Teaser

Well, not really, but it is a little story from the TT...

On the Thursday night before the TT, Glen and I wandered into town to meet up with some of the other TT riders at a local pub for drinks and dinner.

On our way we bumped into Chris and Julian parked up at a different pub so stopped to say hello to them.  While listening to some of their mad IBA stories and plans I hear a delightful sound approaching us.

I thought, "that sounds nice", and turned to see what was coming up the street.  Ah, I nice red VTR, just like my old one...

As it went past, I noticed tinted front screen and the Two Bros mufflers (they can set off car alarms not you know), which definitely started ringing some bells.  Could it be?

And then, of course there was the number plate - that clinched it.  My old girl was in Greymouth.  But why?

A bit later, Glen and I wandered off to find the pub where were all meeting and stumbled across the VTR parked outside another pub (there appears to be a lot of pubs in Greymouth).  The fact that it was outside the "wrong" pub made me wonder if the bike was not here for the TT or had found its way into the hands of a Coaster.

I had to grab a few pics.

Fast forward to Friday and after registering at the TT HQ, Glen and I had plenty of time to wander around looking at bikes and chatting to others.  Then I heard that sound again...the old girl was off on a wee 2,000km ride then.

This time I was able to catch up with the rider who had bought the bike in the 'naki where I had sold it to, and it had somewhere in the mid 50kms on it - I sold it in 2011 with around 32k on it.  It looks like the current owner might be planning to put a few more kms on it than it's done in the last 14 years..

Glen and I finished the TT pretty early in the morning (9am) and only hung around for about an hour and I didn't get to hear the old girl again, but I hope she got the job done and the owner had a good ride visiting a lot of gas stations...

Fond memories...

Sunday's seal saga

On Sunday I had a hankering for a ride - after all, it had been nearly 24 hours since the last one...

And I needed a taste of gravel.  Initially, I had visions of spraying gravel around on the T7 but I changed my mind on entering the shed and see a poor wee WR gathering dust.

The bike hadn't been fired up in a few months but as usual, you wouldn't have guessed that as it fired up when my finger got in the vicinity of the go button.  Putting some air in the tyres and 15 bucks of super was all the bike needed to be ready for adventure.

The spanner in my ointment (I'm sure that's the correct metaphor) didn't rear its ugly head until I hauled on the anchors riding into a fairly corrugated corner on Pohangina Road and had the front end compress 3 or 4 times more than usual and the bike shorten up and want to head straight ahead instead of slowing gracefully before attacking the corner as usual.  Hmmmm...I was starting to think that there was something slightly amiss.

Slowing up from the normal triple (at least) digit speeds, I trundled on until I came off the gravel just before the Coal Creek bridge.

Behold, that mightiest of mouses!

Having had a tiny inkling of the potential problem, it didn't take me long to find my proof.

Bummer, and I was really enjoying the ride too!

I decided to carry on a bit further but shelved plans on an exploration of a road I'd noticed on Saturday.  

The leaky fork seal definitely affected the handling on descents or anywhere where some brakes were required, and I started to get an idea of what riding a harley must feel like, although I'm sure it wasn't that bad, and the engine performance was still adequate...

In the end, I turned around once I hit seal again at the little one lane bridge on Makoura Road and made my way back home the same way (maximum gravel).

A great ride on the little bike and now I've got to revisit changing a fork seal.  I must have done an ok job last time as it's the other one that's gone this time.  We'll see how this one goes...

Saturday's Saunter

As we hadn't been riding in an age, we brought forward or normal Sunday ride to Saturday.  Once again it was Colin and Dayal who rolled up here for a quick coffee and the usual detailed ride planning we always do...

From Ashhurst we followed the Manawatu Scenic route through to Apiti, dodging plenty of new seal - some sign-posted and some not.  Shortly the signs will be removed, and we'll have years of slithering around on the unswept metal - ask me how I know...

Taking a break from slithering around (give me a gravel road any day), we stopped at the viewing deck above the Ruahine Dress Circle Reserve for a few pics.

From here we carried on to Taihape via our usual back roads and stopped in for a sausage roll and to continue that in-depth ride planning session.

The results of the planning session eventually had us deciding on a trip down the Whanganui River Road.  This meant a short stretch up SH1 and across to Ohakune where a certain tiger gulped down $81 of fuel and I believe another sausage roll was inhaled by someone.

Next up was Raetihi and then we were finally onto the River Road which Dayal had not ridden before.  We soon had him working both sides of his tyres as we tackled twisty after twisty.

By Matahiwi it was time for a cold drink.

More curvy, winding roads got us to our final photo op at the last lookout before you drop back down to SH4.

The usual Okoia-Fordell short-cut avoided Whanganui and after a fuel stop for another Tiger in Turakina, it was time to say cheerio to the other two as they took off South and I made for home.

Womble Burger

Sunday was ride day again and this time around we could only manage two Tigers as Colin decided that the GSA needed an outing as it hadn't been getting a lot of love since he fell for a T-plan Triumph.  Can hardly blame him really...

While it was a slightly cooler start than we've had lately, the day was warming up by the time that Colin and Dayal (whose name I later learned can be spelt in all sorts of exciting ways) arrived for the pre-ride coffee and once this important ritual was complete, we headed East.

A quick scoot over the Saddle and a few back roads got us to Dannevirke where the lads needed fuel and we had to decide where we were going...We ended up thinking of lunch in Pongaroa and then later on I threw that idea out the non-existant window...

North of Dannevirke we turned off the main drag and carried on up to Takapau.  Fresh from my TT trip (just wait Chillertek, write-up will happen) and wanting a couple more pics for an AdvRider thread, I hauled up at the Fire Station for a photo.

Bikes running and everything...

Carrying on East, I took a wrong turn when looking for Blackhead Road (turned too soon) which also can be a factor during a TT, and we had to pull a quick Uie (sp?) and ride past another Fire Station (that we didn't stop at) before finally taking the right turn.  (Far too many brackets in this paragraph, this is a blog not an excel formula).

Blackhead Road seemed to me to be even more lumpy and bumpy, but it still managed to get us into Porangahau where we rejoined Route 52 and headed South.  At the road works, two of us got stuck behind a twat towing a caravan at around 5km/h while a certain Beemer took to the rough stuff which included clambering up a little bank at the end of the dug up road...

By now, it was getting pretty damn hot, and I was fumbling with some of the vents on my riding gear but there's only so many you can reach yourself while riding - even with cruise control.  And I was getting hungry...

At Wimbledon I decided that we needed to pop into Herbertville and see if the pub there was open.  Turns out that it wasn't and it even looked like it might not have been open for quite some time.  Oh well, there was a fire station and an opportunity to open more vents.

Horrendously disappointed at the lack of tucker in Herbertville, we retraced our steps to Wimbledon to try out the pub there - for the first time ever!

The pub staff were a bit run off their feet (and not to be argued with) with some sort of function on but eventually we each had an ok burger in front of us which we each managed to make disappear - it can't have been that bad.  Not sure what the meat was though...

After lunch we cut the ride short a little by taking the road back through Weber and then to Dannevirke again but did chuck in the Oringi-Hopelands "short-cut" to Pahiatua so that we could avoid the Saddle and take in the track.  Good idea eh Colin?

The countdown is on

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