First taste of adventure

[snodpete]

The day dawned grey and uninviting, but I was determined to have a ride and wanted to try the Wee-Strom on gravel somewhere. By mid afternoon the rain had stayed away for a few hours so I geared up and headed for Denniston plateau. Just past Waimangaroa I had climbed a few hundred feet via the lovely twists of Denniston road when I entered cloud, visibility was down to about 10m for the rest of the trip and I had to keep my visor raised to see.

The seal runs out just beyond the (invisible through the murk) old Denniston School (now an interesting museum) and I was able to call on my past mountain biking experience to remember the route. That memory did not include the new extension ladder lying in the middle of the road that I stopped to move (got to use my hazard lights for real...:msn-wink:); I made a mental note to look out for a possible Telecom vehicle ahead en route to service the Mt Rochfort tower.

The Mt Rochfort road is reasonable gravel with some soft patches, a few stretches of bedrock and a couple of pretty loose steep sections. I was riding nana style, but standing on the pegs which felt just right - the seat and tank fitting snugly between my knees. In the conditions there was no distracting scenery and I was forced to concentrate on the dim foggy 5 metres of road barely visible through swirling mist and near twilight. It was probably just as well I couldn't see the sheer 1000 ft drop just metres from my left hand grip that I knew was there at one place near the top.

The attached photo is the best I could do - you can get some impression of the day, just add swirly mist and an eerie moan as the gale tore through the comms tower above this shot...

An awesome taste of the kind of riding I wanted to get into, the Wee handled it with aplomb. Am planning my next adventure already!

[There was no Telecom vehicle, so if you want a good ladder...:eek:]

[kevfromcoro]

How did the strom handle the off road stuff??.

i had mine in the gravel.... and it didnt quite seem right...

mind you , my last bike was an XR600............

[carver]

v stroms suck, get a GSXR1000

[JATZ]

Mt Rochfort is somewhere I gotta get to, went up there in the 4wd some years back, wouldn't wanna drop over that 1000ft drop, nice view on the way down though.
Have ya seen this......http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=96066
Almost on ya back door

[kevfromcoro]

v stroms suck, get a GSXR1000

well i think snodpete has written an exc. post....

a few of us in here are adventure riders... which we enjoy....

dont think a GSXR would handle that sort of stuff........

[junkmanjoe]

i know a chap who rides a v strom. on gravel and he handels it fine.

[snodpete]

kevfromcoro - I'm something of a n00b, but it seemed OK to me, better than I expected to be honest 'cos she's pretty good on the tar too (again, I'm easily impressed). Got into the whole 'lean forward, power through the corners' stuff - as best I could with marginal visibility :eek:

carver - GSXR ya reckon... Still, I'm chuffed the (in)famous Carver read my post. Loved your trip to Cape Reinga on scooter, taking THAT up Rochfort would be a legendary exploit!

JATZ - thanks for that link, I guess the "on Sunday go to river on New Creek Denniston track" means to the Mackley River? I've mountain-biked through there once from Denniston and the Mackley is a doozy, quite deep, swift at this time of year and bedded with lovely round boulders... Don't think the Wee would get through there :msn-wink: You're right about all the stuff in my back yard, and now I've finally had a little taste I'm keen to try more. Not sure if I'm ready to join in with the KB hardcore crew yet though..!

[Transalper]

Mt Rochfort is somewhere I gotta get to, went up there in the 4wd some years back, wouldn't wanna drop over that 1000ft drop, nice view on the way down though.
Have ya seen this......http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=96066
Almost on ya back door

Hell yes, get in on that one if you can. Should be a bit of an education for you. You'll love it !!
They're based in Reefton Friday night and going on to Big River and back on Saturday if I read it correctly.

You won't like it so much if you are not prepared to drop the bike. Fear of damage is a big inhibitor of potential enjoyment for some.

[kevfromcoro]

We aint hardcore in here spete.. you can post anything you like....
adventure trips are good...
Mr Carver is an adventurise type
not a bad bloke... but eats to much Mc Donalds

[JATZ]

We're only as hard core as you want it to be, Sunday is just a spin in to the mackley river and back out I think.
The wee-strom could handle that I think. If you can ride over that loose shaley stuff up Mt Rochford then it should be a doddle

[marks]

JATZ - thanks for that link, I guess the "on Sunday go to river on New Creek Denniston track" means to the Mackley River? I've mountain-biked through there once from Denniston and the Mackley is a doozy, quite deep, swift at this time of year and bedded with lovely round boulders... Don't think the Wee would get through there :msn-wink: You're right about all the stuff in my back yard, and now I've finally had a little taste I'm keen to try more. Not sure if I'm ready to join in with the KB hardcore crew yet though..!

Yes - the Mackley is where I thought we'd turn around (although there is a steepish downhill leading to the river and bugger all room to turn around at the bottom - could be a bit of a log jam....:eek:)

It would be great if you could join us for part/all of the ride. There should be room still at the Reefton Nurses Home if you want to stay Sat night.

Keep the ride reports coming - I love reading stuff like this.

[carver]

well i think snodpete has written an exc. post....

a few of us in here are adventure riders... which we enjoy....

dont think a GSXR would handle that sort of stuff........

hmmm, it does actually, after i got it painted i took it on the gravel!




carver - GSXR ya reckon... Still, I'm chuffed the (in)famous Carver read my post. Loved your trip to Cape Reinga on scooter, taking THAT up Rochfort would be a legendary exploit!



haha, im just a shit talking idiot, yeah, that was a fun trip, i have been testing the new transalp, i quite liked it!
good to see your out there doing it.


We aint hardcore in here spete.. you can post anything you like....
adventure trips are good...
Mr Carver is an adventurise type
not a bad bloke... but eats to much Mc Donalds

i did the whole trip up north on the jog on nothing but McD's!

[NordieBoy]

i did the whole trip up north on the jog on nothing but McD's!

Well that explains all the shit then.

:oi-grr:


:apint:

[dino3310]

First taste of adventure.
:niceone:
good on ya mate