Coast to Coast - Photos and ride reports

[merv]

OK turned out to be quite a nice day so a good turnout as noted by Bonez on the General Biker Ravings thread.

I went down to Shell Mana at 8am with my mate Gat and met a few KBers there - we waited for about 15 mins to see who else would turn up and then away we went. So who was there? Velox, Stonechucker, VTWIN, Groins NZ and I presume that was Mrs Groins with you. The rest of you will have to remind me of your names.

Off to Himatangi we went. Saw Doug Green up there and true to his word Viv was staying at the bach looking after the dog while he was doing the run on his CT110.

I rode up the front behind the cop car and the hi-vis vest official boys on their Guzzis and it was a pretty good ride - uneventful where I was, no sign of any bins or anything stupid. Doug was never far behind on the CT. The cop enjoyed driving his car around 130 a lot of the time.

We did what I'd call the Northern route, up to Sanson, through Feilding, Coylton, Ashhurst, Saddle Road (those new windmills are awesome) then on to Woodville for lunch.

Anyway I'll get on posting the pics and we can add some more stories later.

[merv]

OK here's a few more general shots at Himatangi including one of Doug's bike. That's his with the big green plastic box on the back.

As you can see quite a crowd turned up - helps that the weather was good. They tried for years to get a 1,000 to turn up, but its never happened. I last went 2 years ago in the rain and there were less than 200. Bonez said over 400 turned up, which isn't bad. Price has gone up to $15 and it sounds like a few took the cheaper (is that Scotman's) option. Got to support the rescue helicopter though eh!

[merv]

You can see all sort of bikes do the run. Some look like rat bikes others look pretty flash. I don't think I got any pics of them but there was a bunch of KTM motards turned up too. The usual collection of old pommy stuff was there and if anything this year the numbers of Harleys was less than in the past as a proportion.

These pics are all at Himatangi while we were waiting for blast off.

[merv]

Here's the helicopter we were supporting.

Then of course more and more bikes of all types.

Crowd mingling just before we were off.

[merv]

Then we got to Woodville for lunch. The cop car led us into the main street and it was timed perfectly so we joined on the tail end of the Xmas parade following fire engines and stuff like that all making a noise and impressing the local kids. It was a bit hard on the clutch hand cruising along so slowly on off the clutch. I must be a weakling as the VFR has a lovely light hydraulic clutch, but it was still a pain.

Then it was around to the park where our lunch was waiting and all the bikes got lined up. You can see there were many.

The clouds in the sky looked ominous but we only got a few spots of rain - nothing to annoy us.

Oh and there's Postman Doug on his bike.

[merv]

From Woodville we took the route via Makuri Gorge to Pongaroa and then to Akitio.

There's a bloody good looking VFR at Pongaroa. Taken while I was waiting for my mate Gat. Then he comes along on his Bandit.

Also a bit of horsepower cruised through town.

Damn must get a broadband connection sometime, this is slow going on a 56k modem.

[merv]

The roads in the area had suffered badly from recent storms. Or is that really they have suffered from lack of maintenance expenditure - the trick now is if the local body gets a washout or other damage, they fix it by putting a sign up. Cheaper than actually fixing the road eh! The signs at the start of the Makuri Gorge road said "Storm Damage Next 50km" - great eh. Wouldn't have happened when Keith Holyoake was the MP for the area.

Reminds me of a Benny Hill show many years ago. A phone at a bar was out of order - they call the repair man Benny, he comes along, checks the phone, then puts an "out of Order" sign on it and walks away.

Anyway we had a nice easy ride to Akitio - felt like tailwind the whole way. Then I stood on the first floor balcony of the Boat Club and snapped a few shots of other bikes arriving. Hey you might recognise yourself in one of these pics if you did the ride.

Doug came down the gravel Coast Road which is the direct route from Pongaroa so while he was only doing 80, he reckoned, again he wasn't far behind us and got to Akitio before many of the other bikes.

[merv]

... and the bikes poured into Akitio.

[merv]

... and parked in Akitio. These are my last few pics.

Gat wanted to get away reasonably early, so once we'd got our certificate for completing the ride, had nibbled a few of the free cheese and bikkies and chippies and had a comfort stop for the road we took off. First time I haven't stuck around for the spot prizes - so if my name was called did anyone make out they were me and take advantage of the winnings?

We took off just before 3pm. I was hoping to cruise on down to Masterton via Alfredton but Gat's Bandit won't go that far ex-Woodville on a tank of gas so we went back through Makuri Gorge to gas up at Pahiatua. What's with the Pongaroa store and gas stop, they always seem to be closed these days?

We had the customary stop at the Buckhorn in Carterton for a hot drink and then cruised on over the 'takas which were nice and quiet late in the afternoon. Only tiny wet patches on the road here and there - never spotted any of Jim's diesel - guess it all washed off in the rain yesterday.

Got home about 6.45pm in the end after about 550km. Not a bad day out.

Now the rest of you will need to add something from your perspective as most of the day I didn't see the other KBers seeing I was riding with Gat and we didn't stick together.

One day I will clean my bike - really!!

[Lord Pac]

I see blue skies....

Nice pics mate :niceone:

[Motu]

Good report and pics as usual Merv.The 2 Triumph singles interst me - I had one but never put it together.I think the one with the Velorex chair is original,the only use for an Avon New Supreme was sidecars.I don't think the black one is a Triumph - apart from the tank,the exhaust seems to be coming out on the wrong side,it has a duplex frame and that's not a Triumph primary case.Why didn't you get the other side as well silly bugger.

While I have your attention - I sat on a used WR250F today,street legal one...I can put one foot down without sliping a cheek off the seat,but with the amount of sag in the long travel supn I might get bumped off if it extends at the wrong time,you can get lowering links which is cheaper than your shorter shock.They are on the limit of my price range and I never even thought about them,but they look impressive,light and purposful - so hows your's going and are you still happy?

[gman]

me and the kids took some pics of you guys (we think) when they were shooting past towards himitangi from palmy way (sh56) bloody cam was playin up so went and bout new one today and told misses it was early chrissy pressie!!ive got the pics zipped up and cose im sharing a dial up on 2 computers its taking too long to upload.anyone wanting the pics can email me and ill send em.maybe someone with better than dial up can post em.cheers

[merv]

While I have your attention - I sat on a used WR250F today,street legal one...I can put one foot down without sliping a cheek off the seat,but with the amount of sag in the long travel supn I might get bumped off if it extends at the wrong time,you can get lowering links which is cheaper than your shorter shock. I never even thought about them,but they look impressive,light and purposful - so hows your's going and are you still happy?

OK, nothing to do with the Coast to Coast, but.. My WR is good - I like it being so light and so fast and I laugh when I ride it on the dirt that it is so easy to ride. It reminds me of an XR200 that it is so light, but I did compromise the suspension by lowering it as you can imagine. We took 40mm out of the forks and then I lowered the back enough so I could straddle it easily without hassle. I was in a hurry to get it ready for the Pukemanu as I only took delivery of it a couple of weeks beforehand and Robert Taylor was able to put the shock together very quickly. In hindsight I probably didn't need to go so far with it, but the trouble is once you sort out your measurements that's it there is no second chance as they aren't adjustable for length. I would prefer they all had a similar adjustment to the DR Suzukis where you can pull a bolt out and drop the shock bottom down a bit.

From what we could see it wasn't an easy matter altering linkages on that bike because the shock bottom was such a tight fit in the swingarm housing i.e. if we'd fitted different dog bones the shock (the spring mount part) was likely to clout the side of the hole it fits in. If you've found some linkages that do the trick, let me know as I can always have another go at mine in not such a hurry. The Suzuki style lowering arrangement wouldn't have worked on the Yam either unless it had been built with a bigger hole in the swingarm. If it had been built like that no doubt the shock would have been totally different anyway. The Yam has a shock with quite a long bottom part so it does fit through that tiny hole.

You must be quite a bit taller than me as I just wasn't happy with the height of it, even when I rode Brendan's well used one. He isn't tall either but is quite happy looking for rocks and things to put a foot on when he stops. Not my style of enjoyment, I prefer to be able to reach at all times, particularly when trying to get through things like slippery rock streambeds.

What I don't know is how long is the motor going to last? The high performance 4 strokes seem to need new pistons too often, but the WR is built a bit differently for enduros compared to the YZF and I don't like pulling motors apart these days because as an old bugger now I prefer riding and not bothering to have to work on the bikes in any serious fashion - haven't got the time.

[merv]

The 2 Triumph singles interst me - I had one but never put it together.I think the one with the Velorex chair is original,the only use for an Avon New Supreme was sidecars.I don't think the black one is a Triumph - apart from the tank,the exhaust seems to be coming out on the wrong side,it has a duplex frame and that's not a Triumph primary case.Why didn't you get the other side as well silly bugger.

The black Triumph had a twin port head - not being a Triumph man myself it meant nothing to me, and my mate Gat who was a Triumph man from way back seemed to acknowledge it was quite normal. It was too jammed in behind the sidecar and the Ural to get a decent photo from the other side. Some of these guys are so inconsiderate how they don't park their bikes properly for photo opportunities.

[Storm]

Heres some more photos taken at Himatangi, Woodville and Akito respectivly. Didnt manage to get a pic of the Ural that was floating around.

[Storm]

More photos

[Storm]

Some more photos

[Storm]

But wait, theres more :)

[Storm]

and lucky last

[Storm]

I particularly liked the colour changing paint on the GSX and the contrast between the flame painted hog and the all style CT :scooter: I reckon there'd have been a couple million worth of bikes rolling around the roads.

[Storm]

Other style moment included the guy who had too much speed into a corner after Pongaroa, skidded into the drain, managed to juddder his way upright, ride over a drain hump and get it back to the road and carry on as though nothing had happened. Full marks to that man ! :headbang:

[Grumpy]

I heard about the coast to coast a while ago and always wanted to give it a go but living in Auckland it was always a little impractical. Now we're in Napier I finally got a chance to do the ride and I wasn't dissapointed. I had a ball on the Z1000.
The only down point was about 500m from home I ran over a metal file. A BASTARD file I think they call it. It went right thru the side of my tyre.
Along with fucking my tyre it cut up the chainguard as well. What a shit way to finish up an excellent day :mad:
I spotted this awesome TL on the ride. I thought it might interest those TL owners out there. This guy had put some effort into this bike. What an excellent job. The underseat pipe is a nice finishing touch.
If the owner is a KB'er....awesome job!

[Hitcher]

Mrs H and I managed to get ourselves hooked up in part of the Coast to Coast yesterday.

Our day started late-ish and we headed off for some lunch at the Flying Fish in Martinborough, surprise surprise. The ride over the Rimutakas was near perfect. The road was clean (no sign of Jim2's diesel or assorted TRX fragments) and the traffic well behaved.

After lunch we headed off through Gladstone to Masterton, where we refuelled and decided to toddle off through Alfredton and points northish.

A big black cloud at this stage appeared out of nowhere and there were a few heavy spits. Mrs H donned her wets. I would have donned mine too but I'd left them on the spare bed at home... Sigh. It took a while to emerge out from underneath said cloud which continued to spit intermittently. No harm done though.

The road from Masterton to Alfredton was, as always, great fun. However the local district council has recently resealed a few corners which still have loose seal chip on top but no signposts advising of said.

From Alfredton we decided to see some new countryside and headed off up Route 52 to Pongaroa. The road through here is still decidedly worse for wear after the torrential rains and floods of earlier this year.

Our last appearance at Pongaroa had been during this year's Grand Challenge. As the day was sunny we stopped and took the obligatory "us and the bikes in front of the" photo. As we were loitering, bikes started arriving in ones, twos and even threes, hanging a right into the Makuri Gorge road to Pahiatua. After this had happened a few times, it finally dawned on me that this was the Coast to Coast crowd heading home.

Heading off again, this time towards Weber and Dannevirke, we would have seen nearly 50 bikes heading t'other way. Soon after Weber we caught up a couple of old dungas and were soon caught up ourselves by a stream of about a dozen bikes.

At the BP station in Dannevirke it was deja vu all over again -- memories of the Grand Challenge as the forecourt was littered with bikes and riders. More goatees than you could shake a stick at!

Obviously few Coast to Coasters took the opportunity to overnight at Akitio.

We then headed south to Palmerston North via the Manawatu Gorge. We had an early dinner at the Cuba Cafe in Palmerston North before riding home down the back road past Massey University (the real one) and through Shannon.

This was a great ride. There was hardly any traffic out and we had SH1 pretty much to ourselves all the way from Otaki back to home.

I think we clocked up about 500km for the day. Great fun!

[Sparky Bills]

Just got home now!
Stayed in Akitio last night, And had a great time!
Was down at the fire most of the night. (man that was a good fire!)
Had a good ride too, The R1 was loaded to the max, so was not too much wait on the front wheel. Which mad for some interesting corners.
A VERY GOOD WEEKEND! :beer:
The bike felt better on the way home, as there was no beer bottles on the back, so was lots lighter!
Will have pics up asap!

[Groins_NZ]

Coast to Coast was the first group ride myself and Mrs Groins have done and we loved it!
A pretty uneventful ride for us apart from Fielding – we were in the rear guard and some guy ahead decided to take a detour via home. Although there were no marshals pointing the way, we and around 10 others decided to follow him thinking it was the route to be taken. Didn’t even get a cuppa tea for our troubles. The locals must have thought we were bonkas. :o

We didn’t have much of a sleep bunked up in the Akitio Community Hall unfortunately (great facilities in there by the way). I don’t know what time it was, probably 1-2am when the Harley riders came back to roost and parked their bikes outside the window (must have been about 8 of them) – and then again at 6-6:30am when they got up – crickey! :sleep: (Mrs G. is having a catch up nap now).

$2 for a handle – wicked!
$2.30 for a glass of wine – bonus (especially since I’d knocked over Mrs Groin’s glass before she’d taken a sip)!
$5 for a smorgasbord of home roast (rolled mutton, lamb, beef), spuds, salads, fish, crayfish, ham and pastries – simply marvellous!
$10 for a bunk, mattress, hot showers and a view of the beach.
For a few dollars more we had a continental breakfast and coffee at the camp store – great stuff.

We meet this rider from Fielding who had a few yarns to tell. 74yrs old – just had both his knees replaced, osteoarthritis in his pelvis, hands and god knows where else. Takes him about half an hour to get into his riding suit, 10min to lift his leg over the back of his new Honda. He ate 1 and a ½ calamari rings for his dinner because he can’t eat properly and took a bottle of wine to bed with him - inspirational man!

We decided to take the coast road out of Akitio to Pongaroa. Took us about an hour to get through the metal section – the strong side winds didn’t help mind. Through to Alfredton, Dryers Rock and on to Masterton. Pretty gnarly in parts at the beginning from Pongaroa to Alfredton due to storm damage but the road starts to straighten out and is quite an enjoyable ride.

We stopped at Awaiti Gardens near Carterton for some lunch and a stretch. The owner’s cat took a fancy to the bike’s sheepskin just as we were getting ready to leave – bloody crack up, just jumped straight up and starting pawing away at it.

The Hornet went well, riding two-up was fine. Mrs G. had a bit of a problem with sliding around on the sheepskin though.

A great big thanks to the Woodville Lions Club and the friendly locals along the way.

Anyway I’ll leave it there… hope everyone got home safe and sound.

Here’s a few pic’s – check out that puddy-cat.

[Groins_NZ]

The rest of the selected pics...

[Motu]

Bloody hell - there's that Triumph single again,and from the left side as well! Don't you lot realise you can tell everything about a Britsh bike just from the timing cover? Will someone please show me a photo of the righthand side?

[merv]

Love the cat Groins. Glad you enjoyed the ride and your detour at Feilding sounds interesting. Did that bugger up your bearings because the view South at Akitio looks a little bit North to me? If you are interested in further group rides look out for more on this site. I presume you bought your bike at Sawyers so did they sign you up for e-riders as well?

[Groins_NZ]

Yip your right 'merv', it was the North view.

Yes, brought the bike from Sawyers - didn't hear anything about e-riders. Is that some kind of club?

I think I'm meant to be getting something in the mail from Honda in a couple of weeks. Other than that no mention of e-riders.

Definitely keen on long haul rides. I did 680k in one day 2 weeks back. In fact I went to Wanganui for my 1000k service (that's how it started). Decided to carry on and ended up going around the mountain via Raetihi, National Park, Rangipo, Waiouru (big feed and coffee stop), turned right just before Mangaweka toward Rangiwahia (this road used to be metal but they’ve recently sealed it and is quite a good detour), Kimbolton, Fielding, Palmerston, Shannon...... Pauatahanui. Enjoyed that one immensely, although bloody tired at the end of it.

G.

[Ms Piggy]

Sounds like you all had a blast. I just got back from Taupo at about 9 tonight - will post about it soon.

I loved those Windmills just before Woodville! Amazing!!!! Very surreal.

[Velox]

Yep - a really really good ride, as everyone's already said. 400+bikes!!! A big "cheers" to the cops who must've decided just to let everyone rip and kept out of it (meant in the nicest possible way), which meant no enforced speed limit and people booting it where it you could but being more careful in the dodgey areas. Haven't heard of any offs so far so it seemed to work. $2 steak sammies for breakie :niceone: were a good start to the day, but stuffing around in Eketehuna looking for 2 of our guys who mysteriously disappeared for what must've been about 2.5 hours (somehow!) lost the momentum of the ride a bit (have you heard what happened yet Bruce?) Awesome day though. That TL was real nice eh!
Lost another circlip along the way (as usual).

[Slingshot]

We arrived at Shell Mana at exactly 8:15, the guy on the forecourt came over and wondered where all the bikes were heading as a big group at left about 60 seconds before.

Not to bother though. It was a great day of riding!

We stayed over night then came back through Alfredton and onto Masterton, had a family lunch to go to in Masterton.
I had the most fun I've ever had coming up the north side of the Takas...it was the first time I've really opened up the CBR on the hill, I was full of confidence, it's a great feeling going from turn to turn scraping all sorts of bits on the road. At one point I thought I had scraped the fairing but it turned out it was the centre stand.
Stopped at the top to calm the nerves, then off down the other side.

All in all, a great weekend of riding.

[Bonez]

Sounds like you all had a blast. I just got back from Taupo at about 9 tonight - will post about it soon.

I loved those Windmills just before Woodville! Amazing!!!! Very surreal.
It's refered to by some as Telly Tubby Land :thud:

[Hitcher]

It's refered to by some as Telly Tubby Land
Uh oh... ...

[matthewt]

Uh oh... ...

Tubby custard !! Tubby custard !!

[StoneChucker]

it's time for tele-byebye, time for tele-byebye

I was absolutely stuffed when I got home. I managed maybe 30mins of tv, and then straight to bed! (I didn't go straight home, stopped by parents house, left around 10:30 I think).

Nice ride, like last year, but I found in general, the roads were absolute shyte! It must have been just me though, the rest of my group were caning it... I'm still to yella, chicken and stick arsed to throw caution to the wind (as I would be doing, since I'm not so experienced!).

Met a nice guy on an 02? R1, who has his wheelies down to a t! (or is that UP to a t ;))

Whats next, cemetary circuit? :headbang:

[merv]

We arrived at Shell Mana at exactly 8:15, the guy on the forecourt came over and wondered where all the bikes were heading as a big group at left about 60 seconds before.


Remember this link http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=6585&page=4, you did say 8am or shortly after. The crowd in the photos were there before 8am and by about 8.10am with no-one having arrived for a while off we went.

[Sparky Bills]

SC..
Im not that good at wheelies! (just kokes)
How did your ride go on the way back?
The offer for swapping bikes is still open! HEHE :2thumbsup
Met lots of good people at Akitio, Was plain and simple...
A REALLY GOOD WEEKEND! :banana:
Enjoyed riding with the KBer group!

[Slingshot]

Remember this link http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=6585&page=4, you did say 8am or shortly after. The crowd in the photos were there before 8am and by about 8.10am with no-one having arrived for a while off we went.
I was pissed off with my mate, I went to his place in Newlands to pick him up on the way to Mana, got there at 7:40. He dicked around for the next 20 minutes:angry2: , I couldn't believe how long it took for him to get his jacket on and get on his bike. Not to bother, a great weekend of riding had by all.

[bear]

Bugger it, sounds like great fun, had something else on this year, but bring on next year!

[merv]

I was pissed off with my mate, I went to his place in Newlands to pick him up on the way to Mana, got there at 7:40. He dicked around for the next 20 minutes:angry2: , I couldn't believe how long it took for him to get his jacket on and get on his bike. Not to bother, a great weekend of riding had by all.

Don't you love it. I try to steer clear of the guys who, just when you think they are ready and you hit the road, they say "gotta stop for gas" or "breakfast" or whatever. One year we left the weigh station at Plimmerton and bugger me a few of them are stopping at Macca's at P'ram almost immediately after.

[merv]

Bugger it, sounds like great fun, had something else on this year, but bring on next year!

At my age I don't want the years coming around too quickly!

[Skunk]

CT110's - Doug and Glenn must've had a ball :headbang:
Wonder if Loopy left them behind on the GL145... :killingme

[Paul in NZ]

Damn...

I'm well annoyed I missed it now... I still have this #$%king flu / cold thingy that is doing the rounds. Is it just me or will 2004 be remembered as the year of the persistent cough?

Paul N

[James Deuce]

Damn...

I'm well annoyed I missed it now... I still have this #$%king flu / cold thingy that is doing the rounds. Is it just me or will 2004 be remembered as the year of the persistent cough?

Paul N

Will be for me.

And hospital trips.

And annual leave largely wasted on cold/flus.

And crashing. What a dick.

[Pickle]

CT110's - Doug and Glenn must've had a ball :headbang:

Yep we had a great time, even passed people going up the saddle across the top and down the Woodville side the things were indicating nearly 100kmh which is pretty sad. Left Woodville before most people, got passed by some bikes on the way to Pongaroa. Took the coast road to Akitio and for us it was a shorter route and took less time and more enjoyable.

Wonder if Loopy left them behind on the GL145... :killingme

Loopy was faster in a straight line but we were quicker thru the corners and when she did go past we could slipstream her up to nearly 100.
We had the bikes pinned the whole trip ( as fast as they could go, for those of you who dont know what pinned means )
Spent the nite at Akitio, lit a fire on the beach so we didnt have to listen to the karaoke. Once the fire was lit there were 20 odd people turn up and then it was CT110's on the beach. Even had time to do some burn outs up at the surf club. :whistle:
Next day was fun getting out as the wind had got stronger, coast road again and then back the way we had come in, had to tow Glen to the gas station in Woodville as he had run out of gas.
As Merv said we were never to far behind the others and the Ct110's were probably the most photographed bikes on the trip. :ride: