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Last week was my last big prep ride for the North Island 1600, but I've had another busy week including a couple more rides.

On Thurday I had a seminar to go to in Palmy, so naturally, I had to go on the bike even though the weather was looking to be marginal....in fact, I needed to go on the bike because the weather was marginal. I hadn't looked at the bike since dragging myself off it on Sunday and although I knew the front tyre was getting down, I was surprised to see how quick that last couple of millimeters of tread was disappearing. With more wet riding on the menu for the weekend, I rang Boyles when I got back to work late Thursday afternoon and booked in to get the new front fitted on Friday.

Thursday's ride was good, but I figured I needed to sort my vision issues, so once again on Thursday night, I fitted the pinlock to the visor. I then put the helmet on to test the seals and my Moko' thought I was a bit odd, preparing and dishing up dinner in my helmet!? There was no fogging but Nachos would have been a bit messy, so I opted to take it off to eat but! The next part of my plan was to check out antifog stuff for my specs and see if that fixed my issues?

Friday morning, I needed to fully kit up for the weather and it only seemed like minutes after I had arrived at the shop that the sun was out and the roads dry. New Z8 fitted to the front and new Sidi Canyon boots stowed in the side box (The old ones are 8years old and the soles are somewhat worn), I needed to head around the corner to Motorad, as Boyles had no antifog stuff, but Vicky wasn't sure if the stuff she had would be OK and not react with any coatings on the transition lenses, so it was off to my optician. Long story short, I ended up getting some goo to try and I finally got to work after 10am.

Friday evening, we had an NI16 meeting at the office, then I headed north with James, departing about 1910. James being James and me being easily led, we scootecd down Onslow Rd, up to Plimmerton, then over the Paekak' Hill. Afterwards he complained that he couldn't seem to get his flow right....I was just thankful I could keep up and manage to stay close enough to ride off his lights! We did alright though as we managed to average 75kph to Paekak', then dropped to 74kph getting to his place by Levin.

After a 30 minute coffee and chat, I hit the road as I needed to get to Nukumaru (by Waitotara , north of Whanganui) to meet up with Ann as this weekend marked the 1st anniversary of her mum's death. At this stage I was on a mission to further test the fogging issues I'd been having, as well as practice kicking into GC mode and making goodf progress in the marginal conditions.

35 minutes later, I had averaged 93kph and I was just about to turn onto Speedy Road, when I shit myself as the whole night sky lit up for a second. Bloody hell, lightning....just what I didn't need!

I filled at BP Bulls so I could get all the way home without further fuel and 10 minutes later I continued on, averaging 97kph over the last 73km, arriving at 2245......the economy since Bulls a really crap 15.2 Km/Ltr.

A few beers Friday night, then off to the Urupa on Saturday morning, very thankful I had a very snug DriRider jacket to wear in the galeforce winds laced with moisture, then it was off to vote and back to the Marae to relax for the rest of the day.

Today we slept in and I hit the road at 0955 with a plan to extend the ride home by going through the Wai'rapa. Once again, I was fully kitted although the weather didn't get that bad. I scooted through to Makirikiri Rd, took that to Halcombe Rd, and continued via Feilding, Ashhurst, Aokoutere, The Track, Mangamaire, Mauriceville and back over the hill. I called in to see Jim & Colleen on the way, spent an hour with them and got home at 1428.

I managed 545km for the weekend, generally in temps of 10-12° and a real mix of conditions. I managed to get the tank economy up to 15,9Km/Ltr on the way home and the bike now has 49,889 km on it.

I was really happy with the results of the antifog goo and although not big km rides for conditioning, the extra night and wet riding was well worth it as far as getting psyched and feeling more comfortable on the road. We got two more registrations this weekend taking the NI16 to 32 riders and there isa still hope we might get to 40? I am really looking forward to it.

Another thing I've done, although it won't happen until after the NI16, is book the bike in with Robert Taylor at Kiwi Suspension Solutions to get the suspension done.

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