Jandals On Tour '07

[NhuanH]

...aka Tour of Duty

So the hardened amongst the Jandal Club, Nhuan and Gah(Ninjaboy) set off last Saturday March 10, bound for the other end of the country. Soft arse Jandallers need not apply.

Day 1 Auckland to Wellington. 710kms
The day began with a giggle when picking up some final supplies from Motomail:
Motomail dude:"nice day for a ride, where you off to?"
N: "Bluff"

Generally incident free day, with low ambitions and expectations. We took the western line of Te Kuiti, Taumaranui, National Park hitting SH1 at Waiouru, then SH54 from Vinegar Hill through Feilding, P North, chopping across to Masterton to hit the Hutt via Rimutaka. Sounds easy eh?

Mild amusements from Day 1:
The Bruce Bar (TM) Pannier Separator MkII lasting a mere 2km, flying off the Ti Ninja just moments after leaving the Autobahn. It rests somewhere on the median strip just after the Drury off ramp...
N almost having a sissy cry at Te Kuiti lunch thinking his precious sunglasses were at home in Auckland. Thankfully, they were just "carefully packed" in the panniers.
The first of the fuel economy challenges on tour: Getting over 16L in a Tauramanui. 636's have a 17L tank.
G making friends by passing some old folks in a yank tank on a gravel strip just after Mangatainoka. This old codger (apologies to resident KB old codgers) yelled obscenties at me for ages. I just pointed at my ear saying "can't hear ya big fella".
Finally riding the Rimutakas. Albeit in sunstrike, with a bit of Saturday evening traffic, including having to cut up some Harleys :o
G's constant adjusting of his lopsided right pannier. A common feature of the tour, especially missing the benefits of the Bruce Bar.

The day ended with a mini tour of the Hutt to end up in Seaview at the holiday park. Which had Sky Sport 2 in the TV room. Well, after we found the elusive remote control to change the channel! By then, we had taken over with another GP fan visiting from Oz and had a blissful 4 hours of MotoGP, even on tour at budget accom!

[Highlander]

Excellent.
More to come I assume.

squeasing 16+ litres in a 17Litre tank must have had you wondering how much further you might have gone before pushing!

[u4ea]

hehe sounds like fun soo far!!!!bad luck with the pannier....and still so far to go!

[NhuanH]

A super early start at 6:45, after watching the GP until 2am, to get to the 8:30 ferry sailing.
Well, an earlier start than that, with G rummaging around at 5am, looking for his bike key! Again, carefully packed within the black hole of the duvet.

At the ferry, the 2 ninjas were the only sportsbikes. Only sportsbike riders stupid enough? Perhaps. The Goldwing trike sure looked more comfy. There was talk of some custom packaway coffee cup holder too.

The bike tying down had 2 very different approaches:
G: 4 ties, ratcheted down, forks loaded etc.
N: found a spare rope hanging up, looped that round the back wheel. Plus wheel chocks.
But the sailing was super smooth. Except for the entertaining West Coaster going home to Fox Glacier. His foul language makes me sound like a choir boy! Had to show the ferry patrons the meaning of WHYQ when disembarking at Picton.

Rode Queen Charlotte Dr towards Nelson. A good twisty road, made more challenging by a bit of works at the Picton end. Upon stopping at the first lookout, we spotted a lone jandal! A sign, surely...

Brilliant twisty roads uphill and downhill into Nelson, under a nice sun. The beginning of a blissful week?

G managed to direct us to the only traffic jam possible in Nelson, on a Sunday. Again, a bit of WHYQ practiced technique saw us through.

After checking in, we had the most brilliant ride over Takaka Hill. But on the return ride, from about Motueka, the early start took it's toll and energy levels were fading.

[paturoa]

type faster please

[NhuanH]

Great ride from the Motueka side, a long ascent with beautiful switchbacks, all corners in perfect state.
Then the other side (Golden Bay), the road engineers seemed to have lost inspiration/funding etc. A couple of steep drops and that's about it. Well, that's this Aucklander's experience anyhoos :innocent:

[2_SL0]

Grrrrrr, this Jandal had to cover for his boss who decided to get married over these two weeks. :angry:.

However as I do have an aversion to snow, hail and high winds, Im not sure I missed that much.

[NhuanH]

Sunny Nelson was raining on Monday. I began to curse all you bastards that have toured these fine South Island roads and used up our fine weather allocation :nono:

The itinerary was re-shuffled, moving the West Coast run until later in the week.
"wait for this weather to pass".
So we were going to speculate anyways (being optimists), first at Murchison and then Greymouth.
It was a wettish run into Murchison, through the Kahurangi National Park. Another great series of nicely formed sweepers, where we encountered another set of sportsbike fools on tour: 2x R1 and a ZX10R 2-up. We also came across a sobering car smash in Kahurangi, rescue chopper and fire appliances in attendance.

Again, G's great instinct had us stop at a wasp infested rest area. This is where he picked up a hitch hiker wasp, who would reveal its sting right at the end of the day on Banks Peninsula!

From Murchison we entered the Buller Gorge, in damp conditions, but still clinging onto faint hope that the West Coast could still be do-able. G's radar helped him, but prepped an HP to be ready with his pointy finger at me in the gorge.

After lunch at Greymouth, there was a final optimistic set of hand gestures approaching Kumara Junction as to Arthurs Pass or the coast. The pragmatist inside won the debate and concluded that we had enjoyed enough luck and that Canterbury was beckoning.

Arthurs Pass was a moist run, surprising this newb at the actual Arthur's Pass village, remarking "is this it?", not realising that the fantastic climbs and Viaduct of the Otira Gorge were the money shots. G did, and stopped at the Viaduct Lookout, taking the time to join together a tourist car that wouldnt start and a tourist car with jumper leads, but who both did not know how to use the leads! We thought building up karma would pay off.

The contrast on the eastern side of the pass is stark. Wet, lush, green forest is replaced with brown dry tussock, hills and lakes. And fast flat straights leading into ChCh. Still, amazing scenery and riding. Oh yeah, dry skies too.

Checked into my ChCh office for a chat with the local yokels, prompting one to suggest, would we ride back up to Akl? She thought we might fly back up after we got to the bottom! Hmmm...

A more sensible ChCh office local pointed us towards the Summit Rd past Sugarloaf to get to Akaroa. Some challenging descents for me leaving ChCh amongst "rush hour traffic". Then some super fast runs along Banks Peninsula until the pointy Akaroa end. Loved the Akaroa GP! You Cantabs are very blessed.

Rolling into Le Rues of Le Akaroa le late, meant that we wanted to stop at the pub for food and accom. Got a cool upstairs flat on property adjacent to the pub, all for $75. Very cool. Separate rooms! Wow. And opposite the police station. That didn't keep the local rastas jammin their reggae mon though, even all through Monday night!

[Macktheknife]

You lucky buggers!
The jandal gods must be smiling on you, sounds like a great trip guys, more photo's when you can.
Ride safe and tax-free.

[NhuanH]

The first of the hard ride days.

The superb Akaroa GP had transformed into the slippy slidey coldey twisty run thanks to a constant rain. Then a nice cross wind across the flats of Banks Peninsula made riding quite funky. I basically had the bike on a permanent left counter steer. To lean right, I just left the bars alone.

After rejoining SH1 at Burnham, we continued south in constant pelting conditions and were stopped just north of Ashburton. Some more WHYQing past the cars got us to another sobering scene. The fire appliances trying to put out a crumpled car. Wheels and other bits were on the other side of the road, same as the truck that said car had collided with. RIP fellow motorist.
After being advised to turn around and work around the block to get to Ashburton, I discovered that wet hands into glubs is quite a challenge. As bad as electing to ride the 10kms into Ashburton sans glubs at highway speeds though. Brrr.

A defrost sess at an Ashburton gasser was followed by G's shopping spree (first of a few on tour) at Ashburton Honda. Getting another thermal riding top (first of a few on tour). We also spotted Brendan's 2 RC45s at Ashburton Honda. Verra cool.

Leaving Ashburton we tacked (prolly the right expression, given the wind!) inland from Geraldine to Tekapo. The first of a miserable set of rides in constant wet and wind that would reduce both sets of digits (fingers and toes) to frozen state. Couldn't even see the lake approaching Tekapo.
Another defrost sess at Tekapo, and I rung out a decent amount of rain from my socks! Another thermal top for G (just ask him about Merino next time you see him!). I got silk liner gloves (blardy work well - better than old fashioned wet skin into riding gloves) and Icebreaker Merino socks (brilliant!).

Then the skies dried up for a lightning fast run into Omarama. An XR8 started emerging in our mirrors worringly on this run, so we let him past and ended up using him as cop bait into Omarama. I noted the "funny blue" of some of the next lakes/salmon farms/bits of watery things.

Of course leaving Omarama for Wanaka took in the Lindis Pass. The only pass on tour done in the dry. Beautiful curved roads, where sweepers would continue but never surprise you in change of direction. Noice.

Another pointy HP finger on the way into Wanaka, but I had just exited a curve, so how fast could I have been going orificer??

Lake Wanaka was a bit misty, but the sky looked promising for the next day...

[doc]

[QUOTE=NhuanH;979584]...aka Tour of Duty
bound for the other end of the country. Soft arse Jandallers need not apply.
Motomail dude:"nice day for a ride, where you off to?"
N: "Bluff"

Sorry guys got a photo before you got there (too big to upload ). I thought it was difficult enough riding a naked MV, but riding those things, I think you have a more uncomfortable journey, but worth it when you come across those awesome Sth Island twisties. Heres is a pic of the highest public road in NZ (Tarsealed anyway) my favourite. Everyone else will tell you of the roads to take. Listen to the locals. If you can understand them when you get further south.

[NhuanH]

...shows how dumb arse we are about weather!

The defining day of the Tour of Duty.

G: "I know the shortcut to Q-Town over the Crown Range Rd bro"
N: "Now wait a goddam minute, it's March...this can't be snow...oh feck, it is"

Lessons of southern touring, day 5: exhaust pipe/engine covers for reheat hands, shopping bags in the boots.

After passing up a photo op at the Cardona pub because of the bitter cold, we continued up to the top of the Crown Range Rd, where the above quote was uttered in my helmet. The descent was kinda funky, cars were even passing WHYQ.
G: "so why not WHYQ still?"
N: "'cos I'm thinking more about, WHY DIE?"

Another de-thaw in Q-Town, watching weather ('cos we is experts eh bro - not!) and G had to do some more shopping. Don't worry:
1. The panniers were expandable
2. He was wearing everything he bought!

Another punishing run south of Q-Town towards Lumsden seemed to take forever, especially along Lake Wakatipu, where a decent breeze was blowing, and where the southbound side of SH6 had a chunky stoney build up in the centre, leaving only the edges of the road preferrable to ride on. The rain continued, but you probably have worked that one out by now. My tyres seemed slippy, but more on that later...

We finally arrived in Lumsden, the soup was top seller for lunch at the local tearooms. Most locals just stared at these mad bassa AZNs who came in carrying half of the island's rain on them. The straight run from Lumsden into Inver-vegas didn't encourage high speed as the cold had again taken over our digits. That and the hail that peppered us as we approached Winton. The road was literally covered in hailstones. And the bastards hurt on the way down too!

Straight through Inver onto the Bluff and we felt the first glimpses of those southern winds. But it dried up thankfully, for good photo ops at Stirling Point.

So we got to the bottom of the country (apologies Stewart Islanders) partway through Day 5, a mental step completed. But legging it to Te Anau would mean not being able to visit Tim Shadbolt, or Burt's bike in Invervegas.

N: "hey bro, let's try this rugged southern coast along SH99 to Te Anau eh?"

- what a dumbass!

This amateur sailor estimates ~30 to 40knot winds coming off the southern coast, pushing my slippy slidey bike towards the other side of the road, for 90kms in the westerly direction until we were able to head north towards Manapouri/Te Anau through Tuatapere. Again, it dried up a bit on this tack and so we picked up a bit of speed. Until G hauled me over at Manapouri. That slippy slidey rear tyre was running at about ~10psi. Those who know me, know that this is not the most unusual status for my tyres :o A solid inflation to 40+psi and a "let's check it in the morning" statement took us into Te Anau for the night.

[Leong]

...aka Tour of Duty
......Soft arse Jandallers need not apply.



After hearing about your "adventure" tonight I'm glad I stayed home!!!! Much more to come folks!! :corn:

[NhuanH]

So leaving the tyre overnight left a very softy tyre to wheel around the gravel lot of the holiday park and then into Te Anau town to the gasser for some air to try the dog turd plug. G first successful plug done.
Both: "I've SEEN it been done before"

The plug was probably 97% good, just a *tiny* bit of air coming out.

The tyre conundrum left some possibilities from Te Anau:
Dunedin for a replacement tyre (204kms)
Invercargill for replacement tyre (160kms).
Continue and ride on to Milford Sound and beyond up west coast, checking tyre at every stop and inflating as necessary.

Thanks for answering the distress call Aklers. Even if I gave you the run around with the Dunedin thing Ablin. Obviously the Return to Inver-vegas won out. Milford Sound was abandoned. Next time, fellow Jandallers, next time. Although I reckon from Te Anau, first time jandal tourists should take SH99 to Bluff, while the already proven hard men get to do the Milford Sound.

After a few phone calls to several shops, Nathan at MotoSouth had Pirellis and could fit them.

We were not going to be returning via SH99, instead from Te Anau through to Lumsden and then back down the straight SH6. Persistent cold southern rain remained our riding companions. A very fast leg, despite the cold and the tyre losing pressure - well, had to get there before it deflated eh?

Nathan was top man, even returning from his lunch early to fit my tyres when we hit Inver, at most reasonable prices too. He pointed out that my chain and sprockets were close to end of life also (my 2005 has 36000kms), but I elected to limp it home to Auckers living with some chain slap, as Nathan suggested that it was a place in Cromwell had the bits!

During my tyre fitting G heard heavy rain on the workshop tin roof, so had to rush out for some more ride gear shopping.

New tyres fitted at the pit stop, we returned to Wanaka up SH6 (again!). The skies started to dry up as we approached Lumsden from the south, making for a very fast run past Q-Town and back up the Crown Range Rd, sans snow this time (see pic). Much better.

A quick photo op at Cardona pub this time, not needing to heat hands off exhausts. Disappointed that at 5pm, we weren't able to enjoy a Speights at the Cardrona.
"it's a hard road finding the perfect pub son..."
- well, finding the legendary one open!

A dry and enjoyable ride for the next sweeping 40kms into Wanaka again. Where we had to settle for the Wanaka Speights Ale House. I ate until I nearly burst. Again, not unusual.
Had a young kid on packing duty at the New World all excited seeing our helmuts and asking if we "rode superbikes". Quite cool.

[oldrider]

Pity you didn't have the actual dates of your rides rather than your postings as we probably passed you at some stage of your rides. (Going the other way of course)

Mrs O/R and self are enjoying your travels through our neck of the woods. :yes:

Try not to think about your cold hands and the pain will pass quietly. :innocent:

At least at this time of year the snow doesn't hang about for long.

Enjoy the rest of your ride. Cheers John.

[SlowHand]

Thanks for answering the distress call Aklers. Even if I gave you the run around with the Dunedin thing Ablin. Obviously the Return to Inver-vegas won out.

Ablin, you sunofa!! Maybe if it was dublin. Its Albin! Next time i come over, you best have a chastidy belt on your rear tyre. Cause I'm bringing industrial strength pirelli pokers!!

[NhuanH]

Wanaka to Hamner Springs, via Greymouth

The best day of riding for me.

Leaving the dry brown plains of Wanaka and heading towards Haast, I was just taken by the lushness of the greenery and not even slightly damp ground could deter from the quality of the ride. Maybe the new tyres helped my experience too?

A photo op at the Gates of Haast, and a quick piss stop at the Haast village and we whipped onto the Salmon farm through some more brilliant hilly twisties. Fresh smoked salmon bagel, yum. This is where we noticed that Bruce Bar MkI had come off the red ninja. Bruce didn't mind, he said he'd have to return to the West Coast, for research... :innocent:

At the salmon farm, we were on ~200kms on the trip meter. 60kms to Fox Glacier, the next gasser.
"I hope the fuel light comes on ~220kms".
On 636, fuel light = ~4L left, about 60kms if nursing it on fuel economy challenge mode.
So the fuel light comes on at 202kms!
The remaining 60kms were not lightning fast, but we got to Fox Glacier!
Ti ninja took 16.5L, Red ninja, 16.67. $30 exactly at the exhorbitant $1.80/L, but hey, what do ya do?

Theeeen....a quick ride up the remainder of SH6, a magic twisty section between Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers, then past a gorgeous reflective Lake Ianthe.
Then some straights leading up to Hokitika, all going good until I saw some disco lights in my mirrors.
Me = dumbass. Knew about the West Coast and the level of HP. Duh.

HP: "Got any reason you're going so fast?"
N: "Err, not gonna pad you with a lie: nup"

N: "How long you been chasing us?"
HP: "About 3kms"
HP: "Oh here comes my HP buddy. And the General Duties I got mobilised, in case there was a pursuit"
That must have been quite a cause of excitement in Hokitika for a Friday!

HP: "So what does WHYQ mean?"
N: "umm, why queue if you don't have to?"
HP: "oh, very clever"

It was quite a cordial dialogue with Monsieur Po-Po. He told me he'd come down from Nelson because of the Wild Food Fest and that he "had ridden big bikes for years".

Anyway, obviously I was allowed to keep on riding. That made a very ginger and sobering ride into Greymouth to gas up though, for Hamner. The Fox Glacier fuel economy run was rapid compared to that.

From Greymouth, we had a wet run into Lewis Pass via Reefton and Springs Junction. Less sweepers, more constant curves, uphill and then down. Until the plains side, where the curves and the hills got bigger. Noice.

Rolling into Hamner Springs at 6:15pm after leaving Wanaka at 9:30am meant that we deserved a nice pre-planned soak in the hot springs. Noooice.

[R6_kid]

sounds like you left it a bit late in 'summer' for a nice long ride mate... your friend is looking a bit cold in that last pic!

[NhuanH]

Day 8 was always going to be easy, HP incident or not.

We allowed 6 hours to cover 300kms. Took a very cool twisty route on SH70 from Hamner to Kaikoura, saved legging it on SH1.

Fush and chups at Kaikoura, of course. Oh that hot :sunny: First time in days.

As we were filling up in Kaikoura, re-assessing that even our fuel economy challenge selves could not make it to the ferry on 1 tank from Hamner, a ChCh dood said that there were strong winds up the Kaikoura coast.

SH1 actually has some nice sweeping bits just north of Kaikoura, then there was a section of strong winds leading into Blenheim. But, ah ha! I've been training on SH99 off the southern coast! And I got tyres holding pressure. Bring it on! Too easy. Aside from the wind, there were nice hilly sections leading into Blenheim as well.

Arrived into a very windy Picton about 90mins ahead of schedule, thinking I may need to put more thought into tying bike down this time. Picton is also very quiet on a Saturday afternoon. Although, I could advise the pub owner cranking out Country's Least Known Hits of the 50's what his problem was...

Lining up for the ferry there were only the 2 ninjas. Quite odd. Slightly more effort for N tying bike down this time. Well used 4 ropes that I found on the boat.
A slightly swaying sailing got us into Wgtn and the bikes remained upright. Another brilliant WHYQ manouveure got us off the boat first again, riding up to Plimmerton in the dark, rain, with tinted visors. Again, WHYQ was reduced to WHY DIE.

[NhuanH]

"Gonna need rain gear for the ride home"

All outta energy and adventure, we thought we'd straight line it up SH1 back home. Completely crapper and windy all the way to just north of Matamata!
Seriously, there have been moments on tour when I've remarked in my rain sodden helmut:
"this is fookin ridiculous!"

Again strong winds up to at least Taupo, visibility of about that guy's tail lights, until we pass him. But..I have been trained in Southland! So there.

But....until I got home I did not realise that we must have just gotten through before the Lahar blocking of SH1 and National Park. Oh, that's why those disco lights weren't for us today.... :D

Now, being self centred and offline for a week, we thought that this crapola weather was following us around the S Island. Unbeknownst to us, most of the country was suffering. I saw that we just missed flooding on the West Coast and even Christchurch.

We was unlucky, but also a bit lucky too, missing complete flooding. There was a comment, "what would it take to turn around or stop?"
N: "prolly a twister picking up a bike and putting it in a nearby, or faraway paddock".
- saying that and REALLY wishing it didn't come true! And given this week, it would not have even surprised me. Woulda been summin like:
"oh front wheel is light, damn, so's the back wheeeel...." :blink:

So, in summary:
* 9 days
* 4648kms
* About a million litres of rain (on each rider!)
* Hail
* Snow
* Lightning/Thunder
* Gale force winds
* Lotsa laughs
* Self discovery: "man, I MUST be stupid to be out here!"
* 0 bins, even in the face of the evil laughing Jandal god!
There are faaaantastic riding roads on that other island, just a shame it takes a bitty organising to get down there from Auckers.
I loved it all, even with the challenging conditions and run in with the constabulary - all part of the experience. I think "character building" is the euphemism.
- At least I won't forget Jandal Tour 07!

Thanks to:
* Bruce, creator of the Bruce Bar and allowing us to "test" the prototypes. Some further work to be done methinks.
* Bruce again, for the NZ Motorcycle Atlas, by Peter Mitchell. Well travelled and used now. Poor packing, even with it's plastic sleeve means it needs a bit of drying out now...ready for next year! And the lend of the panniers.
* Nathan at MotoSouth, Invercargill. Top people down south there.
* 4 Square, for their plastic bags! In this age of flash ass technology, the good old plastic bag still kicks a whole lotta ass.
* Gah, the sensible, organised traveller.

Of course, this is only the N account. G has full right to spin his own lies...

[oldrider]

Enjoyed reading about your trip but you can stuff your jandal god, I think it is jinxed, leave it behind when you come back next!

Thanks to the great biker god you have taken all the bad weather back up there with you, it's beautiful weather down here now. :sunny: Cheers John.

[Keystone19]

So were heated grips one of Gah's shopping purchases?

[Freakshow]

Sounds like a great trip! I am definatly going to have to try something like that!!

[NinjaBoy]

I thought it was difficult enough riding a naked MV, but riding those things, I think you have a more uncomfortable journey, but worth it when you come across those awesome Sth Island twisties.

Actually the 636's were not too bad at all !! We were averaging 5-700kms/day and didn't have any sore arms/legs/knees or backs.



Pity you didn't have the actual dates of your rides rather than your postings as we probably passed you at some stage of your rides. (Going the other way of course)



Summary of the itinenary:
Sat 10 March: Akl - Wgtn
Sun 11 March: Wgtn - Nelson and Takaka Hill
Mon 12 March: Nelson - Akaroa via Buller Gorge, Greymouth and Arthur's pass
Tue 13 March: Akaroa - Wanaka via Lake Tekapo and Lindas Pass
Wed 14 March: Wanaka - Te Anau via a snowy Crown range road, Bluff and Riverton
Thu 15 March: Te Anau - Wanaka via Invercargill for new tyres
Fri 16 March: Wanaka - Hamner Springs via Haast, Greymouth and Lewis pass
Sat 17 March: Hamner - Picton via Kaikoura
Sun 18 March: Wgtn - Akl - straight up pass the Lahar


So were heated grips one of Gah's shopping purchases?


No but seriously considered them on the road to Lumsden

[NhuanH]

I'm trying to get a more extended set of photos on flickr.com. Bit of a work in production at the mo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32843609@N00/sets/72157600007549249/


Pity you didn't have the actual dates of your rides rather than your postings as we probably passed you at some stage of your rides. (Going the other way of course)

Mrs O/R and self are enjoying your travels through our neck of the woods. :yes:

Try not to think about your cold hands and the pain will pass quietly. :innocent:

At least at this time of year the snow doesn't hang about for long.

Enjoy the rest of your ride. Cheers John.
We were the frozen monkeys with heads down trying to avoid the elements.


Ablin, you sunofa!! Maybe if it was dublin. Its Albin!
Shuddup, you're AZN. I'm sure YOU can't even spell your name correctly half the time.


Enjoyed reading about your trip but you can stuff your jandal god, I think it is jinxed, leave it behind when you come back next!

Thanks to the great biker god you have taken all the bad weather back up there with you, it's beautiful weather down here now. :sunny: Cheers John.
Do not upset the Jandal.
Don't believe you about your southern weather. My latte's are much nicer outside at an Auckland cafe under a beaming :sunny: - is that sweat I see before me?


So were heated grips one of Gah's shopping purchases?
Damn, come up with the good ideas now?! AND Motosouth were Kawasaki dealers!
But nothing short of a ninja mounted sunbed coulda helped us methinks.

[doc]

Excellent write up Guy's bit unfortunate about the weather. A couple of years ago me and a mate did a similiar journey to the Monkey, during one of those weather bomb patterns. The whole trip we were getting txt's from people, they nicknamed us Dumb and Dumber. We couldn't believe it as we never had our wet gear on once it was cold but we had dry roads the whole trip. So have you booked the ferry for the Brass ? only a few weeks away now.

[FEINT]

Sounds like you all had a wonderful and long ride down south. Looks like my old 636 has done quite a few km's and the whole of NZ!!

Keep up the good work Gah & Nhuanh!

[Badcat]

bwahahahahaha!
GO the jandal

nice work grasshopper...


roll on October 12....!

k

[oldrider]

Thought you might like to know, we went to a big inter-school rugby and netball competition in Alexandra today to watch our grand-kids playing in it.

Parking was at a premium even for motorbikes and all we could find was a park on "soft sand"!

Search everywhere for something to put under the side-stand!

Searched and searched and searched, finally found a lone abandoned object, "a Jandal", we folded it half and it worked perfectly!!!

Yes, you guessed right, the Jandal God was watching over us, there is a Jandal God after all! (genuflects humbly)

You guys sprang to mind immediately so we muttered a few nasal nuances in honour of the Jandal God and presto, the fog cleared and the sun shone and it was suddenly, a great day.

We celebrated with a couple of Jimmy's hot pies and a cup of coffee and the kids teams did well to boot.

Genuflects quietly and shuffles humbly away muttering Waiata to the Jandal god himself. :shutup: John.

[Storm]

Awesome write up N, well done to the jandal crew on a massive ride :D:D

[NhuanH]

Thought you might like to know, we went to a big inter-school rugby and netball competition in Alexandra today to watch our grand-kids playing in it.

Parking was at a premium even for motorbikes and all we could find was a park on "soft sand"!

Search everywhere for something to put under the side-stand!

Searched and searched and searched, finally found a lone abandoned object, "a Jandal", we folded it half and it worked perfectly!!!

Yes, you guessed right, the Jandal God was watching over us, there is a Jandal God after all! (genuflects humbly)

You guys sprang to mind immediately so we muttered a few nasal nuances in honour of the Jandal God and presto, the fog cleared and the sun shone and it was suddenly, a great day.

We celebrated with a couple of Jimmy's hot pies and a cup of coffee and the kids teams did well to boot.

Genuflects quietly and shuffles humbly away muttering Waiata to the Jandal god himself. :shutup: John.
The Jandal works in mysterious ways. You shall be remembered when the Great Cleansing Slappage streaks its way through this mortal world.

- by the way, most excellent post, used "Jandal" more than I have ever managed to!

[screaminRR]

Hey there. Awesome write up on your guys trip. Sounds like the way to spend a couple of weeks. Love to take that trip some stage.
Pitty you guys got hammered by the weather so bad. Any other trips that you guys have done recently?

Cheers