How far have you gone to get a bike?

[Acc4meplz]

On Trademe i saw a 250 bandit that i fell in love with so i organised with the seller to have a look at it this weekend just passed but the bike was all the way in Gisborne. So Friday after i finished work (Which was at 2:30am) we hooked up a trailer to my mate's (ludwig) old Citroen XM and we started our journey down from Auckland to Gizzy. We arrived at Gisborne at about 8:45am. After a hassle trying to get the cash out of my account (since i didnt know banks in smaller centers like Gisborne wasnt open on saturdays... and i know what your thinking, bloody Jafas) we went and had a look at the bike which was in excelent condition, a bit of typical wear and tear but still so clean and well looked after. And at about 11am we started our trip back to auckland after getting maccers (try parking a car with a trailer in a macdonalds car park...)
We were back in east auckland by about 8 and so 1200km later we have me a bike =D
How far have you gone or are willing to go to get a bike?

[nzspokes]

Wouldnt it have been cheaper to fly down and ride the bike back?

[Maha]

Cool story...!
I went all of 1.5kms to collect my current bike.
The three prior all came out of the same shop on Barrys point rd.

[neels]

Christchurch to Alexandra and back.

Easy compared with christchurch to tuatapere to trailer back a vintage truck though.

[sinfull]

Flew to auckland, taxi to a friends work and met the seller there (owned it as it was a TM purchase) and it was a write off dereged ect, slapped my old speed triples plates on it and did a quick safety check, stayed at the mates, drank heaps of piss !Up at 7 next morning and rode it home to Horowhenua !

[Acc4meplz]

Wouldnt it have been cheaper to fly down and ride the bike back?

Haha im only getting my license on thursday so probably wouldnt have been a good idea to fly down and ride it back up xD altho i was very tempted too.
And i wouldnt trust my mate to do it haha, hes crashed way to many bikes lol, so trailer was the best option

[Blinkwing]

I got my bike before I did the BHS/Licence. In saying that, I did get my friend to take the bike for a test ride/etc. Was all good.

I travelled from the North Shore to Pakuranga to see the bike. Bought it, then my friend took it to a mate's place about 600m down the road to stash it there until I had my silly 6L.

[nadroj]

Flew New Plymouth to Invergiggle to ride the Busa home after a test ride to Bluff just after a snowing.

Took no 2 son pillion New Plymouth to Wellington for him to ride his Bandit 250 home as a first ride over 100km.

[Voltaire]

Bought a 1972 Norton Commando Roadster in Jan from Blenheim, flew down from Auckland with all my tools :laugh: and bike gear.
I asked the seller would it make it back to Auckland. He said you should not be buying it if it wouldn't.
Rode it back over two days, via National park and Whakapapa.:Punk:

[chasio]

Not as far, but I flew to Palmerston North from Auckland (with the cash in my pocket) and rode a Vespa back a few years ago. Not a 50cc I hasten to add (I'll leave that to the real hard-cases) - twas a GT200. Had a great couple of days wandering back up via Raetihi, Taupo, Taumarunui, SH22 etc. Not a bad machine at all. No cred except in Ponsonby, though. :Punk:

[quattro]

Myself and my brother did a 700ish KM round trip in a day to 'pick up' a car he'd arranged to buy in Belfast. We came home without it after a civil discussion with the seller.

[Stirts]

Wouldnt it have been cheaper to fly down and ride the bike back?

:laugh: Fly to Gizzy? Flights to Gizzy are scary, few and far between and expensive - you get on these little pencil planes that shudder and shake with even the smallest pocket of air. Even flying through a sparrows fart is terrifying.

Went from Tauranga to Wanganui to buy an RS250 :drool: Left at some ungodly hour of the morning. Didn't realise the lack of petrol stations towards the end of the journey and had to coast our little 121 bubble in neutral down through some old highway into Wanganui. :sweatdrop

But it was well worth it, following the RS250 home again....the smell, and the sound ... heavenly!!

[Acc4meplz]

Even flying through a sparrows fart is terrifying.


I think thats the best thing ive seen on this forum... ever :laugh:

[dogsnbikes]

Went too Ashburton too pick up a 86 XT400 begining of the year

Caught the 9pm ferry from Wgtn(wed),hitched a ride with a truck driver too Ashburton arrived at 730am(Thrus),brought the bike fitted packrak and brackets,changed oil and ownership...had breaky and back on road at 1030 to catch 7pm ferry from Picton and got home(Wanganui) at 1am (friday)

[cmoore]

bought a bike off TM, picked up trailer and drove to Taranaki.......picked up bike from remote farm...had lunch...drove back to Auckland...Started about 6am.....got home about 10pm after dropping trailer back...........Loooooong day.....

[Dodgy_Matt]

Caught a bus from the Rua to PNorth, cash in hand met the guy at the bus depot. Handed over the money and brought the bike home... 5 hour round trip
Took my magnetic tank bag thinking I would be smart... fucking Honda tank is plastic :facepalm: had to buy a bungie cord to put it on the pilion seat :no:
Guy cave me a helmet... had to strap it to the side of the bike...
And I came Home in a storm... 150kmh winds :shit:

but I love my little honda :love:

[Taz]

I went from auckland to wellington to deliver my Moto Guzzi to it's new owner and collect my KTM640A. (640A's are few and far between)

[jellywrestler]

wanganui to Dargaville one weekend then Wanganui to Waihi the next for two of them...

[flyingcrocodile46]

Flew from Akld to Dunedin to pick up a GSX1135E and rode it back to Akld.

[manxkiwi]

Drove to Wellington from just south of Auckland to get my racebike. Had option to pass on it if not happy. Luckily it was all good. Got to the Manfield round of the nationals on the way back for a look see. Many thanks to my mate who came along to share driving and check the bike out with me.

[nodrog]

Im so special, I just sit at home and wait for the bike to be delivered to me.

[Katman]

Im so special, I just sit at home and wait for the bike to be delivered to me.

Don't lie.

I heard you go all the way.

[nodrog]

Don't lie.

I heard you go all the way.

I will be your Sherpa up the mountain of gayness.

[Devil]

For me, flew to Wellington in the am, did the paperwork for me beemer and rode directly back to Auckland same day.
I can still remember it being -1, raining and windy on the desert road. Fscking cold.

[Banditbandit]

Bought a BMW. Picton to Napier - Thunderbike (Nelson) trailered the bike to Picton and I rode it home to Napier.

Bought the 1250. Pukekohe to Napier - bus up rode the bike back via Te Awamutu, Te Kuiti, Taumaranui, Taupo, Napier.

Riding a bike that sort of distance home means you get the feel of the bike very quickly.

[ducatilover]

Departed Pahiatua in a shitty little Civic at 4pm one Sunday in '08. Got to Auckland at 1am Monday. Got a feed, visite a mate, up at 6am and off to see a few bike shops (a mate had a list of bikes he wanted to test, then buy). I got test ride duties for all of them :D

Left Auckland at lunch time, I rode the bike the whole way home. I got home somewhat quickly and the Civic was an hour and a half behind.

[CrazyFrog]

Te Anau to Nelson……. On a dirtbike, KTM EXC with a seat like a bit of 4x2.

Flew Nelson to Invercargill, got shuttle bus to TeAnau, met the seller, chucked road lights kit, indicators and plate on it, handed over the cash and rode home over next 3days.
Did 1400 km via lots of gravel back roads and high country passes, longest day being 680 km, a great ride but my arse wasn’t happy about it.
Would happily do it again tommorrow :woohoo:

[hewzie]

Currently living in Perth. I flew from Perth to Brisbane to buy a 2nd hand Rocket 3. Freighted it back to Perth. Year later flew Perth Adel to buy a Honda SP2, freighted that back, too. Then when in Auck, flew to Wgtn to buy a near new Tiger. We rode that back to Auckland and froze our butts off. We left the Hutt Valley, 2-up on a new style of bike straight over the Rimutakas in drizzle and about 8 deg C. I learnt a lot about that bike in the first hour. It was awesome. Its in Akl and for sale if someone wants a bargain (within reason).

[Gremlin]

Auckland to Mt Maunganui. Popped down one Friday to inspect bike and test ride (no-one else had a GSA demo). Liked the bike, but it was just after New Years, and some numbers needed sorting. Was happy to receive numbers in email and go from there, the salesman had other ideas, ended up walking out with a signed purchase, but rode my bike home (damn salesmen :no:). Stripped it that night of the accessories I was swapping over, with the help of mates.

Next weekend, popped down again, dropped off my bike as a trade in and rode home on the new one, after I'd sent a package of accessories for fitting, and they had fitted them during the week.

I wouldn't have a problem riding a bike to or from anywhere... :ride:

[flyingcrocodile46]

Re reading the thread title I see it has two potential meanings and as I have answered the first it seems I should now also answer in the second form.

I have gone as far as lying (to SWMBO), cheating (also on SWMBO) and stealing (also from SWMBO) to get all of my bikes :laugh:

[skippa1]

Flew Nelson to Aucks, picked up the bike and headed off the next morning at 7am, raining when I left. Pissing down in fact<_<. By the time I was half way to Hamilton, I was wishing I hadnt brought a slammed Harley:no:......arrived in Wellington at 3.30pm, rained all the way down:pinch:, ferry was delayed by the weather and sailed at 7.30pm -arrived in Picton midnight, arrived back in Nelson at 1.30am the next morning, it was wet the whole way:mad:. The side shots had my right ear ringin, saturated and my arse and back hated the Harley. Sold it 8 weeks later:facepalm:.

[jasonu]

I had a bike I bought on ebay shipped 2000 miles across the states. Don't know if that counts though...

[unstuck]

Picked my XR600R up from pakiri and rode back to gore, only took me 2 weeks.:msn-wink:

[Eddieb]

Not that far but I flew Wellington to upper south island for 2 out of the last 3 bikes, the one before that came from up near Dargaville.

[wickle]

Early this year was flown to Timaru from Napier picked up bike (BMW K1200R) for new owner he could not doit himself and transporters could not get it here in time. Half hour after arriving was heading north back to Napier (817.6Km ) all exspenses paid trip. AWesome trip and bike !

[slofox]

I just went to the local bike shop...:facepalm:

[scumdog]

Riding a bike that sort of distance home means you get the feel of the bike very quickly.

I had only ever ridden the XN85 around the block prior to riding it the 500km home while nursing a storming hangover - THAT gets you the feel of a bike PDQ!

[breakaway]

Auckland -> Wellington (by bus, 7.30PM departure) arrive at 6AM

Check bike, do deal

Wellington -> Auckland (SV650S), departed approx 8AM after breakfast, arrived at 7.30PM

[Big Col]

Mate left Nelson 2am rode to picton caught boat, rode to waikanae coffee stop and then rode to Auckland, hopped off trade in and onto new bike then rode back to Waikanae. Got to Waikanae just before 2am.

[Brayden]

Noone mentioned finance yet? 2k Into overdraft, now I'm getting shafted! Could sell the bike to pay it off but I love it too much! :innocent:

[sleemanj]

Flew to sunny Nelson from Christchurch somewhat spur of the moment with money in my pocket, an ad of a bike I was keen on in Motueka (an XV250 at a time before there were many 250 cruisers around), and that was about it as far as a plan went. Got a shuttle into town late on a saturday afternoon and walked around till I found a cheap bed, bus to Motueka the next day and walked to the guys house, test rode and waved sufficient notes under his nose.

As I was leaving he said "do you want to check the battery water before you go". I didn't pay much attention to his words. This was a mistake.

Rode back that afternoon. Went smoothly (apart from a close encounter with a pig, and basically riding on fumes a couple of times) until Culverden when I filled up and smelt something sulphurous, but didn't put two and two together until she went bang and died on the motorway at the Kaiapoi overbridge well after dark. Regulator was obviously pumping some big ass voltage and boiled the battery dry.

Pushed it over the bridge and down into some side street under a street light where I stripped it down (I had thought to carry some tools at least, not that I knew what I was doing), knocked on some random house with a light on and got some water to put in the battery to at least get an electrical circuit happening, and luckily managed to get her push started on that and she ran on one cylinder all the way home, one of the coils had got fried in the process.

[Blackshear]

I've always made them come to me. :oi-grr:
250 was ridden to my driveway and purchased (free gloves!) and the guy just bussed back home over the bridge.
TL was delivar'd to my door (at some monetary expense, admittedly).

One day.

[rastuscat]

Flew from Chur Chur to Palmy North, rode the bike back home.

Loved it. Though leaving Palmy at 5.00 in pissing rain to get the early ferry was a drag.

Still, I like drag.

(Did I say that out loud?)

[jade911]

1st bike: GN125, took a ute 2 hours drive from Whangarei to Auckland, and back.

2nd bike: GN125 (first lost a challenge from a car), trailer from Whangarei to Palmy and back

3rd bike: VL250 (suz intruder), about 500m down the road :-)