Coast to Coast - Photos and ride reports

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 19:18

OK turned out to be quite a nice day so a good turnout as noted by Bonez on the General Biker Ravings thread.

I went down to Shell Mana at 8am with my mate Gat and met a few KBers there - we waited for about 15 mins to see who else would turn up and then away we went. So who was there? Velox, Stonechucker, VTWIN, Groins NZ and I presume that was Mrs Groins with you. The rest of you will have to remind me of your names.

Off to Himatangi we went. Saw Doug Green up there and true to his word Viv was staying at the bach looking after the dog while he was doing the run on his CT110.

I rode up the front behind the cop car and the hi-vis vest official boys on their Guzzis and it was a pretty good ride - uneventful where I was, no sign of any bins or anything stupid. Doug was never far behind on the CT. The cop enjoyed driving his car around 130 a lot of the time.

We did what I'd call the Northern route, up to Sanson, through Feilding, Coylton, Ashhurst, Saddle Road (those new windmills are awesome) then on to Woodville for lunch.

Anyway I'll get on posting the pics and we can add some more stories later.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 19:27

OK here's a few more general shots at Himatangi including one of Doug's bike. That's his with the big green plastic box on the back.

As you can see quite a crowd turned up - helps that the weather was good. They tried for years to get a 1,000 to turn up, but its never happened. I last went 2 years ago in the rain and there were less than 200. Bonez said over 400 turned up, which isn't bad. Price has gone up to $15 and it sounds like a few took the cheaper (is that Scotman's) option. Got to support the rescue helicopter though eh!

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 19:34

You can see all sort of bikes do the run. Some look like rat bikes others look pretty flash. I don't think I got any pics of them but there was a bunch of KTM motards turned up too. The usual collection of old pommy stuff was there and if anything this year the numbers of Harleys was less than in the past as a proportion.

These pics are all at Himatangi while we were waiting for blast off.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 19:37

Here's the helicopter we were supporting.

Then of course more and more bikes of all types.

Crowd mingling just before we were off.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 20:00

Then we got to Woodville for lunch. The cop car led us into the main street and it was timed perfectly so we joined on the tail end of the Xmas parade following fire engines and stuff like that all making a noise and impressing the local kids. It was a bit hard on the clutch hand cruising along so slowly on off the clutch. I must be a weakling as the VFR has a lovely light hydraulic clutch, but it was still a pain.

Then it was around to the park where our lunch was waiting and all the bikes got lined up. You can see there were many.

The clouds in the sky looked ominous but we only got a few spots of rain - nothing to annoy us.

Oh and there's Postman Doug on his bike.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 20:07

From Woodville we took the route via Makuri Gorge to Pongaroa and then to Akitio.

There's a bloody good looking VFR at Pongaroa. Taken while I was waiting for my mate Gat. Then he comes along on his Bandit.

Also a bit of horsepower cruised through town.

Damn must get a broadband connection sometime, this is slow going on a 56k modem.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 20:16

The roads in the area had suffered badly from recent storms. Or is that really they have suffered from lack of maintenance expenditure - the trick now is if the local body gets a washout or other damage, they fix it by putting a sign up. Cheaper than actually fixing the road eh! The signs at the start of the Makuri Gorge road said "Storm Damage Next 50km" - great eh. Wouldn't have happened when Keith Holyoake was the MP for the area.

Reminds me of a Benny Hill show many years ago. A phone at a bar was out of order - they call the repair man Benny, he comes along, checks the phone, then puts an "out of Order" sign on it and walks away.

Anyway we had a nice easy ride to Akitio - felt like tailwind the whole way. Then I stood on the first floor balcony of the Boat Club and snapped a few shots of other bikes arriving. Hey you might recognise yourself in one of these pics if you did the ride.

Doug came down the gravel Coast Road which is the direct route from Pongaroa so while he was only doing 80, he reckoned, again he wasn't far behind us and got to Akitio before many of the other bikes.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 20:22

... and the bikes poured into Akitio.

**merv** · 11th December 2004, 20:32

... and parked in Akitio. These are my last few pics.

Gat wanted to get away reasonably early, so once we'd got our certificate for completing the ride, had nibbled a few of the free cheese and bikkies and chippies and had a comfort stop for the road we took off. First time I haven't stuck around for the spot prizes - so if my name was called did anyone make out they were me and take advantage of the winnings?

We took off just before 3pm. I was hoping to cruise on down to Masterton via Alfredton but Gat's Bandit won't go that far ex-Woodville on a tank of gas so we went back through Makuri Gorge to gas up at Pahiatua. What's with the Pongaroa store and gas stop, they always seem to be closed these days?

We had the customary stop at the Buckhorn in Carterton for a hot drink and then cruised on over the 'takas which were nice and quiet late in the afternoon. Only tiny wet patches on the road here and there - never spotted any of Jim's diesel - guess it all washed off in the rain yesterday.

Got home about 6.45pm in the end after about 550km. Not a bad day out.

Now the rest of you will need to add something from your perspective as most of the day I didn't see the other KBers seeing I was riding with Gat and we didn't stick together.

One day I will clean my bike - really!!

**Lord Pac** · 11th December 2004, 21:06

I see blue skies....

Nice pics mate

**Motu** · 11th December 2004, 21:08

Good report and pics as usual Merv.The 2 Triumph singles interst me - I had one but never put it together.I think the one with the Velorex chair is original,the only use for an Avon New Supreme was sidecars.I don't think the black one is a Triumph - apart from the tank,the exhaust seems to be coming out on the wrong side,it has a duplex frame and that's not a Triumph primary case.Why didn't you get the other side as well silly bugger.

While I have your attention - I sat on a used WR250F today,street legal one...I can put one foot down without sliping a cheek off the seat,but with the amount of sag in the long travel supn I might get bumped off if it extends at the wrong time,you can get lowering links which is cheaper than your shorter shock.They are on the limit of my price range and I never even thought about them,but they look impressive,light and purposful - so hows your's going and are you still happy?

**gman** · 11th December 2004, 21:20

me and the kids took some pics of you guys (we think) when they were shooting past towards himitangi from palmy way (sh56) bloody cam was playin up so went and bout new one today and told misses it was early chrissy pressie!!ive got the pics zipped up and cose im sharing a dial up on 2 computers its taking too long to upload.anyone wanting the pics can email me and ill send em.maybe someone with better than dial up can post em.cheers

**merv** · 12th December 2004, 08:39

Originally Posted by Motu

While I have your attention - I sat on a used WR250F today,street legal one...I can put one foot down without sliping a cheek off the seat,but with the amount of sag in the long travel supn I might get bumped off if it extends at the wrong time,you can get lowering links which is cheaper than your shorter shock. I never even thought about them,but they look impressive,light and purposful - so hows your's going and are you still happy?

OK, nothing to do with the Coast to Coast, but.. My WR is good - I like it being so light and so fast and I laugh when I ride it on the dirt that it is so easy to ride. It reminds me of an XR200 that it is so light, but I did compromise the suspension by lowering it as you can imagine. We took 40mm out of the forks and then I lowered the back enough so I could straddle it easily without hassle. I was in a hurry to get it ready for the Pukemanu as I only took delivery of it a couple of weeks beforehand and Robert Taylor was able to put the shock together very quickly. In hindsight I probably didn't need to go so far with it, but the trouble is once you sort out your measurements that's it there is no second chance as they aren't adjustable for length. I would prefer they all had a similar adjustment to the DR Suzukis where you can pull a bolt out and drop the shock bottom down a bit.

From what we could see it wasn't an easy matter altering linkages on that bike because the shock bottom was such a tight fit in the swingarm housing i.e. if we'd fitted different dog bones the shock (the spring mount part) was likely to clout the side of the hole it fits in. If you've found some linkages that do the trick, let me know as I can always have another go at mine in not such a hurry. The Suzuki style lowering arrangement wouldn't have worked on the Yam either unless it had been built with a bigger hole in the swingarm. If it had been built like that no doubt the shock would have been totally different anyway. The Yam has a shock with quite a long bottom part so it does fit through that tiny hole.

You must be quite a bit taller than me as I just wasn't happy with the height of it, even when I rode Brendan's well used one. He isn't tall either but is quite happy looking for rocks and things to put a foot on when he stops. Not my style of enjoyment, I prefer to be able to reach at all times, particularly when trying to get through things like slippery rock streambeds.

What I don't know is how long is the motor going to last? The high performance 4 strokes seem to need new pistons too often, but the WR is built a bit differently for enduros compared to the YZF and I don't like pulling motors apart these days because as an old bugger now I prefer riding and not bothering to have to work on the bikes in any serious fashion - haven't got the time.

**merv** · 12th December 2004, 10:17

Originally Posted by Motu

The 2 Triumph singles interst me - I had one but never put it together.I think the one with the Velorex chair is original,the only use for an Avon New Supreme was sidecars.I don't think the black one is a Triumph - apart from the tank,the exhaust seems to be coming out on the wrong side,it has a duplex frame and that's not a Triumph primary case.Why didn't you get the other side as well silly bugger.

The black Triumph had a twin port head - not being a Triumph man myself it meant nothing to me, and my mate Gat who was a Triumph man from way back seemed to acknowledge it was quite normal. It was too jammed in behind the sidecar and the Ural to get a decent photo from the other side. Some of these guys are so inconsiderate how they don't park their bikes properly for photo opportunities.