General Bike Ravings

Once again, I was marshalling for Paeroa, which means an early start Sunday, so the accommodation is sorted for officials, marshals etc. This year, same as the last, accommodation was Thames. They were happy to have us last year, and presumably having their motel booked out for a night appeals to them.

Ange had asked to have a go on the BMW, so I took her down on Saturday. As is Gremlin’s way, we left late, departing Auckland at only 2pm. Ange needed to be in Thames to give the accommodation ...

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So the previous two weekends had seen me pop up to Cape Reinga to visit the Northern Exposure Tour and then East Cape, to finally see the lighthouse I needed to visit on the Southern Cross in mid-March.

As the West Cape was also on the Southern Cross, it made sense to see that too, as a previous West Cape ride I had cut short, due to leaving a little late in the afternoon (and subsequently exploring the gravel around the Forgotten Highway as well).

Departing Auckland ...

After being told not to effectively not try to take the tank off, it kind of translates into saying, don’t touch the bike, please take to your local Motorrad dealer to fix the problem for you.

However… I am thicker than most. This means, see what else you can touch, without involving the dealer. If the tank is out of bounds (and holding 33L of fuel, it’s a massive tank I really don’t think I should try removing) what else can you get at?

Before I had even collected ...

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I think the week of 10-14 January is one of the slowest on record. After two painful days, it felt like Thursday. I wanted the week over as fast as possible, yet there were not enough hours to get everything done at work, that needed doing.

If I wasn’t working, I was thinking about the new bike. If I wasn’t thinking about the bike I was finding cool pics on the internet or looking at parts (if anyone reads this… let it be a warning to you… its expensive and addictive, regardless of ...

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Some people make New Year’s Resolutions. Some just promise to do better. Others make changes because it’s the New Year. For some, it’s the needed impetus to do something they have been waiting for the opportunity to do.

Normally for me… it’s normally just another day, and time to remember to change the dates on cheques, file names etc. A couple of weeks after that, clients come back from holidays, all hell breaks loose, and the break is a distant memory.

This year, ...

As Toto and I did last year in 2009, we decided to do a little tour again this year. After a fantastic experience at Wanganui, we knew it would be on the list again. The tour follows a basic format. Leave Christmas Day, in Wanganui for Boxing Day, and then spend a few days covering some of the country. Last year was 1 day to Mahia (just south of Gisborne) and then a 2nd day back to Auckland via the East Cape, so only 4 days in total.

This year, we would aim for a week, so within a ...

Yeup… you read that right. I had an electrical issue with my bike, and basically fixed it myself. This might not sound like a very dramatic thing to believe… so perhaps I should entertain readers with a bit of history.

Back in 2007 I owned a 2004 ZX10R, and decided I wanted to mount a radar detector. Having seen others say it was easy, wire it to the battery and then flatten the bike, I knew I was going to be smarter than that. Running the power cable back towards the battery, I realise ...

11am, Tuesday morning. Amazingly, its not raining. I say this because the last couple of days have been utter shite, storm like rain bringing down trees etc.

It's handy its not raining, as I've popped along to Experience Motorcycles in Kingsland to test ride their 2010 R1200GS demo, as arranged on Saturday, when I had a little Q&A session with them. Of course, no test ride is complete without taking along someone completely insane, to make you appear normal, so I brought along the ...