Takaka Hill!!

[phoenixgtr]

Yesterday I rode the fabled Takaka hill for the first time. Oh yeah!!

Sorry, I'm just still grinning.

Had an awesome ride, just a bit wet and the fog at the top was a bit surreal, but I loved it. It's been a road I've wanted to ride for a while.

In all I rode from Blenheim to Nelson to Takaka to Nelson and back to Blenheim in 2 days. It was gooood.

The Port Nelson street races were great

[saul]

Yesterday I rode the fabled Takaka hill for the first time. Oh yeah!!

Sorry, I'm just still grinning.

Had an awesome ride, just a bit wet and the fog at the top was a bit surreal, but I loved it. It's been a road I've wanted to ride for a while.

In all I rode from Blenheim to Nelson to Takaka to Nelson and back to Blenheim in 2 days. It was gooood.

The Port Nelson street races were great

Yep rock on:scooter: :yes: :Punk:

[NordieBoy]

It is a fun road :)
Specially if you get there via Queen Charlotte, Rai and Whangamoas and possibly the Moutere.

[Str8 Jacket]

Im sick of hearing about this hill! Bloody Glenn just got back from down there and he and his mate recorded a few of their rides over it. Looks like an awesome peice of road. Cant wait to ride it for myself!

[davereid]

just got back from Takaka myself... got a bag full of fresh seafood too... ymmmmm

[MrMelon]

Yep that hill never disappoints! Got a video of us riding both ways over it the other day. It's a bit shakey though cos my hacked together camera mount wasn't quite up to scratch. Gotta compress it down and post some of it up since it's about 800 meg for 20 mins each way of riding at the moment. There was even a hippie house bus on the video that had rolled coming down the motueka side. Heh heh.

[onearmedbandit]

Been over that hill almost every year of my life, my family have a holiday home in Golden Bay, but ashamedly I'd never ridden it until last year. So over we went, in the pouring rain with low level cloud and visibilty of about 2 metres! Add in the healthy dose of leaves all over the road and the streams of water in most corners it made for an interesting ride. Can't wait to attack it in the dry.

First two pics are of just over the Hill on the bay side. Last pic is of looking out from our property. On the way up to Nelson it was mint (was in summer), the next day through until home again two days later was like this.

[oldrider]

Used to drive and/or ride over that hill almost every month, never ever got tired of it. :niceone:
Had to visit Cobb power station and that's an interesting little road too! :yes: Cheers John.

[Sparky Bills]

Yip!
A mate an i stayed in Golden Bay for New Years, and was at the Races.

There was even a thought about unloading the racebikes off the trailer to ride up and down the hill, but thought twice after we saw a few cops:angry:

Ill be heading down again before the end of summer with the road bike for sure!!:rockon:

[NordieBoy]

Lived in Golden Bay untill I was 13 and go back "home" each year to Old Thumpers :D

[Blairos]

Cant wait to do that road when 3 or 4 of us are down that way in mid-February (trip starts on 17th Feb thru to 3rd march)

I used to head over that hill in the Newmans bus every weekend when I was at Nelson College as a boarder - relly's lived at Clifton - so cant wait to do it on the bike! :ride:

[Wasp]

and you told me that all the roads around there were boring ;)

see you soon mate

[jumma]

Yeah, it's a good one. Unfortunately for me I had a bloody sore shoulder when we negotiated it. Can't wait to get over there again!

[MyGSXF]

I used to live in Riwaka back in 91-92.. so naturally.. :rolleyes: when I got my first bike back then.. an 82 gsx250.. I used the hill for.. 'training purposes'... :shutup:


A mate had an xs850.. he used to do the Ratrap to the Riwaka in 18 minutes.. he did it in 22 with me on the back :Punk:

[phoenixgtr]

and you told me that all the roads around there were boring ;)

see you soon mate

Well its a fair distance from Blenheim and you gotta travel a fair distance from Blen to find a road that isn't straight.

The hill is like the rimutakas but better and longer. You'll have to do a tour down here sometime. Not long now till both of us can get our fulls.

Later

[phoenixgtr]

Yip!
A mate an i stayed in Golden Bay for New Years, and was at the Races.

There was even a thought about unloading the racebikes off the trailer to ride up and down the hill, but thought twice after we saw a few cops:angry:

Ill be heading down again before the end of summer with the road bike for sure!!:rockon:

Yeah, I saw you at the races but didn't get a chance to say hi.

You did well and the race bike looks awesome

[phoenixgtr]

So over we went, in the pouring rain with low level cloud and visibilty of about 2 metres! Add in the healthy dose of leaves all over the road and the streams of water in most corners it made for an interesting ride. Can't wait to attack it in the dry.



It wasn't quite raining when I went over, but the mist at the top was pretty cool. The road was a bit wet though and there were a few of those streams of water to spice things up.

I could imagine how fun it would be in the dry

[Sparky Bills]

Yeah, I saw you at the races but didn't get a chance to say hi.

You did well and the race bike looks awesome


Im pretty sure i saw you on the last corner coming onto the start/finish.

Geez, my back end was soo loose coming into there! Was great fun!

[phoenixgtr]

Im pretty sure i saw you on the last corner coming onto the start/finish.

Geez, my back end was soo loose coming into there! Was great fun!

Yep. That was me. That was an awesome corner with a great view.

That crash of the Aprilia and the KTM in the second BEARS race happened right in front of us

[ajturbo]

there was this one, at the riwaka, we had been invited to the "poor man's brass monkey" this was held at the top of the takaka hill, in the middle of winter.
a couple of us decided that going up the hill on the road bikes was not a safe idea in the middle of winter...so we hatched the plan to

ride the buckets from the pub to the rally site.....

well it sounded like a good idea over a few beers, so we trucket the bikes to the pub, while we were there we poped in to have a quick one before hitting the hill... we for got that there was a test on at the same time, so we stayed... for a couple of more... and by the time it was over it was getting Very late... i was using an untried tc90 that i had brought the day before... no lights and i found out that the oil pump didn't work... i sized it 3 times going up the hill, the first time it was just as i went around a left hander.. found myslef sliding UP HILL on my butt... thinking "wow.. that was fun"... worked out the problem and just tipped some oil into the tank shook it all about .. problem solved!!!
fell off a few more times... the ice was everywhere.. it was cold, so cold that it was -10 in the trees!!!! and my mate's wife gave birth to thier first son... he wasn't popular... hahahah ( he couldn't get down the hill, it was tooo dangerous)

[slimjim]

yes bloody awesome up and down, my aunty lives in lower takaka as do most of my mum's sister's, and just love the road's thats in and around that area, yup almost as good as the corl loop ride, not as many boy's in blue ,so speeds are higher yea

[Wasp]

im in for that ;)

[vmx1200nz]

i used to live there, and have been over it many times on lots of bikes. :rockon: the z440 was the scaryest, the PE250 the most unstoppable, the zx10 the wildest. Much better when dry and gravel free.:whocares:

[jafar]

picton to blenheim then highway 6 to nelson , highway 60 over takaka hill to collingwood & back to havelock for a feed , then back to picton via the queen charlotte drive in the rain!
great way to spend the day i must say. met a few other bikers on the way.

[xknuts]

I can't wait to do Takaka Hill on my bike. It shall be done! I have a dream! And a reason to go, Best friend in Ligar Bay, and lil sis in Collingwood.