exit sign.  I decided that as I was pretty close to my destination a little diversion was ok even if I did have to turn around and backtrack - besides, the GPS said I could get through...

The road eventually became gravel and a short time later I came to a gate.  More on this later, but I decided to be good and turned around.  I then (because I am the trusting type) decided to let the GPS find a new route up to the farm.  This involved more tight and windy roads (dagnabbit) but I eventually ended up in the right place right on time for lunch - mint!

Coming soon...

Orbiting Onga

Mark's Bandit has been giving him a little grief lately in that it's decided that it's not too keen on starting.  It also has cut out on him once while on a ride.  But with some decent rides coming up soon he wants obviously to get the issues sorted.  After fitting a new battery and fiddling with this and that he was keen to give it a bit of a run to see if it was going to behave.  I tagged along just to keep an eye on things.

Apparently the Bandit was a little difficult to start at first but it wasn't too cranky when the go button was pushed before we left Mark's place.  We headed out of town and then turned off at Ashhurst to take in the Saddle.

The Saddle was in pretty bad condition.  There are some road works at on the Ashhurst side and this combined with the winter weather etc made for plenty of slippery stuff on the road so we didn't set any speed records riding over towards Woodville.

Off the Saddle we took the back roads to Dannevirke and then had a chat on the side of the road about where to next.  I was keen for a decent ride but while Mark wanted to give the Bandit a good run he didn't want to get to far away from civilisation just in case the bike played up.  It was getting close to lunch time so I suggested Ongaonga and off we went.

There was a bit of a breeze on the plains and up SH50 but otherwise the weather wasn't too bad at all.  The ranges looked great with a pretty generous amount of snow on them.  No pics unfortunately as I didn't take a decent camera with me and had to make do with my phone.  In Onga we parked up and ordered lunch at the cafe/store/gas station.

The tables in the cafe had glass tops and underneath the glass there were clippings from newspapers with articles on Ongonga and the local area.  One article mentioned that the building in the below picture sold recently for the outrageous sum of $1 to the local historical society.  It looks like it's been done up a bit but had some use over the years:

pic pinched from local school's website

After lunch we crossed over to Takapau and then made our way back to Dannevirke via Ormonville and stopped for fuel before continuing onto Oringi where we turned off again to take in some more back roads.  We eventually popped out on SH2 again at Magatainoka but turned off again at Pahiatua to take the track back into Palmy.

All the way the Bandit behaved itself perfectly and even started ok after our few stops.  Mark has still got some searching to do but hopefully the bike is feeling better after a nice little run.

View Ongaonga loop in a larger map

Classic Bike Show

This weekend there was a classic bike show on here in Palmy and after getting the important stuff done for the weekend (go for a ride) I decided to check it out.  I was even nice enough to invite the old man.

There were heaps of bikes on display and plenty of people were there to check them out.  I took about 80 pictures but won't post them all here so if you want to check them all out click here.  Here's a few of the special ones:

Apparently this Douglas is very similar to one that my grandfather owned and there is a bit of a story about it.  He broke an ankle riding it and consequently didn't want his sons riding bikes and as well as forbidding them from getting bikes he never mentioned it until my Dad was about 16 or so and already had sneakily bought his own bike.  My two uncles also had bikes at various times too.

There were obviously a lot of bikes there that Dad recognised and some that he and his brothers had owned.  Dad had a little Jawa like the one below - apparently he swapped a go-cart for it...

I think this was the oldest bike that I saw:

There were some fantastic restorations.  This Indian really stood out:

And Dad really like this Douglas which was really neat alright.  No pots sticking out in the breeze like those crazy Beemers eh?

I also liked a lot of the original looking machines that showed they'd had a life:

And look!  A Harley I could own!

And a fantastic Henderson inline four:

There was also some newer Japanese classics:

Ridden one of these

Several Kwaka 2-smokes - Dad had a 500 at one stage

One owner from new!

I test rode one of these horrible V3 2-stroke Hondas.  Didn't like it, bought an RG instead.

There were also some special bikes own show:

The 'Plastic fantastic

McIntosh Suzuki

And the R&R boys had some of their toys on display:

Their Norton Racer

Desmo Norton motors - apparently the only ones in world...

And their Westlake drag bike - it can move!

There was even some instant classics - magnificent MV's:

100,000 Euros worth apparently...

And here's probably my favourite - a beautiful little 50cc Honda:

Be nice to be able to afford a few more toys...

A Frosty Forgotten Highway

The Connie seems to have been neglected a little lately and I've been dying to get her out for a decent bit of exercise.  Today was the day and after a decent overnight frost the day didn't look too bad as I geared up (plenty of warm layers) and made my way out of town.

It was still not even 7:30 when I left so as I rode over towards Wanganui it was nice to have the sun climbing higher in the sky out off to my right - it helped me think warm thoughts as I upped the temperature on my heated grips.  Yep, it was reasonably chilly.

Riding through Bulls the big road information sign informed me that the Desert Road was closed and while this wasn't a concern for me it did make me wonder about my planned route and the times I was going to hit other roads - I didn't want to find another road closed by snow if I hit it later in the day.  I carried on anyway and mulled over a few potential changes to my route.

Nearing Wanganui the roads were damper rather than frosty so my concerns about ice in the shaded spots decreased and I just got on with enjoying the ride.  Carrying on up SH3 it was pretty much more of the same and even though it was chilly, the day was starting to shape up quite nicely.  There was a bit of breeze coming off the sea which was giving me a left leg that felt colder than the right but I'm darned if I know why my right foot was colder than the left...

Just out of Kakakaramea I decided that I probably wasn't going to get a better photo of the mountain than what I could see before me so I pulled over to snap a pic or two.

My Fuji's stunt double

While I was standing around getting cold I decided to call Neil and see how things were over his side of the hill.  I was intending to cruise past there on my way home but wanted to make sure that the road was gonna be ok.  He informed me that it was a barmy 1 degree in National Park and that I'd have no problems with the road.  While chatting though I did decide to alter my route so that I would be riding through National Park/Ohakune/Waiouru ete a lot earlier just to be on the safe side.  This did mean that the Connie was not going to get quite as much exercise but I wasn't too worried about that and was already thinking of the warm fire...

In Stratford I stopped to fuel up before taking my detour across the Forgotten Highway - I only put in 12 litres so possibly would have made it across but better to be safe than pushing a 280kg bike...

Getting into the FH the roads were fairly wet and slippery in places and heading over the tight windy saddles I definitely took it easy - especially in the shady and frosty corners.  I did have a couple of little squiggles in the wet so slow and smooth stayed the order of the day.

I told ya it was frosty!

Engine and more importantly hot grips running

The Whangamomona Saddle was fairly wet and there were a number of small slips on it along with plenty of evidence of previous slips - more slippery stuff to steer clear of.

I didn't end up stopping in the Republic of Whangamomona, instead continuing onwards thinking of a hot meal further down the road.  The roads actually got a bit better with some decent dry stretches and not too much rubbish across the road.  Occasionally though there was stock on the road including two sheep who were waiting patiently outside a woolshed, perhaps waiting for a Saturday morning hair-cut...

It was nice on top of the Tahora Saddle too:

The gravel section of the road is normally in really good condition and easily ridden on a 1,400cc adventure bike and while this was mostly the case today, there was the odd corner were it was a bit wet and mushy causing the bike to slide into wheel tracks and give me something to concentrate on.  Other parts were great and I even hit the speed limit a few times...

Eventually I started to run out of Forgotten Highway and found myself in Taumarunui just before lunchtime.  Rather than stop there I rode through a brief scud of rain and onto Owhango where it was time for a late brekky.

Lunch eaten I carried on South to National Park where I hit all the traffic that wasn't able to take the Desert Road and also some weather.  It got a bit damp for a while and there may even (if I use my imagination a little) have been a bit of sleet for a couple of minutes.  Luckily it wasn't that cold and the grips were still working.

Carrying onto Ohakune and Waiouru there was snow on the ground on the side of the road and it was down fairly low on the nearby hills but the weather remained ok all the way down to Taihape where I stopped to give the Connie another drink.  From there it was just another 30km before I could turn-off for a play on a dry Vinegar Hill and the final cruise home.  I got in around 3pm and even had time to mow the lawns before lighting that fire and sitting down with a warm cup of coffee.  Not quite the ride I had planned but a thoroughly enjoyable 590km all the same.

View Larger Map

More pics here.