Chch to Tapawera(?) Sunday 20th March

[TonyB]

So where's Tapawera you ask? On the Motueka Valley road- slightly to the north east of the middle of nowhere.
I've got to go to a funeral there on Monday, so I'm leaving home at around 2pm on Sunday. Kind of a late ride to expect any company, but if anyone wants to tag along for some of the way send me a PM. I'm going thru the Lewis Pass and should be meeting up with my mate Wayne from Nelson in Murchison. If I'm a good boy the trip will be done at a mostly legal speed. Will be coming back on Monday afternoon.
Cheers
Tony

[gav]

Arent all the HRC people going for a cruise that day?

[dangerous]

Arent all the HRC people going for a cruise that day?
Yeah over the Lewis back via Arthurs... leaving at 8:30

Tony, cant man..... so have a bloody good ride, and on the return I hope ya heads in the right place after the funeral....... take it easy man :spudwave:

[TonyB]

Cheers D. Sure I'll be fine, it's more my poor abused rear tyre I'm worried about. Not sure if it will go the distance and my wallets got nothing but moths in it. It's not down to the wear markers yet, so maybe if I put it up to 42psi and take it easy it will be OK. Wayne reckons some of the bike hire places sell half worn tyres for $20-30 so might look into that today.

[TonyB]

Well, you missed a great ride! The weather in Chch was grotty as with low cloud and light drizzle on and off. But as so often happens it cleared to be hot and sunny just before Amberly.

Came up behind a young lad in one of those Toyota Levin’s in the Lewis pass, he saw me and tried to race me (sigh). This was a bit of a concern as a bloke in Chch was recently sent to prison because he was racing someone who was involved in an accident causing death. It became even more of a worry when he stuffed up one of those awkward off camber down hill bends on the south side of the Lewis Pass. Fortunately he managed to keep it together, but after that I decided enough was enough and got by him and then used some traffic to make sure he wouldn’t be able to give chase. Actually, I can’t see why boy racers buy these things to do burnouts when the real talent of these cars is the handling. They really do handle quite well.

Pulled in to Murchison to fill up and catch up with friends Wayne and Terry who had ridden from Nelson to meet up. Looked at my poor back tyre and uttered some sort of plaintive cry at the state of it, which attracted the attention of a couple of blokes who came over to have a look. They seemed pretty surprised- it really was a bit of a mess L

After a quick chat and a catch up we rode off. Wayne and Terry were two up, so the pace was more relaxed (for which I’m sure my back tyre was grateful), but when we got into the curves near Kawateri Junction I took off again- couldn’t resist. Can I just say that the roading engineer who designed the realignment of the road from Kawateri to Glenhope deserves a medal! What a fantastic bit of road! All of these magnificent 65-85k sweepers one after the other- best taken at ‘impound your vehicle and walk home’ speeds, but they really are awesome fun. The south side of the hope saddle nearly caught me out- seems to be lots of loose chip up there, when using the whole lane the bike wobbles crossing the gap between the wheel tracks.

The cool part is I get to do it all again this arvo!

[PSYCHO]

Yeah Tony, those sweepers through there are nice....left....right....left....right etc etc. I think I know the corner you speak of on the hope saddle. A nasty right hander coming up the southern side.It has claimed a few victims that one.
Have a good ride back.

[Hitcher]

The road formerly known as Highway 61. Renamed because Highway 61 (the motorcycle gang) kept nicking the signs...

[ajturbo]

i usd to know that road, like the back of my hand!..

great road, before they changed it..(20 years ago)

[TonyB]

Yep, did have a good ride back thanks. Even with the crappy canterbury drizzle that started around Horseshoe lake and continued most of the way to Chch. Fark it was hot in Murchison!- must have been over 30 but just around the corner the temp dropped to more reasonable levels.

That bit of road betwixt Kawateri and Glenhope used to contain my favourite corner- if heading towards Nelson it was a 55k left hander marked with huge signs saying "REDUCE SPEED" and was immediately followed by a right hander. Technically it was a shit of a thing- the road rose up and dropped away again as the corner went on, and I think the radius tightened as well- but if you got it right it was just bliss. I was gutted when I saw they were ripping it out, but those sweepers more than make up for it!