Two nights away, Rangitikei and Hawke's Bay

[junkmanjoe]

(with only one minor incident).

AND.......................................please share with us...

JMJ

[Paladin]

Awesome day. Weather was fine. Roads were awesome. 562km

If you want to do the Annie in gravel, be quick. Less gravel every time I go over it.

Pics to come.

Might get over onto the Annie on Tuesday; be good to do it SOON as 2010 is when it's earmarked for the seal to be completed!

[bart]

1. I did a bit of exploring around Ashhurst on the way. Couldn't resist this road.
2. Lovely morning around Apiti
3. Through the trees
4. The start of a little track outside Taihape
5. Wee bit of mud. Not good on Trailwings
6. Just give it shit Howie

[bart]

7. and he just gave it shit
8. Howie, cruising
9. Wow, love this road
10. and this one
11. Mangaohane magic
12. These white hills kept popping up in the distance

[bart]

13. That bloody hill again
14. Comet hut, somewhere in the Kaweka's
15. Howie's beast
16. Howie's shortcut to the 'Hot Springs' (I thought we were trespassing through farm land)

[junkmanjoe]

(I thought we were trespassing through farm land)

Na mate, only i do that...

JMJ

[bart]

17. On the way to the Puketitiri Hot Springs. Awesome road, but narrow and quite busy
18. Yep....the water's hot
19. On the way back out, some amazing scenery and really fun roads

[Howie]

Thanks for the company Bart, I'll probably put some pictures on here tomorrow. Only got home an hour or 2 ago.
Yeah not sure about that short cut across the river as it is an Anglers access to the river. I know just take a fishing line with us.It's probably not a problem for a small group of bikes, but if taking a large group across it might pay to find out who owns the property.

[bart]

Thanks Howie for a great day. Found a few new roads (and tracks), and thanks for volunteering to be 'tail end charlie' and sucking dust all day.

The 'little incident' I mentioned earlier...... after the little mud hole in pic 5, I thought I'd give it shit to clear the tread on the back tyre. Problem was, the front was clogged too. Slipped out on the grass real quick. I kind of bunged my knee up in the fall (didn't even have time to get a foot out). Bars were bent to shit (well the mounts anyway). Straightened the bars a bit and carried on....

About 10km down the road, pull in the clutch....SNAP.

No problem, I've got a spare. Take a quick photo of Howie as he cruises past (dumb move, I should have waved him down, as he saw me taking photo and didn't stop). Take all my gear off and throw the spare lever on, put all my gear back on, hit the starter....NOTHING.

Took about 3 seconds to realise that my spare lever was off my old DRZ, so doesn't have the kill switch attachment. BUGGER.

Took all my gear off again, out with the tool bag again, find switch, dismantle, figure out how it works, and finally Howie turns up. Luckily he had some wire and insulation tape (about the only two things I don't carry). We managed to bypass the switch, and away we went.....about an hour wasted.

Lesson: dismantle all bushit switches. Tomorrow I'm going to attack that bloody switch on the side stand that's been pissing me off for ages.

Oh....and my Knee is slightly better today, but shit it hurt

[Howie]

17. On the way to the Puketitiri Hot Springs. Awesome road, but narrow and quite busy

Hey Bart they are the Mangatutu hot springs, the locality is Puketitiri. By the sounds of your knee you should have had a soak in the pools. Good to hear it's feeling better today

[bart]

Hey Bart they are the Mangatutu hot springs, the locality is Puketitiri. By the sounds of your knee you should have had a soak in the pools. Good to hear it's feeling better today

Oh well, I got the suburb right.

It must have been a windy ride home today Howie. How'd you get on?

[Howie]

Oh well, I got the suburb right.

It must have been a windy ride home today Howie. How'd you get on?

Yep the wind got a bit fresh from about Poranghau south to about Alfredton, so I stuck to Route 52 apart from a diverson up Birch rd east. which wasn't such a clever idea, as there were a few trees blown over, and pine cones everywhere, as well as the odd broken branch sitting up in the overhanging tree's. Other than that, and a shower of rain 5 minutes from home it was a fairly good day. I also stopped in for a coffe at Joe's on the way through Masterton. Thanks Joe the break was good, and your KTM is looking good with all the gear your sorting out for it.

[NordieBoy]

Took all my gear off again, out with the tool bag again, find switch, dismantle, figure out how it works, and finally Howie turns up. Luckily he had some wire and insulation tape (about the only two things I don't carry). We managed to bypass the switch, and away we went.....about an hour wasted.

Lesson: dismantle all bushit switches. Tomorrow I'm going to attack that bloody switch on the side stand that's been pissing me off for ages.

The clutch one is just plugging the male and female connectors together.
The side stand needs 2 wires joined.

[Howie]

Ok I’ve finally processed all my pictures, so it’s time for a bit of a report back, and a few pictures.

I finally got motivated and left home at about 9.00am on Saturday the 2nd, and due to leaving later than planned, and the reasonable amount of wind I road the main highways up to sanson. I then took a few back roads through to Feilding where I stopped for a break, a coffee and bite to eat. I then continued up HW54 to Beaconsfield, where I turned off onto Beaconsfield valley road, followed by upper Pakihkura rd and then Mangapara rd, Wairuru rd and Otara rd to pop out onto SH1 just north of Ohingaiti. I then decided to shoot through to Taihape, and drop most of my gear off at the Holiday park. Before having an early feed, and heading out for a look at the roads in the hills behind Taihape.

The following Pictures are from the ride up to Taihape

Pic 1: I like it when you find signs like this on the road you intend to travel along! (A1504)

Pic 2: Some nice flowing Gravel roads through some great scenery. (A1507)

Pic 3: Yep even grass growing in the middle of the road in some places (A1514)

Pic 4&5: Came around the corner to find this on the road, anyone would think it was windy (A1515, 1516)

Pic6 Looking down at the bridge across the Rangitiki river. (A1517)

[Howie]

Once I had Unloaded my gear, and had a meal I headed out to explore some of the roads I was interested in seeing. So headed off to the north end of Ridge road Nth, and started to travel up the ridge, about where the seal ends I came across the sign in Pic2. Oh well can’t let a thing like that stop us from having a look up the road, was just prepared to turn around and come back if necessary. The views were great, and the wind was slowly dropping off. I eventually found the reason for the road closure, and felt it was reasonable safe to ride past. This soon brought me out to the junction with Ridge Rd Sth, and Kaweka Rd, as well as Pukenaua road.

Pic 1: Road signs that you find when exploring the back roads: (A1521)

Pics 2-4: views from Ridge Rd Nth (A1522-A1523-A1525)

Pic 5: the reason for the road closure (A1528)

Pic 6: out the other side Of the road Closure (A1529)