Biker culture, politics and general issues.
The ride started at 9am on Saturday in Taupo, so a Friday evening trip down was required as I’m probably not the earliest of risers. I’d managed to tempt Devil into doing the adventure ride, but he was so keen he left Auckland at 1530, already packed and fuelled. I was not so lucky, with a day of work to pile through, so left work at 1700 (still early for an average day) and headed home. I hadn’t packed the previous night, so still had all that to do. During the day Devil and I had ...
The alarm rings at 8am and I'm not exactly jumping to my feet. Not feeling particularly excited either, but nevertheless, after snoozing the alarm for 10 minutes I got up and had some breakfast and got ready. Out the door just after 9am in slightly questionable conditions I made my way out to Westgate. Following on from my blog about having a session with Tricia at Roadcraft School of Motoring, it was now time to start the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) course: http://www.nz-iam.org.nz/ ...
Ah, another day of hapless mechanicing on my poor bike. If you thought the mods were over, you’d be well wrong. I have plenty of ideas left yet! Of course, I shouldn’t really be left to my own devices so GiJoe was drafted in (probably somewhat reluctantly – and yet it’s like a train wreck to him, he simply can’t resist watching). In today’s episode, it’s a new bash plate and a toolbox specific to the GSA luggage racks. After burning my leg during the Poronui weekend ...
Sunday I’d initially decided to have a reasonably early start around 0800 or something, but couldn’t be arsed getting out of bed so took my time, eventually slouching through to the main diner area for some breakfast of cereal and fruit. Having got the day off to the right start I left the Diner shortly after 1000, popped into Taupo for the day’s gas and got into the country around 1030, heading along SH5. First stop was a gravel dead end into the Kaimanawa Forest Park ...
Thursday My 4th trip since I started blogging, involving riding for work, she’s a hard life indeed. The usual drill that the boss was prepared to fly me down and that budget would be spent on riding down instead. Having a biker for a boss certainly makes it easy. This trip was to sort out the move of a client’s branch office and install some VOIP phones for future development work, so what also made this trip easier was the capacity of the luggage to take several IP ...
An alarm at 0730… man I could have slept another couple of hours but it’s not an option if I want to do more adventure riding. This time I packed everything up, chucked the panniers back on the bike, returned the key and headed into Taupo to re-fill the tank and have a quick breakfast. There was no cute chickie smashing her car into the pole this time (I reckon the 2 pumps are perfect for bikers) but an older guy in his nice shiny Merc was keen to give it a go. I guided him ...
The ride had technically begun shortly after 9pm the previous evening, after finishing work and heading home to pack. A quick dinner, packing (really should have done it the previous night, to give me some extra time) and I was heading out of Auckland shortly after 9pm with an ETA of 0015. I got a real surprise while still passing through suburbia to see a guy in a camera van hunched over his equipment, with my lights showing every little detail. The usual route south was reasonably ...
It’s been a while in the making but after making this blog: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/en...829-09-2011%29 I found out about IAM (http://www.nz-iam.org.nz/) and started on a campaign to improve my riding. With the mileage I do I’m sure my riding isn’t completely hopeless, but I do believe in being the best you can be. I did a lot of visiting YouTube, searching for IAM and the British bikers in action, especially the ...