In a time of less than 24 hours

[TerminalAddict]

Firstly some credits:

I'd like to thank the good dude, for having his hand on me every time my front tyre aqua planed, or my back tyre completely let go.
I'd like to thank Warr for convincing me the Grand Challenge is a good idea.
To Lee Rusty, and his crew for organising this absolutely insane ride.
Thanks to zapf for always smiling at the stops when everyone else looked so beaten.


So the route was amazing. I was a bit concerned about route planning, and getting lost, so lots of preperation had been done for the last few weeks ensuring I could find my way.
Upon arriving at Turangi I see the map from another room, and immediately recognise EVERY bit of it .... sweet !!!!!
I'm also reminded that these are the roads I crashed on a few months back ( in june .. see here (http://terminaladdict.com/Blog/532A7FBE-E7C3-4B96-89D9-BD3F5C1BCA2A.html) ), also in torrential rain, and howling winds ... great, what a memory

So off we head at 3:08. My first goal is to get to Auckland before sunset, and Dargaville by 9pm. This seems like a pretty achieveable goal.
The road is dry, and its daylight, so me and Warr start with a typical Warr and TA pace. Throttle cracked open, going hell for leather :)
The southern part of the Western Access road I haven't done in years, so its a minor concern, not too much to slow me down tho :D
Once I get past the turn off from kinlock I'm on "local" roads .. .sweet.
Old Taupo road was a breeze, and has been done plenty in the last few months.
Time check just out of Putaruru. CHECK
across to Putaruru, Tapapa, then on to Old Te Aroha rd ... and the plan to make it to Paeroa in a tank was quickly changed to a stop in Te Aroha for gas.
Warr and I were on our own at the gas station.
Off to Paeroa for check point one CHECK
Turns out our stop in Te Aroha was a blessing, as the check point was chocker block full of bikes waiting for gas, so we got our card punched, then off we go.
Up SH 2 was great!!!! Carving up everything in sight, even Warr commented later on my "commitment" to over taking things ..... naughty, naughty me, but boy it was fun.
On to SH 1 and the southern motorway.
Warr needs his license for work, so he disappeared out of my mirrors, but then re-appeared once I hit heavy traffic between Mount Wellington, and the city.
Then the rains starts ... grrr, no rain suit on yet
We make it to the service station on the north shore. We've only done 150 ish kms on this tank, but the heavens have opened, and we know we can't make it to Dargaville, so we may as well stop and get the wets on.
Back on the motorway, and I had rain on the inside of my visor, I should have kept my helmet closed at the gas station, oh well, slow going as vision is lacking.
turn towards Dargaville, and you guessed it ... WIND !!!!
I remember in June this being an issue, but I reassure myself that once through Dargaville, the wind should ease.
8:30pm check point 2 in Dargaville ... CHECK
Heading north from dargaville, the wind howls, and the rains pelts !
Then the biggest slide ever !!!!!
Some how after the back kicking WAY out, then suddenly grabbing, I find myself upright, and pointing in the right direction.
I catch a quick glimpse of 3 headlights behind me waving in all manner of directions, there is obviously something very slippery on that corner. I'm later told by zapf it was cow crap across the entire corner .. erk!
In to waipoua forest (spelling?) and the speed drops to a frustratingly slow 50 kph, but the road is so slippery its making me so nervous.
Warr however disappears in to the forest .. he must trust his tyres more than me. I follow a GS1200 through, and I think I am holding some one up behind me. I gave him plenty of opportunity to pass me, but he didn't, maybe he was "borrowing" my lights.
There is another major "whoops" moment going through the forest on a left. Something was right on the apex of a corner.
Out of the forest, and the BMW roars past me.
Fortunately I can increase the speed now, up to a sedate 100-110.
Myself, and the GS are catching someone. I'm soon to find out it is warr .. hmm wonder what happened to him.
So we stop for a 5 second "which way should we turn moment", then Warr takes the lead, I behind him, and the GS behind me.
Up to Kaitaia we head.
Arrive 11:37pm
Check point 2 ... CHECK
We stop for 20 minutes here. Smoke, Panadol, No-Doz, food and drink.

[TerminalAddict]

North to Awanui, then east on to SH 10 the 3 of us head. Myself, Warr, and newly found friend Luke, the GS1200 rider.
The road is dry here ... woohoo. I'm leading and set a sedate 120 speed.
I'm starting to feel the pain, and I guess the others are too, so I don't want to push it, if they want, they can over take, but they don't.
On to SH1 and head south.
The straights past marsden point are killing me !!!
Warr has taken the lead, and set a pace I can't keep. The winds from the west are just freaking me out, and my speed drops to about 90kph through here. Mr GS1200 isn't trying to over take so I guess he is suffering the same fate.
The Brynderwyns (spelling?) is Warr's home territory, so there is no sticking with him, but somehow before Wangarei I catch him.
We stop for a planned gas stop here, and watch zapf and his group go past.
Later we past them in wellsford when they were stopped for gas ... swings and round abouts

Turn west on SH 16
I thought the wind had been bad ... I had no idea !!!!!!
Warr put a bit of a gap on, so I was left leading Mr GS1200 through SH 16.
After some time of riding at 70 kph, I thought "this ridiculous, I've got to do better", so I gave myself a stern talking to about relaxing in the wind, and looking for the driest part of the road.
Soon enough Mr GS had vanished from my mirrors, and I can see a tail light ahead .. yay for me !
So we reach helensville, and Mr GS catches us under "city" speed limits.
Some how we managed to not follow 16 and ended up on SH 18 heading towards Takapuna.
I'm in the lead and think "bugger it, get to Takapuna, and on to the motorway, the distance won't be that much different"
On to the motorway, and once again Warr thinks of his license for work .. .I don't
Over the bridge however .. erk, eek, crikey, and even the odd expletive !!!!
60 kph, and I was getting blown across lanes !!!!!
Down on to the southern motorway, and "relative" shelter, so I punch it down the southern.
I arrive at bombay, with no sight or Warr, or Mr GS, but .. .damn it .. zapf is already here ... grrr, that detour we took must have been much longer, oh well, swings and round abouts
Warr turns up 3 or 4 minutes later, and Mr GS about another 10 minutes. Apparently Mr GS had got "lost" on the motorway, and ended up in the city, and heading up queen street .. yuk!

I ring the wife (who's in Whatawhata) and tell her I'm on my way. 4:30am, I'm such a nice husband .. tehehehe
She tells me, she's going to get the kids up, and come down to Whatawhata gas station and wave at us.

Warr leads us out to Pukekohe, but seems a bit lost once we get there, so I take the lead, and head us southern down SH 22.
Now SH 22 is like the local pub for us Hamilton folk, so I've got plans to scorch down here. Alas the weather has other plans for me.
The road has almost no traction, so I find myself crawling around corners at a snails pace. No one is over taking me so Warr is obviously happy with the pace.
Mr GS quickly disappears from my mirrors, and I think to myself, maybe my pace is quicker than I think, but I'll tell you what ! there have been days that SH 22 has been a blur, so it doesn't feel very fast.
As we reach Waingaro, the blue JUST starts to come out, the sun is slowly rising.
I start to see the road conditions and think, yuk!
I've spent the last err, countless hours, picking the "dry line" on the road, and here comes a corner with no dry line.
Oh dear I think to myself, get ready for a "pucker" moment.
Sure enough the Hornet bucks and kicks and rears, and the Metzelers struggle to find any traction.
Holy slippery roads batman !!! I think to myself
A quick glance in the mirror, and I see a tail light pointed at me.
THAT'S NOT RIGHT !!!!!
spin round and Warr has ditched it .. bummer
He's struggling getting his bike up, so I think his legs can't be hurt.
He's wearing a PVC rain coat which isn't torn, so his arms and body can't be hurt, and after a quick drilling he reassures me he is not hurt hurt.
WHEW .. and thank good dude !!!!
Right the bike up on to the wheels and assess damage.
Broken fairing, broken mirror, mildly bent foot brake . .sweet!!!!
out with the trusty vice grips, remove fairing, stash in the bush, and off we go.
In the Mean time Mr GS has caught us up, and stopped with us.

On we go.
We reach Whatawhata to discover my Wife and kids weren't there, maybe they slept instead. I later found out they gave up waiting, and had waved to plently of bikes, but thought we must have gone through earlier .. oh well.

Down SH39, this is another "local" road but the road is still slippy, and now the sun is causing glare off the road .. yawn! Warr gets bored I think and roars past me, but doesn't up the pace ... cheeky bugger :)

As per instructions we stop in Te Kuiti for gas, I think "only 200 kms left, Whew!!"
Next dose of no doz .. bonza!
Down to 8 mile junction and head south to Taumaranui.
I've got the lead now, and for the first time I actually use my tank bag !!!!
A quick read of the instructions while riding reveals approx 45kms turn right toward Ohura. So I take a reading of my speedo, then concentrate on finding that "dry line" again.
right on to Ohura road, and eek! its a goat track ... 30 kms of cornering at 50kph or less !!!! geez that was hard!
If I even thought about using my front brake, the front would lock up .. ggaaarrrggghhh
So a snails pace was held all the way to Ohura.
And you guessed it ! it didn't get any quicker once heading out from Ohura to Taumaranui .. oh well .. the goal here is to finish I keep reminding myself
Out to Taumaranui, and I wave Warr ahead because I have no idea how to get to Turangi from here.
Over the saddle Things start to freeze.
The puddles in the bottom of my boots turn to blocks of ice.
The tears in my eyes feeling like they are freezing, and my eyes start to really hurt.
Quick check of the speedo says 23 kms left.
This is the first time in journey I find myself counting the kms, waiting, hoping, wishing I could I finish.

Alas Turangi is reached, part of me is wanting a parade for reaching the end, or the love of a woman, or something, but alas, just a bunch of bikers too tired to talk, and a hand full of words from Lee Rusty ... the only words he spoke to me the entire weekend, words it will take me a long time to forget, words I look forward to hearing again next year:

"Well done Paul, here's your badge"

[Taz]

Well done paul. I have a love of riding in the rain..... well at least it doesn't really bother me :) All that speed thru ohura was for nothing when we came up on the huge flock of sheep. They had just entered the yards as you guys came thru. It was a great ride all right. And I'll be back for sure. The R11GS was great all the way. Super smooth traction for all those wet roads. SH16 was very windy eh?
Andy.

[Warr]

Good write up there TA, ...
Rain coat survived just with dirt. Remember it was protecting my leathers :)

[TerminalAddict]

Well done paul. I have a love of riding in the rain..... well at least it doesn't really bother me :) All that speed thru ohura was for nothing when we came up on the huge flock of sheep. They had just entered the yards as you guys came thru. It was a great ride all right. And I'll be back for sure. The R11GS was great all the way. Super smooth traction for all those wet roads. SH16 was very windy eh?
Andy.

what a shame about the sheep eh? you guys had a cracking pace on .. well done

[jafar]

Great writeup , well done :niceone:

[nadroj]

On the hill west of Tokaanu.

[smoky]

I gave myself a stern talking to about relaxing in the wind,

Prune juice works just as well


Over the bridge however .. erk, eek, crikey, and even the odd expletive !!!!

Oh dear I thik to myself, get ready for a "pucker" moment.

Holy slippery roads batman !!! I think to myself

.. ggaaarrrggghhh

Have you had a vocab lobotomy or somin? I've heard you express you self a lot more freely than that - you saint. What happy pills you been on man?


Congratulations and "Well done Paul", you deserve your badge. Good write up dude. Glad to hear Warrens Ok.

[Warr]

On the hill west of Tokaanu.

Sweet pic there Kevin.
Look you can still see the white from the last trip to the plastic welders!! Good thing I didnt spend any $ on paint :)

You can see the concentration stare in my eyes and leaned over more than TA can only mean one thing!!

[smoky]

You can see the concentration stare in my eyes and leaned over more than TA can only mean one thing!!

That's the corner you came off on?

[Warr]

That's the corner you came off on?
Noooo !! thats here (http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showpost.php?p=1247883&postcount=173)

[MaxB]

Great write up, thanks

[Holy Roller]

R E S P E C T
You guys rock. Great write ups wish I was there.
I'm sad I had to miss this one, the dollar can only go so far.
I was looking forward to doing the northern loop now it will be a few years off until they do it again I guess.

[tri boy]

Great write up TA.:clap:
You lot took the weather on, and completed an awesome task.
Once you get a chance to wind down from it, I would be interested to here of your perspective on Concentration, Fatigue, and the ability to stay Focussed on the Black strip. Did you find your mind "wandering" through the wee small hours, and did the rising sun boost your energy, or cause further frustration?
It seems to me that such an event would be of interest to sports shrinks.
Wearing a heart rate monitor, and various test equipment would give them some interesting feed back. I wonder if any endurance tests have been carried out on road riders. Just some random thoughts.;)

[NZsarge]

Brill write up and congrats on completing an awesome ride.

[banditrider]

Great write up TA.:clap:
You lot took the weather on, and completed an awesome task.
Once you get a chance to wind down from it, I would be interested to here of your perspective on Concentration, Fatigue, and the ability to stay Focussed on the Black strip. Did you find your mind "wandering" through the wee small hours, and did the rising sun boost your energy, or cause further frustration?
It seems to me that such an event would be of interest to sports shrinks.
Wearing a heart rate monitor, and various test equipment would give them some interesting feed back. I wonder if any endurance tests have been carried out on road riders. Just some random thoughts.;)

I definitely got a bit tired (and even felt a bit unwell) in the wee smalls. Not sure if it was the weather (and all the extra concentration required) or getting to know a new bike but I found that I got a lot more tired etc this time around.

The rising sun (well the slight lightening of the skies this year) definitely gives you a pick me up and you seem to snap out of it a bit and can go a bit harder. Also a decent break & something in the belly helps.

A bit of a mission this year but well worth it! Congrads to all finishers!

[TerminalAddict]

Hey BR,
I just read your write up on blogspot. Sounds like you suffered a bit in the body eh?

Up-and-Go and No-Doz worked a treat for me.

19.5 hours, I'm stoked for my first time

[jrandom]

Good shit man!

:niceone:

Gosh, I'm bummed that my bike wasn't ready and I didn't do the GC this year. SH12 and 16 etc are as close to a personal stomping ground as anything in the North Island gets for me.

What's the bet that next year the loop will go somewhere arcane that I've never even heard of...

[banditrider]

Hey BR,
I just read your write up on blogspot. Sounds like you suffered a bit in the body eh?

Up-and-Go and No-Doz worked a treat for me.

19.5 hours, I'm stoked for my first time

Yeah I did a bit. I reckon we were stopped for about 2.5 hours out of our 22 though. Not into taking the No-Doz etc - I reckon just have a breather. We just ended up doing it slowly but surely - you've got 24 hours after all. No sense splattering yourself and not making the finish. We usually cut it out in 19-21 hours.

Congrads on your first GC and your nice blog too! :2thumbsup

[Taz]

I found that I treated the ride just like any other. I didn't think too far ahead and the GPS made navigation a breeze. The only stimulants I took were a couple of cans of V. 2 neurofen at kaitaia. and sucked on a few barley sugars on the way round. Concentration levels were fine. I think working 12 hour shifts helped alot. I had high spirits the whole way round, enjoyed the ride immensely and found it real easy. I could have gone faster but what is the point? We finished with 5 hours to spare. I will be back. Bring it on.

Andy.

[Pancakes]

Awesome write up and good shit everyone who did this!

[Taz]

Awesome write up and good shit everyone who did this!

I had a very good shit after the ride actually...... Hard to stop for a crap with that much gear on.:lol:

[warewolf]

I would be interested to here of your perspective on Concentration, Fatigue, and the ability to stay Focussed on the Black strip. Did you find your mind "wandering" through the wee small hours, and did the rising sun boost your energy, or cause further frustration?Can't speak for TA but I found that my concentration wasn't quite there at around 5-6am-ish. Just before and after sunrise, coming down towards Helensvegas. Basically as the riding got easier - straighter roads, daylight, less rain - I was starting to switch off.

Two things helped fix that: firstly put Clint640 (on the 250 Super Sherpa! :Punk: well done that man!) in front, so I was following rather than leading, ie changed my 'picture' or forward view for something different to focus on; secondly, got off the bike/stopped briefly a couple of times.

btw we saw the craziest thing on the 16 motorway on the Avondale bridges: came over the rise to see two cars nose-to-nose in the right hand lane, amid a huge cloud of tyre smoke! :gob: The one facing forwards backed up, pulled into the middle lane and drove off. The other one waited till we got closer, then in front of us pulled a half-hearted u-turn that left his tail in the middle lane, where we'd moved to avoid him... had to move back! :blink:

[tri boy]

Sunrise was always a dangerous time in the mines. finnishing a really hard night shit and working around big machinery that could squash you like a bug.
Safety reports always showed a high percentage of sunrise incidents. Something to do with relaxing at the end of shift, daydreaming about breakfast etc.
Didn't know Clint borrowed Rosies 250.:gob:
That man is dedicated to the cause.:niceone:

[banditrider]

Finished my wee tale: http://andrew.l.thomson.googlepages.com/2007grandchallenge

[Xaria]

Awesome write up. Congratulations on the ride

[Zapf]

Hay TA, congrats. You were doing very well for your 1st GC. My riding plans where to stop longer but less often, so I can use the tank range of the XX to my advantage. But still you finished ahead. I pulled into the camp around 11:45

I passed you guys to head up the Brynderwyns I think, as I found I had to be ultra smooth with the bird with all that wind gust... It must have been hard work on the Naked in the wind and higher speed rides.

After Wellsford I think it was the last time I saw you before reaching the finish. As I wasn't as confident with the bird in the tighter shiny stuff of 16 and 22..

In my GC this year I didn't stick with any group, but pretty much rode along and get tows from whoever was around. It was 'different' experience.

[BarBender]

Great write up.
Enjoyed reading it.

[clint640]

Here's my report, still a bit to go:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275752

Big thanks to warewolf for being 'mother goose' - following your sharp lines & flawless navigation through most of the ride made things a lot easier.

I stayed pretty sharp right through the night & early morn, I downed a can of V at about 4am in Whangarei, & a coffee at Bombay, that kept me going pretty well, I only started fading down past Te Kuiti & a powernap at Ohura perked me up again for the last 100 km

Cheers
Clint

[Taz]

Whangarei at 4:gob:? Was on the western motorway by then:bleh:...... Still ya got 24 hours eh?

[TerminalAddict]

4:15 I was parked at bombay :whocares:

but it is not a race :Police: :bleh:

[Taz]

4:15 I was parked at bombay :whocares:

but it is not a race :Police: :bleh:

I know it's not a race but..... well..... you know what happens when you get two or more bikes together.....:o:

Actually I was quite impressed with my restraint.

[clint640]

I know it's not a race but..... well..... you know what happens when you get two or more bikes together.....:o:

Actually I was quite impressed with my restraint.

Me too. A couple of times in the twisties when being held up by some luxo-barge cruiser/tourer I was very tempted to nip through on the inside when they left the door wide open, but I had to tell myself that it wouldn't be a very polite thing to do :nono: most were bloody good though & moved over to let me through.

It was actually 4:45 we were at Whangarei.

Cheers
Clint

[TerminalAddict]

Ha ha ha ..... All bikers are the same

[Hitcher]

On the hill west of Tokaanu.

So that's who the crazy man with the camera was!