Waikato scooter rides?

[awa355]

I trust the Falcon was of the native feathered variety, not that Australian import

The Falcon was one of those big metal imports from Aussie. Not a lot of soft bendy places on them.



Actually, looking at the footage again, It wasn't as close as I first thought.

[awa355]

I decided to give Buggsy a run today. I had been thinking about some of the roads east of Cambridge. The weather was looking like rain but that didn't worry me too much. Put on the over trousers and the heavy NEO jacket and sailed off into the rain clouds.
The ride to Cambridge was no problem. The out skirts of the town around the Fencourt rd area has a big subdivision developement going on. This must be for the noobs and other rich sods. One house being built would darn near take up the length of the street I live in.

I had planned to ride up the Mangakawa rd but got diverted by detours around the big developements, so headed down the French Pass road. Lots of hills, tight corners and pockets of native reserves on the hillsides. The rain had caught up with me by now, so with a knobbly tyre on the back and a well worn road tread on the front, I decided to leave getting the knees and elbows down in the corners to another day.

At the intersection of F pass and Brunskills road Buggsy swung left and we went up Brunskill rd. I hadn't been over this road before. It narrows as it follows a ridge through the Whitehall hills. The rain had eased up a bit so I stopped for a quick picture. This looks back towards French Pass road. This is pretty country in the warmer months, but under heavy rain clouds wasn't so interesting. I've thrown in the photo to break up the text.



Brunskill road would be a lovely ride on a light sports bike in the dry. The surface is good, enough corners to keep a rider alert. The road widens out and the road markings return about half way along before meeting with the Te Miro road. The rain had found me again so it was cruise mode through Te Miro. This next pic is from the Te Miro road just before the Flume road turn off.



It doesn't appear as wet as the road actually was. Flume road took me through to Fencourt rd and from there, I fairly much followed the same road back to Te Awamutu. Of course the bloody rain clouds started breaking up 15 minutes before getting home. By this time my chest was wet, my arse, crutch and legs were soaked. My overtrousers were a pair of Dryrider Typhoon padded nylon pants I had bought some time ago from a Boyds sale. They were absolutely useless. This was the first time they had seen a couple of hours of rain and failed miserablely.

When I pulled up in the driveway, the first thing I did was take the pants off, walk down the drive and shoved the damn things into the wheelie bin waiting to be emptied.

Even with the rain it was a neat ride. If I had've left the ride untill this afternoon it would have been much drier, but thats what riding is all about. I do enjoying riding in the rain, but when I am wearing decent rain gear.

[BlackSheepLogic]

awa355, where do you leave from? I might be interested in doing a ride. I have a town bike I would like to get more use of.

[awa355]

awa355, where do you leave from? I might be interested in doing a ride. I have a town bike I would like to get more use of.

I live in Te Awamutu, Wynyard st. I started writing about rides I've done since getting the scooter in the hope that anyone else with a slower bike would see that there is heaps of back roads that can be enjoyed. I currently have a friends 250 Hyosung in the garage that I can use. I try to get out for a decent ride on one of my days off. Even a couple of hours on a nice afternoon can be a pleasant outing.

Get in touch when you hope to have time avalible. If it fits in with my shift work, I'd love to go riding. Cheers, Arthur

[awa355]

I have 3 weeks off work in October so plan to spend a week riding the scooter up north. I want to be in Kohukohu on the 11th. Will look for cabins to stay in as I want to cut down on excess baggage on the scooter. I will have a 3 week window so the weather will probably dictate my start finish dates.

A rough plan is to visit the Manukau north heads, meander through the Waitakeres and stay out west Auckland the first night. The second night, will probably be at Dargaville after exploring the Sth Kaipara area. From there I will make my way up through the center to Kaitaia.
I might do a run up to Cape Reinga. I plan to stick to roads I haven't ridden as much as possible. My route back will be decided on the day.

Lots to plan for. If anyone wants to tag along for any part of the ride, let me know.

[frogfeaturesFZR]

Arthur, make sure you ride Scenic Drive, runs over the top of the Waitakere Ranges. Worth a detour down to Huia as well

[danchop]

hey again Arthur,if you need a nights bed in west Auckland when you do this trip,let me know...
may even come for a jaunt depending what date your talking

[awa355]

Thanks for that Dan. I had hoped to explore the Waitakeres on an earlier date which didn't work out. Looking at the ranges on Google, I think I might make this part of West Auckland a separate ride on its own. I'll come up when the weather suits my next 4 day weekend around early September. Then in October, I can aim for the Dargaville area on my first day of the northland trip.

My earlier plans had been to go out as far as the Waitipu campground and as Frogfeatures suggested, have a good look at the entire place. Will be in touch when I get some dates confirmed.

[awa355]

Got a new front tyre on the scooter today, a Pirelli SL26. The previous Pirelli ceat did 13,000k. It still had life left in the tread but with a couple of long rides coming up, I didn't want to be having second thoughts about whether I should've changed the tyre.

Moi, Got a totally pointless ? for you. If the circumference of the new tyre is 145cm, at 80kph how many revolutions would the wheel be turning per minute?.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a rider from Hamilton who wants to give his UZ125 a blast, so we are heading out around the Waingaro Te Aku roads. Should be a fun run.

[awa355]

Yesterday I met up with a KB rider from Hamilton who wanted to give his uz125 a run around some of the local roads. Andrew has been overseas for quite a few years and has recently settled in Hamilton. We met at Te Kowhia then cruised through to Ngaruawahia and out the Waingaro road. The Uz125 looks quite good in white and seems to have had a bit of a facelift since my 2008 model.

We turned off onto the Rotowaro road and rolled along untill we hit the outskirts of Glen Afton. After Texas, I thought Andrew might want to see a 'real' town. 30 seconds later we had made it through the traffic and back on the road to Huntly. Coal has been the backbone of Huntly for generations. Sadly it seems to be on the decline these days. We topped up the tanks in Huntly, grabbed a drink and then rode out along Heatherington road. This seems to follow a saddle which gives a good view of the surrounding country. Quite pretty even without the spring greenery which appears to be just kicking off.

Because I had a riding companion I didn't bother to stop every ten minutes and drag the camera out. Left into SH22 and the pockets of native bush, newborn lambs and sunshine made for a pleasant ride. The only downer is seeing how much the road has deteriated. A big bike with good suspension and big sized wheels wouldn't notice the unevenness but if the powers that be dont spend some serious money on roads like this, they are going to pack up badly.

Right into Ohautira road and we met a local 'scrubcutter' on the road.

Ohaurita road was a delight to ride as always except for the patches of gravel at the Raglan end. Can anyone remember this road when these patches weren't there? Two one way bridges just after and here's a local giving way Not!.


Back onto the Raglan road and we mossied on over the deviation and at Whatwhata, I turned off to head for home, Andrew carried on into Hamilton. It was a good run,

[awa355]

Yesterday when Andrew and I had done our ride around the Waingaro roads, I got home thinking that buggsy had a drinking problem. I have opened the shed and found the lawnmower fuel tins empty on a number of occasions. The fuel gauge is not accurate by any means but the tank was near empty after 128k from filling up at Huntly. I have to admit, that riding with others I tend to push the little buggar harder than when being by myself.

Today I was going to chase up the Waikato tag. I filled up Buggsy and decided on the Mangatautari rd side of the mountain. A few more corners than the Arapuni road and a lot more scenic. Across the Piarere bridge and onto SH1. Turning right into Horohoro road I stopped and got a snapshot of the lake from this side. Most photos seem to be from the ski club shore.



Meandering along the road I couldn't help but notice the farmland between Horohoro road and the lake is now dozens of lifestyle blocks. So much productive land taken out for the sake of kitset kids playhouses and ride on mowers. Got the tag and continued into Putaruru. Cop cars everywhere. I found out from my sister that another school principal had been busted for child porn the day before. That make three local school principals in the last 2 years busted.

I had an idea of where I might get the new tag so with a police tail following through town Buggsy and I headed out to Domain road. It had dawned on me that I had left home and not locked the house. Infact, I wasn't too sure I'd even closed the back door. Back in town I turned down Market street. This was where my father had his trucking and logging company throughout my childhood. What a sad sight.



The brown building on the right was Ken Swains engine reconditioning shop, the green building and the truck bays across the road were Uden Bros work shop. Further on was Frank Wilcox's machine shop. Now, every building is closed up, for sale signs everywhere. In the 50&60's this street would be full of trucks, cars, noise etc. PTY had the mill at the end on the right and the saleyards were straight off the end of the street. Now the mill and saleyard sites are nothing more than rubbish and blackberry.

I parked Buggsy outside Freddy Flowers old wool and skin shop and had a walk around.



Freddy and his brother also bought bottles and crates for recycling I guess. Us kids would sneak down the bank behing this shed and pinch crates of empty quart bottles and then later on bring them up to the front and sell them to old freddy. He knew what was going on so starting marking the crates. A few of us got caught out.

After a quick cup of tea at my sisters, it was a steady run back home. The fuel consumption was a lot better on this trip. With the 2t motor there is a big difference between wot and taking it steady. As it is, The Hyosung I have been babysitting will be with me for a couple of more months. The owner showed up yesterday with a rego sticker and told me to use it as I want. so Buggsy might get some rest for a few weeks.

[Robbo]

Great pics and trip reports Arthur, as always, I recognised many of those roads as ones I have ridden in the past, especially in the hills east of Cambridge, down around Piarere and in the Raglan and Kawhia areas.

Cheers

[Moi]

Enjoyed another interesting and entertaining write-up...
It's not just small towns that have lost businesses... when we moved to our present house over 25 years ago [yeah, I know, should have moved several times in that time - get stuffed on that suggestion!] the local village had proper shops = a men's wear; a haberdashery; a paint shop who knew how to mix paints and sell stuff like Danish Oil; a lady's 'undergarments' supplier; a proper stationer... now we have cafes, and $2 shops, and a number of banks and a shopping precinct and a supermarket... it's called progress and some believe it to be great...

Sorry about the wee rant...

[awa355]

I'd love one of these if it had a bigger motor.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/moto...-773258425.htm

Here is a link to a Swedish chap who has toured throughout europe on one. He has a couple of long reports on rides. Great photos and shows what can be done with the right atitude.

http://advrider.com/forums/showthrea...ghlight=zoomer

[Robbo]

Have you seen the Honda Ruckus Arthur? There has been a couple of them for sale on TradeMe in the last year.
They are 250cc.