KoroJ's Blog

I had a couple of ride options for today with there being rides for IAM and Ulysses, but since the Uly ride was a decent one up to Dannevirke, I went for that one.

Having fitted a Pilot Road 4 GT to the rear a couple of weeks back, this would be a good day to test it as I've only managed a bit of round-town riding, so I checked the tyres (needed 6psi in the rear) and washed the bike yesterday, as well as cleaning up and programming the GPS.

I got up at 0815, scrubbed, kitted up and hit the road by 0857, fueled at Caltex Rimutaka at 0930 and arrived at Brown Owl at 0935. On the way there, 8° along River Road by Silverstream, gave me a real reminder that even though it was a bright morning, Winter is just around the corner.

I was first away at 1007 and hoping to have a decent go at the hill....but I had to pass a cop first, which I managed to do along Kaitoke, then take it easy until after the first couple of passing lanes when I had some buffer behind me.....not that one can exceed the speed limit by much over the hill?? I did start with a good average, but some stubborn traffic put paid to that and after a regroup in Featherston, I trailed out near the rear of the 25 odd bikes.

It was pretty standard riding across to Martinborough, but once we embarked on the Tablelands, it was pretty clear what season we were in as we encountered lots of patches that hadn't seen any sun! Some were just wet, but others had slick wheel ruts and a pretty green hump, so not a lot of options for good traction except for care and prayer.

We pulled into Nth End Mobil in Masterton at 1130, having done 96Km, but we were short a few bods, so after confirming with Steve, I turned back for a look. By the time I got back to the Water Towers turn-off (14Km) I figured I'd missed them, or someone had offed, so I texted Steve, but with no immediate response, either they had moved on or my text was one of those ones that do three times round the planet before delivery....so I was no wiser and felt better to continue back towards Martinborough rather than give up, because if someone had offed, it was most likely to have been through the Tablelands area.

I had eventually done about 46Km back to the Martinborough Golf Course before giving up and then my ride turned into a 'Catch-Up Fang'.

At that point it was 1207 and my economy for the first 142Km was sitting on 18Km/Ltr, but by the time I did the next 135Km to Pongaroa at an average of 93kph, my economy had slipped back to 15.7Km/Ltr! It was a bit hairy pushing the pace through here because it was a bright sunny day which meant it was hard to read the road surface on the transitions from sun to shade and that meant it was difficult to know if it was just shade, or damp.....greasy, mossy, damp!!

I did incur a couple of twitches, but nothing really, especially compared with some of the bounces through spots that had subsided...or risen, depending on which way you were travelling, and I arrived at 1334, which wasn't too bad as it was only 30 minutes after the others, after having done the best part of another 100Km....and some were still being served. I just settled for a Ginger Beer and a chat before kitting up again to get back on the road at 1420.

It was a very sedate ride through to Dannevirke, where I refuelled and stayed with the group to Woodville, but as it's not in Steve nor my DNA to sift through Sunday traffic on SH1, we turned off with Bill to take SH2 down throught he Wairarapa. We were supposed to go via balance – Nikau – Mangamaire, but with time getting on, I just wanted to get home, so from here we dialled in a speed just inside the allowable limits and kicked into GC mode. That meant a steady, crisp (verging on spirited), but economical pace.

We averaged 92kph down to Featherston, where we encountered a bit of a breeze and I made it home at 1735 having done 585Km for the day with an average from Dannevirke of 17.4Km/ltr and the bike has now clicked over 45,000Km.

The PR4 GT seems good, but it wasn't great conditions to test a tyre as too much care was required and I found myself a little tentative even when the surface was good.