Any Excuse

Mark gave me a ring this morning from Taupo and said that he would be taking off back to Palmy in about half an hour and did I want to meet up somewhere on the road? Well, ok then. So off I went.

A pretty good day weather wise with just a bit of wind in some places to knock you around a little. I ended up meeting up with Mark & Shelley at Waiouru just as they had pulled up to get gas. Had a wee ride on Mark's Bandit back to Flat Hills just to reminisce a bit. A quick stop for lunch and then back over Vinegar Hill and home. This gave me about 630k's for the weekend.

Also got my best mileage to date on the Concours. I filled up in Taihape yesterday, did Waioru-Ohakune-Wanganui-Palmy and back to Taihape again on 20L. This was a distance of 336k's and gave economy of 6.1 L/100km. Good to know that the bike can do the required (by me - don't want to be stopping every 5 mins for gas) 300km to a tank easily.

A Weekend Away

Shelley and I had had a jet boating trip booked in Taupo for a few weeks. So with the forecast looking ok I managed to talk her into going on the bike. She was a bit nervous to start with as this was to be her first long trip.

With the gear packed we were ready to go just after 9am. We headed out via the usual route through Vinegar Hill. Andrew had decided to tag along some of the way with us too. After a few spits of rain but nothing to get things too wet we pulled into Taihape for some gas and a cuppa. Shelley was getting into the swing of things by now all be it a bit chilly.

We continued North and left Andrew at Waiouru, where upon we attacked the Desert Road. It was pretty much a trouble free section and we pulled into Turangi for an early lunch.

After lunch we cruised through to Taupo and checked into our motel. Then headed off for our jet boating excersion.

Next morning we had a cooked breakfast in Taupo and phoned Andrew to meet us at Waiouru for the homeward trip.

Once again we had good weather through the Desert Road and pulled into the Caltex at Waiouru with 300k's showing on the trip meter for that tank. While we were getting petrol Andrew pulled in. Good timing.

We swapped bikes so I could have a ride on the Concours and headed for Flat Hills for a cuppa. After a quick stop it was back over Vinegar Hill and home.

Wire Barriers

I've read a bit in the Two Wheels about wire barriers used to stop oncoming traffic from having head ons and the possible catastrophic injuries they might cause a motorcyclist. Yesterday a KBer took it up with ACC and also got the Dominion Post onto the story. Good for him! Here's the story:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4192705a6479.html

and the Kiwi Biker thread:

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=56622

Quick Loop

Here's how it started: Mark & Shelley were heading to Taupo for the weekend and were dropping off their dog for me to baby sit while they were away. The plan was for Shelley to bring Louie around in the car and Mark was going to pick her up from my place. The only trouble for me was the weather - it was great! So I could see that I was just going to have to follow them on up the road a ways...

Mark & Shelley's plans called for a stop at Taihape for coffee so this would be a good turning back point for me or would it?

We had a nice ride over Vinegar Hill and up the main road to Taihape and all the way I was thinking of possible extensions to my little pootle: Taupo-Napier & home; Taihape-Napier-Palmy or Waiouru-Ohakune-Wanganui-Palmy.

By the time we'd had our coffee I'd decided on hitting the Paras so I continued onto Waiouru with the others before turning off towards Ohakune. There were a few black looking clouds and the odd spit of rain between Ohakune and Raetihi but otherwise it was pretty fine. I'd been playing with my new heated hand grips but in the end even on 50% it was too warm for them.

The Paras were there usual rugged self and there was quite a bit of stock (ewes with their lambs) on the road just south of Kakatahi so a fair bit of care was needed. The roads are still pretty rough in places and coming into one corner I actually had the ABS come on which gave me a bit of a fright. I'm sure that it was the corrugations upsetting it as I was not braking hard - something to remember in future.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful except for catching up to a mufti cop just south of Bulls. He didn't seem to worried about my sudden appearance and even let a van get away with passing the both of us at probably 20 km/h over the speed limit.

Nice little ride of approx 350k's and back home by 1pm for lunch and chores.

1st Service

Yep the Concours is officially 1,000kms old! Took me a bit longer than usual - usually a week or so is enough but it is still August (just).

While the bike was in the shop heated grips have been installed. Didn't test them on the way home from work - not really necessary and I probably won't need them (well let's hope the weather is finally getting better rather than worse) until the Grand Challenge (might be nice if it's chilly during the wee smalls).

Will post a piccy of them when I get around to it and let you know what I think of them once I've used them.