22 cruise this saturday

[SPman]

Hey it started off fine - and whats a little rain - just livens up the road surface and makes you concentrate a bit more. (even though I was bitching about it)
After leaving everyone at Quasi's, shot back to Ngaruawahia to met FF at the gas station - taking the quick way up SH1...then we waited for Paco and Devil to get there - just leaving when they turned up. Went back up through Huntly, Rotowaro - lovely dry winding road - beeyootiful. First time Ive done it and Dave is just the man to follow! A briskish pace was set and the little 250 kept up admirably, Paco with his tankcam following each of us in turn, so we can hopefully get a few pointers off the footage. Started getting a few showers after we got back on 22 - we all had a few "moments" at various places - kept us on our toes. - Up to the Bombay Autobahn for a coffee. Then Dave took off for work - having done 2 loops of 22 today - straight from work!, and the 3 of us took a brisk trip back up the motorway - keeping the hovering black clouds behind us!

[Madguitarist!]

I know it got abit crazy after awhile (Murphy's law aye!) but I'm sure all would have to say it was a good ride regardless!

Thanks heaps for organising it bro! And thanks to Quasi for playing host and having awhole pile of Kbers crash his cul-de-sac!!

Anyone know how Surfer Chick is doing with her puncture???

[pyrocam]

Your Live action News reporter Pyrocam Checking in with the latest

from my POV this is how it went down.

wake up nice-n-early to prep, shot down to AMPS and got Lou's freaking AWESOME gloves ( Lou!) and then went down to the AB to get some breaky, When I arrived there was one other person there and I thought cool, another rider has turned up. then another and then a group and then there was 19 odd bikes all ready to go. I was rapt!

anywho. off we went through a shortcut to the 22 and everything was pretty sweet. I got overtaken lots which was expected as I was on the slowest bike there. not too long before I was last but thats pretty cool since I would rather not have to keep an eye out for anyone overtaking Surferchick was infront of me with the next fastest bike so I was quite happy to maintain this pace. everything was going pretty smoothly until me and SC got stuck behind a lane-fat camervan just before the tuakau bridge. we lost everyone but we still had the car behind us so I wasnt too worried. then SC slowed down a bit and then eventually just pulled over. Flat front tire as Im sure many of you are aware.

Me SC and support car (Ashley: legend) stopped and I called the AA they said it was sweet they will pay for the first $40 of a tow. BJ and (err. memory like a sieve again sorry) came back but were unable to enact any repairs as it was a tube.

Anyways tow truck came after about 2 hours or so (yay chain smoking without breakfast I never did get anymore than a milo bar and some kind moro offering from SC thanks again.) and It was towed back to pukekohe (again Gazzar, your a freakin legend!) Following the cage down to Hamilton on the SH1 was rather un-eventfull except when my bike stoped going ??? and I was furious but it turns out I accidentally hit the kill switch (dumbarse) Arrive at Quasi's just in time to take the leak I had been dying for since 2 hours prior before we left (ahhhh phew)

then we went back up the 22 (well first time all the way through for me) Brilliant!! absolutely fantastic ride. I have to : BJ for being kind enough to not go to fast and warn me of the road dangers. I few very close calls but overall I got there safely.

Unfortuantly my front headlight blew altogther half way along so I rode to Gazzar's in pukekohe to get looked at at the same time a SC's front tire. unfortuanly repco was closed and no stations had it. but at the same time it was pissing down with rain at this point so the chances of me getting to auckland with no light and in a downpour went from slim to none as it got darker.

freindly everybody all up. Im really sorry that I didnt remember the names and faces and nicks of hardly any of you. next time

Re SC's tire: she will be calling up her guy and perhaps some other suppliers in the morning to see if it can be repaired or replaced and then we will head back down there. If course my bike will be sleeping (hope he doesnt get any ideas's ) there also and I can hopefully put a new bulb in tomorow.

So many people helping each other out. bloddy brilliant.

Im absolutley cut after that much riding though

See you all next time I Hope!

edit: added crappy phone pic of us waiting for the towie

[bugjuice]

wow, everything was going really really well today - until I got up..
my whole day was one thing after another, so may be it was all my fault.

Anyway, huge thanks to everyone turning up, sooooooo didn't expect that turn out. I looked thru the thread before setting off this morning and counted about 6 or 7 definites, and another 1 or 2 'maybes'. 19 turn up!! awesome turn out, and completely threw me off. As a result, I forgot to mention some things of point and that didn't help some of the slower riders. I assumed that everyone knew the rule about the second person at the front pulling over, but apparently not. I'll remember to clarify that before we go. Also stick to the planned route too..

Two things that couldn't have been helped was a front puncture for SurfChick (great start to the KB land!), and Pyro's headlight going out. Both bikes are still at Gazza's (?? sorry), so big thanks to him for looking at the tyre and trying to sort the bulb out.. As it goes, neither could be fixed, so I'm picking up SC and Pyro tomorrow to go get their bikes back. Least they didn't get wet on the way home, Nhuan and I did, but dried up as we got to Auckland. Dropped both SC and Pyro off, and just got home to my cozy couch. I'll be sat in the same spot for a while now.

Unfortunately the tyre going (altho no ones fault at all), really just threw it all out. Luckily we had the [moral] support car for help..

what a day.. sorry if some of this doesn't make as much sense, I'll read it again later and retype it!!

And sorry for hackin off a few people, I'm sure the frustrations of the day didn't help the smooth things, but hey, s**t happens and we gotta do what we gotta do. The next one will be better, promise!!!

And thanks Quasi for letting us crash your place for a little while! Quite handy you being at the other end!

the cage driver was me bro, Ashley. Big up's to him..

bug juiced.

[crashe]

And sorry for hackin off a few people,

Hey for a start off, you didn't hack anyone off..... we all had fun....It was a great day.... thank you for organising it.

Some off us rode down a different road to get to Hamilton....lol....
I took the high road instead of the low road on H22....lol.
We came out at the back of Huntly... the 4 of us ( MLcrisis, Limmy and Feint)....lol.

But we all ended up in Hamilton.... and thanks Quasi and Paula for your wonderful hospitality....and Paula is now eyeing up a cruiser to learn to ride on.... yep she sat on mine and likes them.

I rode back up SH1 with 3 guys (Feint, Limmy and ???) a good ride back....
I did spot you bugjuice heading towards Quasi's again, as we were leaving and I waved as you looked over.

I did pass a red ducati on the southern motorway with a KB sticker on it....
so I gave a footwave to the rider.....



I shall be looking forward to riding again in a few months time...

[Zed]

I woke up this morning and parted the curtains to reveal an amazing blue sky...I thought - YES! It's amazing to think that at one end of Auckland it's blue, cloudless skiies, but at the other end rainclouds! O well, I counted my blessings that at least I would be "riding".

1st stop was Cycletreads, Takapuna. I was 10mins late and arrived to meet up with five others at 9.55am - we were supposed to be at AB, Papakura at 10.00am!! I hate being late, but it didn't really matter cos everyone was in a fairly relaxed mode. The ride down to AB was uneventful (well I somehow managed to separate myself from the small group), riding the motorway system is so monotonous. On arrival at AB I was pleasantly surprised to see a large group of motorcycles (considering only 8 or so KBr's advised they were coming on this thread) parked up, I estimated around 20 bikes.

After a quick briefing by Mr Bugjuice of our intended route and rest areas, we all departed south at around 10.45am at a fairly slow pace so that we wouldn't get separated. Thankfully we ALL made it safe and sound to the infamous SH22 in one group, then it was basically no holds barred and everyone rode at their own pace until we met up at our first rest area about 20kms down. It was here that we met up with Firefight and also learned that Ms surfchick had had a puncture , so the honourable Mr BugJ & Madguitarist headed back to the Tuakau bridge (ring any bells Justsomeguy?) to help her out while the rest of us continued down 22 in the drizzle to meet up at BP Ngaruawahia. Later we were told that the puncture couldn't be fixed because the tyre was not 'tubeless' so the bike had to be towed home. Real sorry that your day was ruined by this surfchick!

Overall the ride down 22 was rather slow paced & tainted by the damp road conditions, at one stage my rear tyre uncontrollably slipped about 20cm over one of those glossy patches of road...I'm just glad it wasn't my front!

Eventually most of the group (about 12?) bowled up at the legendary Quasi's in Hamilton for a chat. Good to meet up with you again Bret, and sorry I didn't get to say goodbye. Looking forward to reading some race reports from you on that lil' Gixxer!

I ended up riding back home from Hamilton alone, detoured off at Ngaruawahia and took the back roads (parallel to SH1) through to Rangariri bridge and onto SH1 again. Managed to open the 'Bird up to some nice speeds in the *dry* and met up with a wannabe roadracer on a ZZR1100 who provided some last minute entertainment before arriving home to wash the bike!

Good meeting & riding with some more new KBr's; Sheep Dags, Crashe, Mono, Gazzar, mlcrisis, Feint, Limmy, Devil, etc...and good to ride with some old (not old age ) KBr's; SPman, MikeL, Paco27zim, nhuanh.

O yeah, never got to meet pyrocam! I heard you were trailing us and I think I waved at you as I was leaving Hamilton after waiting on the side of the road with BJ for his bro in the car...hope you had a good experience overall dude despite being alone for most of the ride.

[Firefight]

finished night shift looked out the window, looked like it was going to be a great day, so a quick pre ride ride down 22, to Nargawhia, cross to huntly, called up my good mate Paco to see what time the main ride was departing, seems they were not all there at that stage, so did a quick blat up to Glen Murray, grabbed some more gas, meet up with judderbar and his cool new bike, talked some guy talk with Paul, then rode around a bit more then I got the txt from Paco, the ride was finally on the way, so headed North to meet them chased by some dirty old rain clouds, meet the group at Rangariri-glen murray rd intersection., time for a quick chat, meet up with some of my good kb mates, meet some new faces, at this stage, Kit got the news about the flatty, so he shot back to sort that, we headed off into the rain.

Weather wasn't too bad, the group spread out a bit, the normal faster guys too the front, we stopped for a bit to let the others catch up, after a while when no one turned up, the front group left while I rode back to find the straglers, 25 ks north of the Hot pools-no sigh of them, so I figured they had either gone to raglin by mistake or been abducted by aliens, either way I figured they were not my problem now(sorry guys), so I rode back via Rotowaro, road had dried now, down to BP Naragwhia, only to find they were all at Brets place eating his food!!!!!.

After a shortttttttttttttttish wait my old mate John (SPM)turned up, a bit later my other old mate Paco turned up with Matt,(sorry if I got the your name wrong man) so we did the return via Rotowaro and 22, lucky we found some more rain, but not too much, back to AB Bombay, talk some shit, drink some coffee, and off to work., Missed the dude who wanted the gloves and oil, carried the darn shit round all day, hope you got sorted man.

Rider of the day, bit hard for me to call this out of the whole group as I was not with you guys for the whole ride, but would have to say SP man, keeping a good pace on a road you had not been on before well done.

F/F

[Gazzar]

I know it got abit crazy after awhile (Murphy's law aye!) but I'm sure all would have to say it was a good ride regardless!

Thanks heaps for organising it bro! And thanks to Quasi for playing host and having awhole pile of Kbers crash his cul-de-sac!!

Anyone know how Surfer Chick is doing with her puncture???

I took the wheel off the bike and tried to fix it but the tube had a split in it
so took tyre with her and hopefuly will have it fixed tomorrow.

[FEINT]

Thanks to Bugjuice for organising the fantastic ride this morning. The turnout was amazing, I was told that there would be a few bikers going down, didn't know there would be 19!!! The weather did turn sour halfway down SH22. Myself, Limmy, Crashe and MLCRISIS got lost on the way to hamilton. I wasn't too fussed, just follwed and eventually arrived at the BP.

A big thanks to Quasi and Paula for having us over at their place! Another big thanks to Gixxerboy for lending us his Pajero to take to Burger King.

CRASHE, on the way back, if that is your idea of 'puttering' .... you putter rather quickly! I had a hard time keeping up! I have never seen a person "TUCK-IN" while riding a cruiser! My tank bag lifted off the tank on the straights, so that was a sign to slow down

Good to meet a few more KB'ers! and good on SC and Pyrocam for coming along! Will organise a Newbie cruise for you guys. I like newbie cruises.

Last but not least, here are the photos!

[FEINT]

[loosebruce]

Really got to get my bike fixed, missing out on some good lookin rides oh well off to aussie for a week on monday hopefully all the parts i need are in the country bu the time i get back.

Oh yeah got pulled up today, wasn't doing anything wrong the HP just said he took one look at my bike and decided to pull me, farkin , does it look dodgey or something? .

[Firefight]

Really got to get my bike fixed, missing out on some good lookin rides oh well off to aussie for a week on monday hopefully all the parts i need are in the country bu the time i get back.

Oh yeah got pulled up today, wasn't doing anything wrong the HP just said he took one look at my bike and decided to pull me, farkin , does it look dodgey or something? .

ah, how can we tell you man, its not the bike that looks dodgey

F/F

[Lord Pac]

Thanks peeps- it was a good ride! Good to meet more KB's.

Good to catchup with the regulars!

Always a pleasure riding with FF- nice one Dave

Spman/devil/FF- will organise cd later this week. Cheers

[NhuanH]

wow, everything was going really really well today - until I got up..
my whole day was one thing after another, so may be it was all my fault.

Anyway, huge thanks to everyone turning up, sooooooo didn't expect that turn out. I looked thru the thread before setting off this morning and counted about 6 or 7 definites, and another 1 or 2 'maybes'. 19 turn up!! awesome turn out, and completely threw me off. As a result, I forgot to mention some things of point and that didn't help some of the slower riders. I assumed that everyone knew the rule about the second person at the front pulling over, but apparently not. I'll remember to clarify that before we go. Also stick to the planned route too..

Two things that couldn't have been helped was a front puncture for SurfChick (great start to the KB land!), and Pyro's headlight going out. Both bikes are still at Gazza's (?? sorry), so big thanks to him for looking at the tyre and trying to sort the bulb out.. As it goes, neither could be fixed, so I'm picking up SC and Pyro tomorrow to go get their bikes back. Least they didn't get wet on the way home, Nhuan and I did, but dried up as we got to Auckland. Dropped both SC and Pyro off, and just got home to my cozy couch. I'll be sat in the same spot for a while now.

Unfortunately the tyre going (altho no ones fault at all), really just threw it all out. Luckily we had the [moral] support car for help..

what a day.. sorry if some of this doesn't make as much sense, I'll read it again later and retype it!!

And sorry for hackin off a few people, I'm sure the frustrations of the day didn't help the smooth things, but hey, s**t happens and we gotta do what we gotta do. The next one will be better, promise!!!

And thanks Quasi for letting us crash your place for a little while! Quite handy you being at the other end!

the cage driver was me bro, Ashley. Big up's to him..

bug juiced.

nah, props to you Buggy for making it happen Someone's gotta do it eh?

Let's just try and blame the supposed supa-organiser Quasi for his failed dance of honour to the weather gods as arranged. It's alright Q, seeing as the rally was such a big freakin' hit, we'll forgive you letting the Brotherhood-Of-The-636TM down this time mate

Good to catch up with some familiar faces and meet some new ones

And to harp on about the 636 thing (it's alright, I know y'all love it out there ), that return ride up 22 was the Brotherhood at work again - 3 636s, with 2 interlopers. AND the final two bikes on the road were our Ninjas. Along a particularly unlit stretch of greasy highway from Puke back to Drury.Heavy rain coming down.Silly-for-the-situation tinted visor - oh that's what they mean by "Daytime Use Only"!Well fook me: visor up = rain stinging my eyes; visor down = can't see sheeite!On even sillier Supercorsas... Umm....80kp/h anyone?

Still a good day ride that evolve into an epic. Special props to KB ride newbies pyrocam and surfchick - that's about the typical state of shenanigans a KB ride descends towards! Y'all come back now, y'hear?

[Motu]

What about that blue Pajero going the other way? He flashed his lights,betcha you thought there was a cop ahead eh?