Mental Trousers
27th February 2006, 11:12
Well that was a long but bloody good weekend.
Started on Friday morning when I finally dragged my arse out of bed around 10am. Was meant to leave at 11:00am but I still had a few things to do, so I got myself moving and went and did them. Things came to a grinding halt when I got to the servo to check the pressures. The back tyre was flat. As in flat. And I hadn't even noticed between my place and the servo 3km away. I've never once been able to tell when a rear Michelin is under pressure. I think I'll have to give the thing a kick everytime I go near the bike. Anyway, pumped it up and then toddled along to the bike shop for a couple of things and ended up with one of the guys pulling a staple out of my rear tyre and the bike up on a stand getting a puncture repaired. Arse.
Finally got that fixed then cruised into work to grab a couple of things and call one of our guys who's on the road around Wanganui all day, 6 days a week, to suss out the best route. He reckoned stay off SHW1 and head down the Parapara's so that was my plan.
Finally left Hamilton and headed down the back way to Otorohanga, SHW3 to Te Kuiti, SHW4 to Taumarunui, National Park, Wanganui, Bulls then Feilding. Stopped quite often because my earplugs kept coming out. But only stops of any significance was Taumarunui for gas and at the Owhango Cafe and Bar about 10 minutes out of Taumarunui. Why stop so soon after gassing up?? Ever stopped in Taumarunui?? The old couple that own and run the Owhango Cafe and Bar are great. They're both bikers from way back so I had a good chat to Pete over one of Sue's Lamb Burgers and a Tui. Highly recommended place to stop. Can't say enough about the friendly service, good food, very pleasant surroundings and the fact they're both bikers, although these days they both have their own trikes rather than bikes. If anyone wants to buy a Honda Valkyrie based Trike give Pete a call as he's getting a new one built cos he's had that one for 4 years.
Pretty uneventful ride the rest of the way except for almost burying it in the side of a 4x4. Must have hit something with the front cos for a wee while before that the front end was wandering a bit, then, on one particular corner up in the Parapara's I braked heavily and the front end started poggoing. I could hear the wheel locking and unlocking as it bounced. Managed to turn it but was uncomfortably close to the side of the 4x4. Probably scared the shit out of the driver but I didn't stop. Turned out the front had gone down to 25lbs. Bastard thing was meant to be 33lbs. Rest of the journey was was a gentle cruise to Feiling.
That day will go down in history as the "Bad Tyre Friday". By the time I got to Feilding the rear tyre was flat again. WTF?!?!?! Found that out when I saw the sign for the motel a split second before I went past the drive, thought meh and carried on into Feilding to gas up. I could see the tyre wasn't fully inflated so I swore a hell of a lot, put more air in the tyre, hoped against hope that it'll still be there in the morning and wandered back to the motel to check into the room. Soon as I was in the door I tipped everything out of my pack, got back on the bike and went back into town for beer and food. Bought a doz then proceeded to McD's for a helping of fat. Pulled up outside the golden arches building and thought "why is the bottom of my neck itchy?? .... hey, it's really itchy ....... holy fuck, MY NECKS ON FIRE". The dance that followed is familiar to many people. It's the one where you try to get out of your gear as fast as possible so you can get the damn wasp that stung you out of your jacket!! I'd say the people in the drive through hadn't seen anything quite that strange for a very long time. Mind you, Feilding is a town with a McD's, Subway and KFC but not a single bloody cafe that's open for breakfast. Wtf is up with that??
Arrived back at the room and the neck was merely very itchy rather than burning, so I proceeded to anesthetis it with beer while watching the rugby on Sky Sport. A couple of hours later I heard the familiar sound of a mid size 4 cylinder bike announcing the arrival of NinjaBoy. After meeting and greeting we both sat down with a cold brew and talked for a while. We were both pretty knackered after the long ride down (he lives in Auckland, I'm in Hamilton) so it wasn't very long before we both retired to our respective beds and crashed.
Morning rolled around to find my rear tyre flat again. Fuck. So, out with the compressed gas canisters to get enough into the tyre to get me to the servo. Put gas in, hear gas coming out .... fuck. Got to the servo and pumped it full of air then went in search of breakfast. We settled on Subway (did I mention that hick little town doesn't have a cafe thats open early morning to feed the regular flow of people heading to the autocourse??). While there, I saw a very nice RVF400 go past then come back and stop at the money machine. Turns out that was limbimtimwimsimfimdimrim, but I wasn't to know that until later. We decided to go get signed in and the scruntineering done before I go find some goo to fix the tyre with.
After signing up etc I went in search of goo. None at the servo, none at Repco or Super Cheap Auto (5 of the biggest retail chains in this hemisphere in that town and not a single cafe that does bacon and eggs at 7:00am?!?!?!) ended up at the Suzuki shop where one of the guys said he'd take a quick look for me. Found the leak and it's no bloody wonder the thing was going dead flat all the time. Only option was to put a mushroom plug in it. The dude worked quickly but didn't miss a step. He was very good. Thorough and careful, washing the tyre a number of times to make sure any detergent or grease was removed. Turns out he has to do that sort of thing quite regularly cos there's often bikes getting a flatty on track & test days. Still, took a wee while so by the time I got back I'd missed the rider briefing and the 1st group (the slow group) were just coming in, their session ended because somebody threw it away. So I went straight to the rear of the group that was lined up which, coincedentally, is the group I was meant to be in. Hurrah!!
The Medium group was, however, extremely large so they split it in half (aided by cancelling the 4 wheeler sessions as only 1 turned up) and I went out with the 2nd half.
My first session out there was a bit of a shock. I couldn't believe how bad the surface was. Turns out there was truck racing there a couple of weeks earlier and they had ripped the arse out of the track surface as per usual. That, plus the fact I had had the tyre patched less than 15 minutes beforehand meant I was wobbling around Manfield freaking out for almost 15 minutes. Got back to the pits, kicked the tyre and it was still full of air so that was a relief, then went and sat in the stand to watch the Fast group. They were bloody quick. They were also bloody loose. They yellow flagged the entire track at one point because their were 3 people who'd had incidents. One person had just missed his braking point and pissed off into the kitty litter before lying down, but the other 2 were a touch more painful with 2 low sides. The recovery vehicle had to go and pick them up so the session pretty much ended under yellow.
After the Race group, then the Slow groups 2nd session it was the Mediums again. This time I stopped in the pits and went out right at the back (a couple of others had the same idea too) but unlike the first session I actually enjoyed this one and started finding some decent lines and braking points. At the end of the session I was buzzing and the rear tyre that was starting to look very respectable. The front had a tiny chicken strip though. It was now lunch and time to harden the arteries. 1 hot dog and dodgy, soggy chips later I wandered around and met a few people and chatted for a while, including Oil Boiler and his mum Sue who I'd chatted to in the past but didn't know who she was. The wheelie session was on but it didn't interest me at the time cos I was too happy at how well the 2nd session went.
Started on Friday morning when I finally dragged my arse out of bed around 10am. Was meant to leave at 11:00am but I still had a few things to do, so I got myself moving and went and did them. Things came to a grinding halt when I got to the servo to check the pressures. The back tyre was flat. As in flat. And I hadn't even noticed between my place and the servo 3km away. I've never once been able to tell when a rear Michelin is under pressure. I think I'll have to give the thing a kick everytime I go near the bike. Anyway, pumped it up and then toddled along to the bike shop for a couple of things and ended up with one of the guys pulling a staple out of my rear tyre and the bike up on a stand getting a puncture repaired. Arse.
Finally got that fixed then cruised into work to grab a couple of things and call one of our guys who's on the road around Wanganui all day, 6 days a week, to suss out the best route. He reckoned stay off SHW1 and head down the Parapara's so that was my plan.
Finally left Hamilton and headed down the back way to Otorohanga, SHW3 to Te Kuiti, SHW4 to Taumarunui, National Park, Wanganui, Bulls then Feilding. Stopped quite often because my earplugs kept coming out. But only stops of any significance was Taumarunui for gas and at the Owhango Cafe and Bar about 10 minutes out of Taumarunui. Why stop so soon after gassing up?? Ever stopped in Taumarunui?? The old couple that own and run the Owhango Cafe and Bar are great. They're both bikers from way back so I had a good chat to Pete over one of Sue's Lamb Burgers and a Tui. Highly recommended place to stop. Can't say enough about the friendly service, good food, very pleasant surroundings and the fact they're both bikers, although these days they both have their own trikes rather than bikes. If anyone wants to buy a Honda Valkyrie based Trike give Pete a call as he's getting a new one built cos he's had that one for 4 years.
Pretty uneventful ride the rest of the way except for almost burying it in the side of a 4x4. Must have hit something with the front cos for a wee while before that the front end was wandering a bit, then, on one particular corner up in the Parapara's I braked heavily and the front end started poggoing. I could hear the wheel locking and unlocking as it bounced. Managed to turn it but was uncomfortably close to the side of the 4x4. Probably scared the shit out of the driver but I didn't stop. Turned out the front had gone down to 25lbs. Bastard thing was meant to be 33lbs. Rest of the journey was was a gentle cruise to Feiling.
That day will go down in history as the "Bad Tyre Friday". By the time I got to Feilding the rear tyre was flat again. WTF?!?!?! Found that out when I saw the sign for the motel a split second before I went past the drive, thought meh and carried on into Feilding to gas up. I could see the tyre wasn't fully inflated so I swore a hell of a lot, put more air in the tyre, hoped against hope that it'll still be there in the morning and wandered back to the motel to check into the room. Soon as I was in the door I tipped everything out of my pack, got back on the bike and went back into town for beer and food. Bought a doz then proceeded to McD's for a helping of fat. Pulled up outside the golden arches building and thought "why is the bottom of my neck itchy?? .... hey, it's really itchy ....... holy fuck, MY NECKS ON FIRE". The dance that followed is familiar to many people. It's the one where you try to get out of your gear as fast as possible so you can get the damn wasp that stung you out of your jacket!! I'd say the people in the drive through hadn't seen anything quite that strange for a very long time. Mind you, Feilding is a town with a McD's, Subway and KFC but not a single bloody cafe that's open for breakfast. Wtf is up with that??
Arrived back at the room and the neck was merely very itchy rather than burning, so I proceeded to anesthetis it with beer while watching the rugby on Sky Sport. A couple of hours later I heard the familiar sound of a mid size 4 cylinder bike announcing the arrival of NinjaBoy. After meeting and greeting we both sat down with a cold brew and talked for a while. We were both pretty knackered after the long ride down (he lives in Auckland, I'm in Hamilton) so it wasn't very long before we both retired to our respective beds and crashed.
Morning rolled around to find my rear tyre flat again. Fuck. So, out with the compressed gas canisters to get enough into the tyre to get me to the servo. Put gas in, hear gas coming out .... fuck. Got to the servo and pumped it full of air then went in search of breakfast. We settled on Subway (did I mention that hick little town doesn't have a cafe thats open early morning to feed the regular flow of people heading to the autocourse??). While there, I saw a very nice RVF400 go past then come back and stop at the money machine. Turns out that was limbimtimwimsimfimdimrim, but I wasn't to know that until later. We decided to go get signed in and the scruntineering done before I go find some goo to fix the tyre with.
After signing up etc I went in search of goo. None at the servo, none at Repco or Super Cheap Auto (5 of the biggest retail chains in this hemisphere in that town and not a single cafe that does bacon and eggs at 7:00am?!?!?!) ended up at the Suzuki shop where one of the guys said he'd take a quick look for me. Found the leak and it's no bloody wonder the thing was going dead flat all the time. Only option was to put a mushroom plug in it. The dude worked quickly but didn't miss a step. He was very good. Thorough and careful, washing the tyre a number of times to make sure any detergent or grease was removed. Turns out he has to do that sort of thing quite regularly cos there's often bikes getting a flatty on track & test days. Still, took a wee while so by the time I got back I'd missed the rider briefing and the 1st group (the slow group) were just coming in, their session ended because somebody threw it away. So I went straight to the rear of the group that was lined up which, coincedentally, is the group I was meant to be in. Hurrah!!
The Medium group was, however, extremely large so they split it in half (aided by cancelling the 4 wheeler sessions as only 1 turned up) and I went out with the 2nd half.
My first session out there was a bit of a shock. I couldn't believe how bad the surface was. Turns out there was truck racing there a couple of weeks earlier and they had ripped the arse out of the track surface as per usual. That, plus the fact I had had the tyre patched less than 15 minutes beforehand meant I was wobbling around Manfield freaking out for almost 15 minutes. Got back to the pits, kicked the tyre and it was still full of air so that was a relief, then went and sat in the stand to watch the Fast group. They were bloody quick. They were also bloody loose. They yellow flagged the entire track at one point because their were 3 people who'd had incidents. One person had just missed his braking point and pissed off into the kitty litter before lying down, but the other 2 were a touch more painful with 2 low sides. The recovery vehicle had to go and pick them up so the session pretty much ended under yellow.
After the Race group, then the Slow groups 2nd session it was the Mediums again. This time I stopped in the pits and went out right at the back (a couple of others had the same idea too) but unlike the first session I actually enjoyed this one and started finding some decent lines and braking points. At the end of the session I was buzzing and the rear tyre that was starting to look very respectable. The front had a tiny chicken strip though. It was now lunch and time to harden the arteries. 1 hot dog and dodgy, soggy chips later I wandered around and met a few people and chatted for a while, including Oil Boiler and his mum Sue who I'd chatted to in the past but didn't know who she was. The wheelie session was on but it didn't interest me at the time cos I was too happy at how well the 2nd session went.