PrincessBandit
4th January 2009, 20:00
Our trip was intended to start very early Monday morning, riding through to Wellywood to spend the night there before crossing on the ferry. Instead we decided, since the dog was already at the pooch motel and the kids flight had already departed for CHCH, to make an early start and spend Sunday night at Chateau Katman. This turned out to be a great decision as it gave us a considerably more leisurely start to Wellington. Also, as well as a great feed that night, Steve lent me his leather bike pants which proved invaluable to me during the whole trip.
The ride past Ruapehu was blardy freezing and I was regretting not packing and wearing my thermals. Thank goodness for the leathers as I would have been completely cold and miserable for that part of the journey. A good thaw out with coffee at Taihape cheered me up no end. Made Petone safely and uneventfully, even going via the Paekakariki Hill. What an awesome ride (although I found it a little scary on the way down what with those tight turns, steep incline, and two cars up my rear end)!
Ferry crossing was fantastic and our trepidation of how to tie down the bikes was allayed through the assistance of another rider who gave us a hand (thanks Mark). Then the ride from Picton to Rangiora: all was wonderful until I felt a thud against my left heel and discovered my centre stand wasn’t positioned how it should be.... After stopping twice to check it, we realised my pillion footpeg strut had completely sheered, thanks to the rose bush incident, leaving the muffler dangling dangerously close to leaving the bike entirely. Oh shit. Rik did some ingenious strapping, using tie downs, but alas a couple of minutes into the continuation of the ride the muffler blew itself clean out of the slip-on recess. Oh double double shit! I was sooooo thankful Rik had strapped it just before because it was the only thing stopping the whole muffler from disappearing behind me down SH1 and into the ditch!!! A second, modified strapping saw the assembly hold sufficiently to get to our final destination, albeit an hour late. The fact that this happened just outside Greta Valley and not in the twisties leaving Picton (or the Paekak Hill) had me well and truly counting my blessings.
All this called for an unscheduled ride to Jeff Marshall Motorcycles in Ashburton where Kyle (my total hero) took the part I needed off a 1250 in the shop and fitted it to my poor bandit. As it was on Christmas Eve I thanked the good Lord it was able to be fixed before everything closed over Christmas.
Apart from one other oopsie (both my clutch and brake levers are missing the knobby things on the end, and my left mirror got snapped off; through me being a dork and trying to ride away with the disc lock still on, clutch and left mirror courtesy of then overbalancing the other way.....) the bikes both survived without any further majors. Rik has retooled the end of the mirror to refit onto the pin fitting, and filed the ends of the levers for me. So anyway bandit was completely still rideable for the remainder of the trip.
We rode to Arthurs Pass in beautiful weather, and stopped at the Otira Gorge viaduct lookout. So spectacular. I also pillioned my 6’2”, 95kg father in law to Ashley gorge and back, which I was quite proud of myself for doing. The trip home was memorable for things which were not so positive. We rode through the tipped truck/crushed car accident by Kaikoura airport only just after it happened, and not knowing what the casualty count was (none as it turned out other than to vehicles) we were both pretty upset. Anyone who saw a female rider crying her eyes out at a petrol station in Kaikoura now know what the cause was! From Kaikoura to Blenhiem the wind was atrocious and Rik had a car in front of him lose its two kayaks from the roof causing a heart stopping moment!
After having had extraordinarily wonderful weather (except for that wind!) we then rode home from Paekak to Auckland in solid, nonstop rain. Eeeew.
Things I learnt from this trip: always take and wear gear warmer than you think you’ll need – much better to be too warm than too cold while riding; carry voltaren – much needed after my shoulder took the brunt of the fall when trying to ride with disc lock in place; spare gloves, as both pairs ended up sopping wet on the ride home; cheap orange squishy ear plugs are just as good as expensive ones! ; Finn’s in Paekakariki is great to stay at – they have a locking gate and undercover parking for motor bikes yay!; heavy persistent rain will make you wet no matter what you are wearing – my clothes still got wet under leathers and a Revit water suit, and during a cloudburst half way between Ohakune and National Park the rain was so hard it actually felt like someone tipped a cup of cold water down the front of me undies!!
Apart from the rain on that last day riding back to Aucks we were very blessed with great weather and safe riding. Even on that last leg from Wellington to Auckland, riding 9 hours in nonstop rain, I enjoyed the trip. It did cross my mind to wonder if I’d rather be in the car with the heater going, take away coffee in my nice DRY hands, blah blah blah, but then I felt so alive and bright eyed and bushy tailed that my enthusiasm wasn’t completely snuffed out by the miserable rain!
For two old farts who only started riding a couple of years ago (only one year ago for Rik) I was enormously proud of completing the journey, learning important lessons along the way, and looking forward to doing more rides in the future.
A few pix to come once I’ve resized them.
Dawn
The ride past Ruapehu was blardy freezing and I was regretting not packing and wearing my thermals. Thank goodness for the leathers as I would have been completely cold and miserable for that part of the journey. A good thaw out with coffee at Taihape cheered me up no end. Made Petone safely and uneventfully, even going via the Paekakariki Hill. What an awesome ride (although I found it a little scary on the way down what with those tight turns, steep incline, and two cars up my rear end)!
Ferry crossing was fantastic and our trepidation of how to tie down the bikes was allayed through the assistance of another rider who gave us a hand (thanks Mark). Then the ride from Picton to Rangiora: all was wonderful until I felt a thud against my left heel and discovered my centre stand wasn’t positioned how it should be.... After stopping twice to check it, we realised my pillion footpeg strut had completely sheered, thanks to the rose bush incident, leaving the muffler dangling dangerously close to leaving the bike entirely. Oh shit. Rik did some ingenious strapping, using tie downs, but alas a couple of minutes into the continuation of the ride the muffler blew itself clean out of the slip-on recess. Oh double double shit! I was sooooo thankful Rik had strapped it just before because it was the only thing stopping the whole muffler from disappearing behind me down SH1 and into the ditch!!! A second, modified strapping saw the assembly hold sufficiently to get to our final destination, albeit an hour late. The fact that this happened just outside Greta Valley and not in the twisties leaving Picton (or the Paekak Hill) had me well and truly counting my blessings.
All this called for an unscheduled ride to Jeff Marshall Motorcycles in Ashburton where Kyle (my total hero) took the part I needed off a 1250 in the shop and fitted it to my poor bandit. As it was on Christmas Eve I thanked the good Lord it was able to be fixed before everything closed over Christmas.
Apart from one other oopsie (both my clutch and brake levers are missing the knobby things on the end, and my left mirror got snapped off; through me being a dork and trying to ride away with the disc lock still on, clutch and left mirror courtesy of then overbalancing the other way.....) the bikes both survived without any further majors. Rik has retooled the end of the mirror to refit onto the pin fitting, and filed the ends of the levers for me. So anyway bandit was completely still rideable for the remainder of the trip.
We rode to Arthurs Pass in beautiful weather, and stopped at the Otira Gorge viaduct lookout. So spectacular. I also pillioned my 6’2”, 95kg father in law to Ashley gorge and back, which I was quite proud of myself for doing. The trip home was memorable for things which were not so positive. We rode through the tipped truck/crushed car accident by Kaikoura airport only just after it happened, and not knowing what the casualty count was (none as it turned out other than to vehicles) we were both pretty upset. Anyone who saw a female rider crying her eyes out at a petrol station in Kaikoura now know what the cause was! From Kaikoura to Blenhiem the wind was atrocious and Rik had a car in front of him lose its two kayaks from the roof causing a heart stopping moment!
After having had extraordinarily wonderful weather (except for that wind!) we then rode home from Paekak to Auckland in solid, nonstop rain. Eeeew.
Things I learnt from this trip: always take and wear gear warmer than you think you’ll need – much better to be too warm than too cold while riding; carry voltaren – much needed after my shoulder took the brunt of the fall when trying to ride with disc lock in place; spare gloves, as both pairs ended up sopping wet on the ride home; cheap orange squishy ear plugs are just as good as expensive ones! ; Finn’s in Paekakariki is great to stay at – they have a locking gate and undercover parking for motor bikes yay!; heavy persistent rain will make you wet no matter what you are wearing – my clothes still got wet under leathers and a Revit water suit, and during a cloudburst half way between Ohakune and National Park the rain was so hard it actually felt like someone tipped a cup of cold water down the front of me undies!!
Apart from the rain on that last day riding back to Aucks we were very blessed with great weather and safe riding. Even on that last leg from Wellington to Auckland, riding 9 hours in nonstop rain, I enjoyed the trip. It did cross my mind to wonder if I’d rather be in the car with the heater going, take away coffee in my nice DRY hands, blah blah blah, but then I felt so alive and bright eyed and bushy tailed that my enthusiasm wasn’t completely snuffed out by the miserable rain!
For two old farts who only started riding a couple of years ago (only one year ago for Rik) I was enormously proud of completing the journey, learning important lessons along the way, and looking forward to doing more rides in the future.
A few pix to come once I’ve resized them.
Dawn