Smifffy

Posted in the forums, putting here as an easy to find record.

Tyres fitted @ 14k (4.5k after buying bike) Metzler ME 880 WWW

Ok so the sun was out today but it was a little chilly. Wrapped on a couple of merino layers, waited for the Moll to put her war paint and layers on and off we scooted. A nice slow pootle down SH1 over tar hill and onto SH30. Not much traffic, but taking it easy, because for some reason I now had it in my head that the tyres were to a point of "hmmmm not so much".

Ride was fairly uneventful, and we ended up at Bike force rotovegas in good time. The service dept was a little busy, but I saw that my tyres had arrived and were leaned up against the counter. Definitely a lot more tread there than was on my rear. The front seemed kinda similar.

They directed me to the smoko room, where I helped myself to coffee. Mooched around for a bit while they fitted the tyres, was heading to hunting & fishing a couple of shops over to scope out a bit more merino & fleece, and on the way the camping gear in the window of gas & heat caught my eye, so we popped in. The guy in there took one look at our leathers and started in with the jokes about it being cold, and the effectiveness of A/C and heaters on bikes, and how we only came in to get out of the cold. The Moll headed straight to the working display of a pellet burner and cuddled up to it, I was more like "Hahahahaa yeah good one (.....dick.......)"

Scoped out hunting & fishing, but didn't find anything that I simply had to have there and then, so mooched back to the bike shop. Bit more of a wait, and another perv on the display bikes, planted the seed in the mind of the Moll about getting her on a scooter for work in the summer. "I'm happy just riding bitch" she reckons. She was quite taken with the styling and colour scheme of a Gladius tho. I was quite taken with the FZ1-S.

Tyres were fitted, price was marginally under the rrp advised over the phone, advice not to push it too hard until scrubbed in duly noted, bill paid and we were off. 5 minutes down the road to the Fat Dog cafe cos we were starving.
A bit late for lunch, so the dog was quieter than I've ever seen it, but still doing a good trade. Usual good fare at the usual marginally less than "too expensive" that we've come to expect from the dog. a casual wander down the road to Lady Janes for a good old fashioned ice cream in a cone and back on the bike.

we had an appointment back home at 5:30, and I had the ok to take the long way home. Over lunch we had discussed whether there were any "Must-dos" while we were in town. Somewhere in the discussion I think I said something like "My plan for today was to ride, not to shop." - OOOPS

Gassed up on the way out of Vegas, and rocked on down SH5, The new tyres still need some training cos we missed the SH30 turn off to home, - or was that all part of the plan?

Stayed on SH5 and hung right at the Wai-O-Tapu pub and thru Waikite Valley. Still early days but quite happy with the tyres, the front doesn't track all over the place like the old one did, and the back seems happy enough. Cruised through the Waikite Valley and on to Ngakuru, stopping outside the church, because all of that Bangers & Mash I had at the Fat Dog must have kicked in the serotonin and I noticed that my concentration just wasn't at a level I was happy with.

Bit of a rest, a quick chat with The Moll, a check of the trip meter and clock and back on the road. By now it's 4:30 ish and time to take the direct route home. Just as we get out of the Ngakuru village, on the way up a bit of a hill, we see a big bunch of cyclists coming down the hill in the opposite direction, in bunch formation like a club race or something. There is a cage riding right behind them. The cage didn't have his hazards going or anything, but his position on the road, and the way he was driving gave me the impression that he was TEC for them. They are taking up most of their lane and ripping along down the hill, it's all good, because I still have all of my lane and a bit of theirs so continue blatting up the hill and around the tight left hander at the top.

Just as I crest the hill and start down the other side, there is another cyclist, she is dressed very similarly to the group I just passed, "Haha" thinks I, "the blokes done left the girl behind because she blew her arse goin' up this hill."

No time for that now.

In front of me there is a wall of blue as some C#NT in a HUGE frikken STOCK TRUCK with TRAILER has swerved into my lane to go around said cyclist and has only just started heading back to his proper position on the road. At this point I used the progressive form of the present tense of that good old fashioned word for fornication, closely followed by the invocation of a well known personal saviour of protestants.

I headed a bit further to the left, and squeezed through. I swear to God (and I just did - depending on who you believe) that if I had been in my cage I would not be relating this story over a beer tonight. There was simply not enough room on that little piece of back road after a blind corner for that C#NT to pull a stunt like that. I had a moment of serious road rage, and considered turning around, following the prick and smacking him in the teeth the minute he stepped out of his TRUCK.

Decided the 5:30 meeting was the priority, calmed down, and timidly pootled the rest of the way home. Still happy with the way the tyres ran, and made it home at 5:15. Time enough to get changed and make the appointment. Sitting down to take my boots off, The Moll comes in and says "It's 4:15!" Changed all the bloody clocks in the house, forgot about the one on the bike!

"DOH"

I hope that A$$HOLE didn't clean up the rest of those cyclists as he crested that hill. Glad I didn't decide to follow him though.