Takapari Road

A ways' back (seems like forever already) on our last ride on the big Adv bikes I floated the idea of a little bike ride up Takapari Road.  In a coincidence, when we got back someone had posted pictures of a ride up there showing some reasonably serious 4WD damage to the road - it looked enticing.  So enticing that Colin gave me a call and said that we must go and check it out.  Well, if we must, we must!

Important pre-ride mod installed...

So, last Sunday was the big day and we even managed to convince Darren to ride down from Taihape for the big event.

After fuelling up in town, I led the chaps out to Watershed Road so we could get onto the gravel as soon as possible.  This is very important when riding the WR's with a larger bike tagging along - it means we don't hold up the big bike and the gravel is a great equaliser...

Watershed was a great warm-up for us but riding out onto the seal on Midland Road we did have a bit of excitement when an idiot in his ute backed out of his driveway without looking properly.  I can't believe that his passenger didn't say something as he was looking our way...Not sure if the barrelling he got from Colin and I achieved anything but you never know...

The next bit of gravel was Zigzag Road and since I was last through here some jokers had graded it/put down a bit of gravel so there was surfing to be had as we rode through to Finnis Road and the drop down into Pohangina.

That simply magic bit of gravel on Pohangina Road got us to the turn-off to Totara Reserve and then onto Pohangina Valley East Road where we ate up far too much seal before finally arriving at Takapari Road.

We scrambled up to the top gate reasonably quickly and along the way picked up a guy on his XT600/660.

The first little section just past the gate is often a little mucky but no problem for any of us but a bit further up the track we ran into (well, not quite) our first 4WD coming the other way just before a slippery looking bit.  We ended up parking out of the way for a few minutes while we waited for four of them to get past us without killing us.  You can see them at about the 25 second mark in Colin's video below:

We got through that sticky bit a lot quicker than the 4WD's but then not a lot further up the track we ran into the big churned up section that we'd heard about on Facebook.  It was fairly soft and the ruts were deep back still not too bad to get through on our bikes.  

Colin picked the snottiest line he could find and got a little stuck for a moment.  I made sure to get photos before helping...

There's video of the boggy section in that first one but here's some just of the boggy stuff with some video from my camera as well as Colin's.

That was pretty much the nastiest bit of the road with the rest being the usual great mix of rocky track, the odd bit of clay and mud and plenty of puddles.  We had a quick stop just short of the hut to check out the view.  It sure was a pretty good day up there!

By this time we'd lost the XT rider (I think the snotty stuff must have put him off) but we did find a KTM pilot enjoying the view.

It's a good day when ya can see those fellas this easy

A couple of motocross bikes came through while we were having our breather too.

From here it was just a quick puddle-dodging few minutes to the hutt for another breather.  BTW, yes those mountain bikers had ridden up from the bottom - stuff that!

The descent was just as much fun and the snotty bit much easier to handle just idling down it.  Colin was getting pretty good with his GoPro eh?

At the bottom of the hill we said goodbye to Darren as he headed home via a trip around the loop and we back tracked towards Ashhurst.  Just up the road a group of sports bikes went past - one waving a wheel at us - and they eventually caught Darren too.  But he then caught one of them back and had to help him get his bike out of the drain...

Rather than ride the seal all the way back to Ashhurst we returned via Pohangina again, which meant taking that neat bit of gravel again.  Colin accidentally had his GoPro in hyperlapse mode (which I've slowed down by about 50%) so we weren't quite travelling this fast:

Soon after, we were in Ashhurst and searching for coffee and a pie.  The first place didn't do coffee so we tried the cafe and it did coffee but there was a 20 minute wait...We had a pie and a cold drink...

Takapari Road had just whet our appetite so after a using motard mode on the WR's to cross the Saddle we climbed up Whariti to check out the view from there.  The ride up was a lot quicker than Takapari with no mud, just good gravel and a bit of a climb.

Successfully summiting the hill we dropped back down it again and then made for our next wee adventure - North Range Road.  This first required a wee sprint up Hall Block Road to another prime photo spot.

While we there a DRZ400 pulled up and it turned out to be Craig who had come on one of the FRDC MC rides and we ended up chasing him all the way across North Range Road.  Colin got his camera going again but once again it was in hyperlapse mode but I managed to get some decent captures off it.

Between the blades...

Somehow that skinny rear tyre is handling all the horsepower being pumped through it...

Eventually the flash big gravel road ran out and we were into the old and famous muddy tracks where dodging or going through the big puddles were your two options.  I don't know how but Colin's camera managed to get something on the lens...

Eventually we came to one heck of a deep looking puddle and I decided that we needed to go around that one as I am not much of a swimmer...Carefully riding along the grass I then came to a channel that someone had dug to release some of the water.  I didn't really want to attempt to cross that either as if I stuffed it up I'd be in the lake.  Here's a wee sequence showing me trying to extricate myself from the situation...

You would think Colin would have cleaned his camera by now...

Someone else found an easier way...

Anyway, we got the two WR's across without going swimming and then were off into some other nice muddy sections and more puddle avoidance.

Out of the mud, we stopped and chatted to Craig for a while before tearing off back to my place to find some coffee.  Had an awesome day out on the magnificent little bikes and looking forward to the next adventure on Mighty Mouse!

Caught in the act

Remember that time Colin and I stumbled across a Google car?  Nope?  Well here ya go: https://banditrider.blogspot.com/2019/05/that-valley-again.html

I 'spose we knew what he/she was up to (taking millions of photos) but I really didn't give it much thought after writing the blog but today Gremlin sent me a message with a Streetview link showing us parked up on the Paraparas.

Click piccy for link to Streetview

We'd just pulled out of Te Rimu Road and were heading up the Paras to Fields Track and then Burma Hill.

That Google car was really getting along and it took us law abiding riders a while to catch him and a fair bit of clicking today to finally track him down again at the traffic lights were we had finally caught up to him.

Anyway, kinda cool and nice that they blur faces and in particular number plates...I nabbed a few more snips showing us passing and him chasing after us...

Another link to Streetview here

I wonder how long our thirty seconds of fame will last? 🤣

Cheers Gremmy!

Gravel Gallivant

Gosh darn it, there's been nowhere near enough riding this month!  Between bad weather and a winter cold there's just been too many feeble excuses to stay home and hunker down.

Well, on Saturday, Colin and I finally fixed that.  A very loose plan was formulated a couple of days out but then on Saturday we decided that rather meeting at my place, we were going to meet in Pahiatua instead - this saves Colin a wee side-trip and a mauling from my dog.

So, while out walking the wild animal, I did some complicated maths and worked out when I needed to leave home in order to arrive around in Pahiatua the same time as Colin.  

I ended up leaving home at around 8:15 and after picking my way over a mostly dry Pahiatua Track attacked my first short stretch of gravel on Tararua Road.

Right away I noticed that the newish Shinko on the rear wasn't quite as good as an E-07 when there was a reasonable amount of gravel on the road.  It took me a while to get my eye but I really enjoyed the short warm-up as even though there was a touch of fog around, the sun was starting to shine through it and the day was definitely starting to look promising.

My maths proved to be reasonable as I arrived just early enough to beat Colin in the race to fill up and grab a coffee.  The only thing we needed to sort out was which way we should go...

Decision making

In the end it was easy.  Due to our route over we had missed the opportunity to head South along the ranges to Eketahuna before starting our loop out East and up to Pongaroa and back to Pahiatua. So, we simply reversed our course and tore off towards Makuri, mindful of the wet and possibly frosty roads.

The scoot through the reserve was not too bad actually but as we neared the turn-off (actually not a turn but you do get off the "main road") there was plenty of frost in the paddocks.  The sealed section of Coonoor Road was similar so a bit of care was taken on those damper looking shady corners.

Once we hit the gravel, frost and the possibility of ice became less of a concern and I could continue to get my head around the new tyre.  The gravel wasn't quite as nice as when we came through driving four wheels to rescue a kitty-cat but it's a fantastic ride up to the Lime works.

After a brief pause we were back into and I really enjoyed the drop down the hill - especially as someone had put some gravel down over the previously really slippery clay sections.  At about 3:45 in the video below you can get a peak at some of the awesome views out to the East and a bit of an idea of how high up we were.

We took our normal gravel back towards Pongaroa until I missed a turn (I realised straight away but knew the road would eventually get us nearer to Pongaroa) and took us onto Manuhara Road.  It ended up being a good find...

When we rolled into Pongaroa it was only just after 11 so we'd made pretty reasonable time but with our next section being a fair way from civilisation (coffee), we decided to park up and have a quick drink and snack.

The next leg started with a taste of Coast Road before turning off onto Marainanga Road and what was probably our most fun section of gravel for the day.  We didn't muck around much until our photo op stop.

Dropping down the hill we took it a bit more slowly and then turned onto Huia Road where things got a bit more interesting.  A grader had been through recently and stirred up the surface a fair bit.  There wasn't much actual gravel and in places things looked quite muddy so the speed limits were fairly safe.

Riding South on 52 we encountered a couple of groups of bikes out enjoying the brilliant day, the first group were even enjoying some of our side of the road while the other group of sports bikes appeared to be travelling fairly sedately.  

Along the way I had my own bit of excitement with a hawk.  It spotted me bearing down on it and decided to that it should lift-off and make itself scarce.  Trouble is, they aren't exactly quick at getting airborne and this one also thought that he'd exit stage right - right into my path that is.  Luckily I managed to read his mind and went into evasive action, missing the feathered fiend.  Colin reckoned that the hawk still crashed and burned but was able to get back up and get out of the way of the KTM.  The hawk is probably still wondering what actually happened and how he's still flying...

Our next bit of gravel started just out of Alfredton on Bartons Line and was in a lot nicer nick than that freshly graded stuff and arriving in Eketahuna we commented for probably second or third time about how we seemed to running ahead of schedule...

With all that extra time on our hands we managed to squeak in another drinks break before that last gravel haul up to Mangamire.  The very last section had a reasonable amount of gravel on it so it kept us on our toes until the end.

A quick zap over the Track again and the ride was done for me.  Home by just after 3:30 while Colin had a few more k's to nail back to Waikanae.  Damn nice ride on a perfect day!

Everyone loves a WR...