Holy cow, ok the facts to start off with:
Route:
Wgtn - Martinborough - Gladstone - Alfredton - Napier - Taupo - Turangi - Waiouru - Palmerston North - Pahiatua Track - Masterton - Rimutaka - HOME
Time: 16 Hours 30 minutes
Distance:
Hmm, only 1000kms on the dot (will explain time later)
VTWIN and myself set off from Upper Hutt at 07:35. It was very misty, especially as we went through Kaitoke and up the hill. At the top, the mist was basically light rain... Mist hung around till Featherston. We took the back roads to Martinborough, thinking of having breakfast at the Flying Fish. VTWIN almost got taken out by a young guy pulling out of a driveway in one of the streets off the squareWe discovered that they had the Martinborough fair on, and the whole square was blocked off, so we headed off to Masterton via Gladstone. Along the road to Gladstone, a 4WD pulled out of a side street without looking, and again poor VTWIN almost got collected. This miss required some skilfull evasive action. When will people LOOK for bikes
(Napier, Taupo and Turangi make VERY good places for those interested in Ornithology...)
Hit the road again to Taupo. Along the way, I had the fortunate experience of donating $120 to a needy charity. It made me feel really good. I like doing my part for society, my only hope is that the charity makes good use of it. SEE ATTACHED PICTURE. We made a quick detour before Taupo to ride through Oak avenue, an avenue completely flanked by 100+ year old oak trees. Was very picturesque. Arrived and stopped in Taupo for a quick drink (about 5:30pm), and set off to Turangi. Along the main roads through the Desert Road to Palmy (Got to Palmy at 9:30pm! We didn't think Hooks would be too pleased if we rocked up on his doorstep at that hour!). Instead of endure the insanely tedious SH1 back down to Paramata, we decided to do the Pahiatua track, to Masterton and back over the Takas. It is VERY interesting riding at night. I don't do alot of it, and after you get used to it, it's a very thrilling experience. Since I had my tinted visor on, I couldn't see ANYTHING that wasn't illuminated by my headlights (on the pahiatua track). So, I ended up slowing down to about 20km/h on tight corners, since my lights didn't shine far enough to see what was coming around the bends. I figured out that if I left my visor half up, I could look through the visor when on the straights to stop bugs hitting my eyes, and look under the visor at low speeds in the corner, to see ahead. When I got this sorted, we got a nice speed going. We stopped at the top, where there is an AMAZING view of the stars. Having none of the polluted city lights makes for a much clearer view. Left the summit and came straight home. Did some brief experiments on the affects of headlights on the road ahead under wheelie situations at nights. It's quite a sight.
Hit my driveway at exactly midnight. This was definitely the best ride I have ever had. I have a very numb left palm, a tingling "pinky" on the left hand (both from continous vibration), a slightly sore backside, but not that bad really. So, my limit on the R1 is 16.5 hours. Not bad considering my CBR250 became unbearable after 6hrs!
I think the longer than expected time came partly from small detours, stops and drinks, but mostly from roadworks. I couldn't believe it, on EVERY road we travelled, there were roadworks. At one point between Alfredton and Pongoroa, there was a 56km stretch of shitty, loose, potholed roadworks. Then shortly after Pongoroa, 25kms of roadworks, a km or two of nice roads and immediately followed by 32 kms of roadworks. I love their signs "Storm Damage Next XX kms". Then just before Taupo, about 3kms of apocalyptic loose seal, the start of it completely melted. Apart from those two areas, the roadworks on the other roads were minor, and could be dodged on bikes. They should use some money from "donations" to fix the roads or something. Or, fix them properly once and for all.
VTWIN and I were thinking that sometime soon we are going to organise a MIDNIGHT TAKA RUN. It's heaps of fun, and if you pick the right night weather wise, is very comfortable. It was actually hot at the top at 11:15pm tonight. Those that haven't ridden much at night might want to take it very slow. On a few of the corners on the way down, I had to break harder than usual after misjudging the corners' "tightness".
I'm off to bed very shortly, to sleep for the whole of Sunday!
Dave
PS: The "donation collector" was a really nice guy. Seemed interested in the bike, and almost certainly let me off easy. When I passed the point where I think the "donation van" was taking donations, I was doing MORE than enough to donate my licence. I just said straight up, yep I was speeding, sorry...
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Blast From The Past Axis of Oil
Originally Posted by Riff Raff
We had the beer cold and the sevens on the tele .... lots fun during the day for me too ... played heaps of golf as I can't do too much riding until I get the new rear on ..... for some reason there isn't much tread left on it 
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