Karapoti and over the Pram Track to Maungakotukutuku

[merv]

Today (Str8 Jacket's birthday) I left the road bike at home and went for a ride on the WR with three other dirt bikers. You'll remember them as some of those that did the Wairarapa Coast trip a few weeks ago when I was on my XR250L. This time it was just a quick afternoon ride - meet at the Karapoti entrance to the GWRC trail bike riding area off of Akatarawa Road at 2.15pm then cruise on through to come out the other side at Maungakotukutuku and then ride home through Paekak - shame the Paekak Hill Rd is still closed, so home on Highway 1 it was.

Here's the photos - Merv (WR250F), Garry W (F650GS Dakar), Upshift (DRZ250) and Aslan (SL230).

You'll see at the start and finish a few other bikers who trailered or vanned their bikes to the riding area unlike us dual purpose dudes. That blue seat Yamaha is a 2 stroke WR250 not a YZ.

[merv]

Over the Pram track we went - sorry some of the photos in the trees are a bit fuzzy - not enough light for fast shutter speed and the boys ride fast of course.

[merv]

You can see the weather was perfect. I guess August was so wet in Wellington it makes me sound surprised.

[merv]

OK that's all of the pics, just a quick little ride today.

[PLUG]

Nice way to blow some cobwebs away.

[Madness]

It's a good ride in there alright. I had the misfortune of doing it on a borrowed shitter once with bald tyres. The clay & ruts made for an interesting,if not painful days riding. I'll stick to the black stuff, grip works for me.

It was an awesome day, roll on summer!
:yes:

[oldrider]

Familiar with the Akatarawa road but have no idea where the roads you were on in the post are but it looks an interesting ride that you had today.

I am a bit out of date though I spose, last time through there was in the fifties on a BSA B33 500cc single, so I guess things have changed a bit! lol

Good pics and posts, thanks for sharing. Cheers John.

[merv]

If you know Akatarawa Road and you know the Raumati straight between Paekak and Paraparaumu we basically rode through the hills between them. I haven't figured out how to convert my GPS maps to jpg yet so the easiest way is screen shots so here's:

1. The loop I did - at that scale you can't see the minor roads.

2. Showing where Karapoti Road branches off of Akatarawa Rd.

3. Showing where the track comes out on Maungakotukutuku Rd, then you ride over the hill and out to the main highway on the Raumati Straight via Waterfall Rd.

[far queue]

Looks like a good ride was had. Thanks for sharing.

[merv]

Yes it is quite a good ride through there and I don't think I'd been through since the 2001 Capital Coast. Here's a pic at the Maungakotuk end then http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=23873&d=1137101968

It can get really greasy but today it wasn't bad at all. Back in the early 80's we went in there quite a bit - with a GWRC permit of course - and being hard out dirt bikers in those days we found it all a bit tame being basically gravel and clay roads so we were always looking to ride up side tracks for some gnarly stuff. I must be getting old now we just ride on straight through.

[Motu]

Good stuff Merv - how long is the track? Starting after 2.00pm and getting home in the afternoon it can't be very long.But good for an afternoon of fun anyway.

[truckit]

good stuff merv its good riding in there ...ya didnt want too venture down the devils staircase and up the rock garden:gob:

and tell me merv whats youre wr like on the road ?is it not reving too hard on the highway just interested ..and whats the gas milage like?

thanks merv good pics , thanks for the report

[Garry.W]

Enjoyed your company Merv (along with Neil and Stephen of course). Good pics, not a bad afternoon out to be sure - see you again soon mate :yes:

[merv]

I didn't check the distance through there but its probably only 20 - 30 kms in the permit area and the whole round trip yesterday was about 70kms. I didn't have time last night to check my GPS track of the ride other than post those pics. As I said I hadn't been in there for years because we had kind of flogged it to death in the 80's but now I have a permit again I probably should go in there a bit more, and explore the trickier bits.

My WR is still on the gearing supplied road equipped which is with the 14T front sprocket versus the 13T they supply for dirt riding. I leave it that way because at my age now I'm more into adventure riding than hard out trail anyway. Its almost low geared enough in first to make me happy in the real rough, but the beauty of that bike is its so light but tracks so straight and easy especially on gravel roads, so Motu you'd find this hard to believe probably, but its more fun in the rough than the old XR200's were. I think the Michelin tyres it came with help too.

Anyway on that gearing by my calcs the engine is spinning at 7,800rpm at 100km/hr so I'm happy to cruise it at that on the road (and more on closed roads under controlled conditions eh!) because it will rev to 13,500 and easily do over 160 so 100 isn't far up its rev range really. Don't talk about engine longevity though it is a race engine. That's why I bought the XR250L to do the longer road/dirt trips or failing that I'll borrow Mrs DR650SE.

Fuel use - don't know really as it has a really useless odo - the speedo is quite accurate by my GPS, the odo is crap - don't know why, but it will do around 140 - 160 to reserve which is getting close 20km/litre I guess. One day I will do a check using GPS distance. Mine is the 2004 which has the 11 litre gas tank, newer ones have gone smaller. When I first got it just before the Pukemanu ride in 2004 I did some checks then and thought hell it drinks gas and I might be in trouble on the ride and I didn't have the GPS then. In the end on the ride I managed the longest stint between gas stops without even going on reserve and I did better to a tank than my Bro's DR350 so I had no worries, it was just the crap odo that threw me in the first place.

[Motu]

Sounds like the WR is pretty close to the DT in performance Merv,although the DT is possibly capable of more road kms,and the WR being a newer generation would be lighter and much more nimble in the rough.I doubt I could ride an XR200 or even a modern bike as hard as I did when I was mearly in my 40's,ten years on something akin to self preservation has kicked in...but the fun part is still there.

[oldrider]

Ah I think I know now where you were, do you come out onto Hwy1 between McKay's Crossing and Raumati South?
I can't quite pick where you went off Akatarawa road, could be one of many places through there depending on the quality of track you were wanting.
That should be a good ride through there, I imagine there would have been a lot of transmission line roads driven through that area, so some of them will be kept in pretty good nick.
The bush tracks linking them up are probably a bit trickier, just to keep it "interesting".
I am getting too old for the challenging stuff now, just looking for interesting lesser used roads and going back to old places I have been to before.
Lots of the rough old gravel roads I used to know are tar sealed now but it's still nice quietly riding back around them now.
Last time up North we rode down from Dannevirke through to Masterton on most of the back roads and to our surprise it was nearly all sealed but it was a really nice ride.
It was just after some bad floods and that gave us a couple of tricky bits to negotiate but a beaut day and no wind, just magic. :sunny:
Thanks for your posts and pics. Cheers John.

[upshift]

Very enjoyable afternoon's outing and a superb day weather wise. I was quite suprised to see the buildup of berms in some of the corners as they were definetly not there last weekend. Seems there have been a lot of bikes blasting through there. Excellent photos thanks Merv, there is obviously an art in not only taking good photos but also in making the effort to take them, I aspire to both. Just a couple from me,
4211342114

[jrandom]

Ooh, I remember those tracks.

18 February this year. 50 kilometers. Devil's Staircase. Rock Garden. Arrrgh.

Endurance MTB racing? Just say no...

[Aslan]

Merv, Garry & Neil - great ride - thanks for posting thread and photos Merv, Neil and Garry (over on BMWOR).

Good fun - and I agree with Neil's comments about those berms. Some of the corners beyond Dopers Creek were quite challenging - moderalty large rocks. I was pleased to be riding the little SL230 when I had the front wheel wash out several times. I suspect had I been on the 1150GS I might have been over :-)

Garry really impressed me with the skill with which he punts that Dakar around since they are not a light machine. Cheers Aslan

[merv]

Thanks Upshift, I should have got photos of the water crossings myself so that one of yours is good to add to the collection. There's a story with that too.

Yeah good ride Aslan.

Seeing we weren't riding until the afternoon I fitted my WR with a new engine breather in the morning which I'd planned to do for weeks before any chance of going into Karapoti but never got around to it. The WR's of the vintage I have came with a crankcase breather tube that just run down the front frame tube and vented to open air in front of the engine. A bit dopey I thought catching water and dust there, my Hondas were never like that. On one of my trips to Melbourne a year or so back the dealer there was advertising "new improved crankcase breather mod" and this came after the 6 day enduro where so many bikes failed, though the Yamahas stood up better than most. I got back to NZ and asked Brendan had they had a service bulletin or anything here about changing them - "nope" he said. Then the latest models arrived this year and lo and behold they are all fitted with a breather tube that runs back over the top of the engine and then down to the airbox. So I order a tube off Brendan a few weeks ago because its such a bent work of art it would be no use trying to copy it with plain tubing, and then I drilled the front edge of my airbox, fit a hose connector and on goes the new pipe, all sweet and dandy taking the open end away from any deep water. So no worries with getting water in my oil.

Then bugger me though I rode my bike into that river crossing in Upshift's photo following him and not going fast and you can see it aint that deep and bugger me my engine dies and won't start again on the electric starter. I pulled the thing out of the water and a few more cranks and it went - now what I'm wondering is these new fancy four strokes have so many tubes hanging off the bottom of the carb did it die because one of them was strangled by the water? Would it have been OK if I'd blasted through instead of being gentle? What do all those tubes do anyway. I never had any trouble on the Capital Coast and thats the last time we did a lot of water crossings but I wasn't going so slow then either so who knows. What's sure though is my new crankcase breather was fine and dandy.

Motu you asked about distance and I gave a rough answer - just checked my GPS track and from Karapoti bridge to Maungakotukutuku carpark, the good bit, was 26.8km and including all the stops we made for photos etc it took us 1hr 37mins. Total trip for me was 87.3kms and 3hrs 14mins which included a lot of standing around talking, so that was quite a nice wee afternoon close to home on a lovely day, must go in there with more time and check out the rougher stuff some day.

Oldrider, checking my GPS track again Karapoti Road turnoff is 5.5km up Akatarawa Road and yes the point we came back on to SH1 is that place between McKay's Crossing and Raumati South - Waterfall Road, it comes out up and over the railway line.

Garry I just checked out BMWOR and it looks like bar the first photo you've only picked up the thumbnails and not the photos proper so did you intend that? If not you'll probably have to link them again if you want to show the BMW people properly what fun you had.

[Bandit Rider]

Ooh, I remember those tracks.

18 February this year. 50 kilometers. Devil's Staircase. Rock Garden. Arrrgh.

Endurance MTB racing? Just say no...

Definitely the best way - at least when it's over. Though, going back up the Rock Garden with an engine is still pretty physical.

It is a great ride, not really very hard on a m/c, my 10 yo on his DS80 was fine.

[jrandom]

Definitely the best way - at least when it's over.

'smy point. Better when it's over.

I tried it for a bit because of crazy people like you recommending it. I've stuck to road riding for the last wee while. So much more civilised.

[Garry.W]

Garry I just checked out BMWOR and it looks like bar the first photo you've only picked up the thumbnails and not the photos proper so did you intend that? If not you'll probably have to link them again if you want to show the BMW people properly what fun you had.

Merv, was all fine saving to C: drive but no matter what I tried (apart from first photo saved) the best resolution I could manage to photobucket was as a thumbnail. Never mind, fit for purpose on BMWOR website. Neil's pictures came out well too!!

[Garry.W]

Garry really impressed me with the skill with which he punts that Dakar around since they are not a light machine

Aw shucks, thanks :innocent:

[oldrider]

Oldrider, checking my GPS track again Karapoti Road turnoff is 5.5km up Akatarawa Road and yes the point we came back on to SH1 is that place between McKay's Crossing and Raumati South - Waterfall Road, it comes out up and over the railway line.

Yeah, I got you now, I know where you mean. I have never been across there but it looks like you had a good trip. Cheers and thanks, John.

[truckit]

mcgies bridge(spelling?) is a good one when the gate is open ,theres heaps of top box stuff in there and you dont have the stress of finding some clown belted around the corner crossed up on a quad taking you out!

we do night rides in there and its awesome....such great country and so local:banana: