It's here! It's here! It's finally here!
Wasn't really looking forward to a 10 hour trip in the car alone. I tried conning everyone into it to come with me, but everyone seemed to have plans. Ah well.
Finished work at 6.30pm, battled traffic over the Bridge, shot home, grabbed my bag, plenty of CD's and some food. Cruised over to Devil's place, only for him to tell me his house got broken into that day. Poor bastard. Borrowed the coolest bike trailer known to mankind. Fancy LED lights, spare tyre, little prop-wheel. AND SUSPENSION! Choice toy bro!
Hooked the Trailer up, departed over the Bridge again, stopped in to Autobahn to fuel up both the car, and my ravenous guts. Checked the clock. Finally departed at 8.45pm with a 5 hour drive ahead. Dammit. It was gonna be a long trip. Took SH1b through Gordonton to Cambridge, had a bit of an incident involving a Ute and a bike. Idiot in said Ute passed me on a blind corner, double yellows, on the wrong side of the road, in the dark, and missed a bike coming the other way by about a foot. Absolute cock. If said rider is reading this. The Ute was a Yellow NZ Post "Pace" vehicle, and I have reported the plate to the cops over the phone. If you have or will be lodging a complaint, they should already have the details.
Road was boooooring. Hardly any traffic, High beam stayed on for most of the trip, Opened a Massive V can that I bought at Autobarn. Not cool. Who needs that much sugar? I started grinding my teeth pretty soon after. Not a pleasant experience. Caffeine didn't really affect me though, was still quite tired. Last time I have a half a litre of V. For anyone that is interested, I can confirm to you that the new Cancer Bats, and The Bronx album's are spectacular. I played the Cancer Bats "Hail Destroyer" about 4 times over. Hit Taupo, and was starting to feel a little dreary-eyed. Hit the Napier-Taupo Highway, and was really quite tired. Anyone that knows the Taupo end of this road knows how long, straight, and completely boring it is, I knew if I didn't so something, i'd soon fall asleep at the wheel.
Pulled into a rest stop, saw a couple of Trucks there. Thought they must have had a similar idea. Set my Phone to go off in half an hour with an alarm so I could continue my journey. Tried to go to sleep, but was distracted by a squeeking noise. Once I had a look, one of the truck cabs was moving quite violently. 2 minutes later of of the drivers hops out, then the other. They kiss goodbye. Great. In my sleepy stupor, i've managed to stumble across the worlds only gay-truck driver-dogging site. Ah well. Whatever makes you happy. Said Truck Drivers depart leaving me to get 20 minutes of deserved beauty-power-napping.
Back onm the road, uneventful trip to Napier. Arrive at 2am.
Sleep.
Head over to ProCycles, arrive and the first thing i'm greeted with through the door is "You're 24 minutes late! We were expecting you to be licking the window at 9am on the dot!" Ha. Good bastards. Couldn't ask for a friendlier team. Gerald ran through the paper work with me, while the Mechanic (I think his name was Chris, sorry if i'm wrong mate!) showed me around the bike, all the relevant info, switches, hidden hooks for attaching sandbags to the front wheel. While a tank pad was attached to the tank, I was given a wee tour of their workshop. Impressive place. Many bikes in pieces, massive choppers in progress, dirt bike rebuilds, Dyno machine, and a fair few old Triumphs scattered about the place. Hard to see how they get any "real work" done.
Went for a quick pootle over towards Puketapu on a route that was suggested by Gerald, just to have something to remember on the long, painfully sunny trip back. Awesome road, reminded me a lot of Makara in Wellington, without the goat-track feel to it. Cool old wooden one-way bridges etc. Holy hell this bike is cool. Biggest smile i've ever had. It's tricky keeping it to "breaking in" revs though. Head back. Load it on the Trailer. (again, what a breeze that was). Head off.
What absolute agony. It was a cloudless day, blistering hot, my riding gear was in the boot, and a few angry headlights peering at me through the rear-view. Made it to Taupo only to discover a push-bike event on, detoured through the main road took 40 minutes. Tummy was ravenous again, but there was no chance in hell I could find space for the Car and Trailer on those streets. Cruised over the hill, up a gravel road, and found a little cafe in Wairakei. I was the only one there. The guy that ran the place used to Spanner for all manner of racers, here, and for factory teams in the UK, and Mexico of all places. He worked with all sorts of Isle of Mann TT racers as well. Lovely guy, great stories, and some amazing photographs on the walls. Good food too. Stop in there if you get a chance.
Fuck it. Got back onto the main road, popped the Ramp on the Traler, unloaded the bike, and went for a spin. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Bike back on Trailer. Journey resumed. Encountered a fatal accident just South of Cambridge. Trapped in traffic for an hour. Not enough room to turn around with the Trailer on. Prisoner in the hot sun. I considered unloading the bike, and riding up to see what was happening, but I thought the last thing needed was another rubber-necker.
Some traffic turned off, left me with enough room to turn round, back-tracked for half an hour, and wnet through Matamata. Uneventfulk trip for the rest.
Got home, took the bike over to show some mates. Very nearly fell asleep on the deck in a beanbag. Went home.
Absulutely chuffed. The bike looks so much nicer now that it sits in my Garage, and it matches my eyes.
If you get a chance, pop into ProCycles, top blokes doing a good job. Can't reccomend them highly enough.
I'm off for a ride now, and to get some poser shots. Will post them once i'm back.
Whew. Bike Report to follow.
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Should be sometime next month when you stop riding maybe...
Originally Posted by PrincessBandit
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