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KoroJ's Blog

Sometimes We Ride In The Rain.

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Hmmm....7 weeks between blogs is just about getting as bad as Gremlin! ...and what's worse is, I can't say I've really been for a ride!

I have been doing some big hours at work with weekends required to keep up and a few weeks ago I could feel myself getting twitchy, so a ride was needed, but with time being at a premium and because I couldn't be bothered doing the 30+Km to get to the Rimutakas for a fang.....I just settled for a liesurely scoot over to Makara, then back and around the bays.

It was a great day on that occasion and although the hill between Karori and Makara only has a 50kph limit, it's enough to blow the cobwebs and did result in a big scrape on the right peg in one corner. (Most unintentional as I never scrape my pegs). No traffic always helps too. Then it was OK going around the coast and harbour, but one can't do that without encountering traffic....still, I did get out and felt much better when I got back to the office.

All this week has been crap! Crap, cold, dismal weather well below 10°, crap coming at me at work at 100 miles an hour that I had to deal with, an empty flat that needed a tidy up...that's always crap when I need to be at work in the envenings to keep up....just crap, crap, crap...and
crap weather forecast as far as the mind can imagine....or Thursday if that comes first!

The twitches and tics were starting to make their way back so I figured, 'Bugger it, IAM had a ride on today, I better go'. After all, I do ride an ST with all the elemental protection a bike can offer, my corduras are pretty new, the liner is in the jacket and there's heated grips there if I need it. The tank was full from my last outing so I just checked the tyres and threw some gear on board last night, stayed in bed as long as possible this morning, peered out the window after showering to check the weather wasn't too dismal, kitted up and scooted down to Z Crofton Downs to put a couple of psi in each tyre.

It was 0900 by this time so it was straight to the meeting point at Avalon and there were two there already, Ross & Anita, so we would be riding. After a bit, Neil and Stu turned up and the five of us headed out at 0930, over to Wainui', then out to the coast and back to Eastborne.

The rain was holding off, with just a bit of intermittent drizzle, but the roads were all wet and the temp hovered between 6-8°, so it certainly wasn't a 'spirited ride', but a ride's a ride and a bit of wet riding practice is always good. I must say that the lack of riding in recent times, plus the big off a couple of years ago has left me a bit more careful on marginal roads and always looking for lines providing the best traction available and this ride was certainly a timely reminder that I should be getting out more to start conditioning for the big rides later in the year.

Our wee scoot led us back to the Days Bay Pavillion for a coffee and date scone before riding home through proper rain and hunkering down in front of the fire and tv for the rest of the day...instead of going to work...oh well, tomorrows another day...and it's just crap out there.

As far as other/good rides go, we now have a goodly dose of endurance rides scheduled for the summer as the North Island 1600 (Grand Challenge replacement) is definitely on in October, to be followed by the Capital 1000Km Cruise in November and the TT2000 site for the February event went live a week or so back. Although I haven't been riding, I have been finding time to do a bit of homework on route planning for the NI16 and C1KC ….so now I better start hitting the roads more often to prepare and condition!!................Oh yeah.....and the Pilot Road 4 on the rear seems bloody marvelous!

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Comments

  1. Gremlin's Avatar
    oi, I just blogged a week ago! (oh crap, already a week is gone)

    I was just thinking yesterday of flicking you an email as it seemed you'd gone completely quiet. Good to see you're still getting your zimmer frame out.
  2. KoroJ's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Gremlin
    .........I was just thinking yesterday of flicking you an email as it seemed you'd gone completely quiet.......
    Yeah, busy + busy with bikie business.....some good riding beckons but!!