Riding!

It’s been a little while coming, but was always thought of as an eventuality, rather than a possibility.

Provided to me for work at the start of 2007, with 26,000km on the clock (she’s a 2005), she ticked over the 100,000km mark on Thursday. I know only of Toto’s Hornet (130,000km) and a courier’s Hornet (200,000km+) that have higher mileage. Bulletproof things they be.

She’s proven to be incredibly reliable, low maintenance and excellent value for money. Tyres (Michelin ...

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Saturday

The reason for fitting the dual purpose tyres was a weekend of exploring the Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sound. I’ve been around the Nelson-Picton area several times already, but normally on tight schedules, going up Takaka Hill, across to the West Coast or heading south to Christchurch.

This time, I guess I could have done a couple of long days going down the west coast for example, but I’ve done most of the roads before, and will do a lot of them in February. ...

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Sunday morning, and it appears no-one is being suicidal, and the alarm rings me instead, at 7.30am. Time for another… interesting… shower. Perhaps the only downside of the weekend, as it’s rather annoying, but it was the last shower anyway. Down for another breakfast and instead of making the same mistake again, I had the bacon first in a bacon sandwich, then I had some cereal and topped it off with peaches in juice. Oh… and a sausage, because it said it didn’t like its friends.
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The thread (here: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...20-November%29) had started ages ago, and the learners got more excited as the time drew nearer. Indeed… it seemed like it was akin to Christmas, with x number of sleeps to go.

I’d asked the boss earlier in the week if I could skive off early, and provided we had everything done, he was fine with that. Things didn’t go according to plan however, as I got home around 3pm in the ...

I took a little break, eating and drinking and taking a few photos, including the film crew The Rustys had pointed out the road ahead, which required negotiating a car park, but when leaving I decided it was much easier just to hop the couple of berms in my way (and at the end, I found a few others had tried getting out, then hopped the berms). The warnings were clear about Middle Rd. It had several unmarked 35kph corners and it had just started raining, so I took it smoothly, but found nothing ...

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Unfortunately with the boss away and being 2IC, I ended up having to cancel the Long Weekend component after tossing up about it for a couple of days. I sent Lee the cancellation email so as to avoid his wrath (unlike some others apparently). From Thursday evening to Friday evening Toto did his best to remind me I was missing out, emailing me a picture of the route, when he had checked in etc. Thanks Mate.

Soon enough however, Friday evening rolled around. I’d tackled some ...

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Missed last week’s one, so wanted to go on this one, as I wanted to catch up with Toto, get some zip ties off him and talk about theTT2000.

Left work a little later than I was planning at 6pm and threaded my way through traffic into the city arriving shortly before 6.30pm, so not too late. Toto and the others shouted at me as I arrived, to avoid a pole when reversing… but everything was well in hand… can’t miss it and it’s not like it’s moving around aye? I believe some do like reversing ...

Typical… depths of winter, my beloved BMW in a crate probably half way around the world and being paid to ride around the country. Terrible isn’t it?

Another trip to Wellington was called for, to change a couple of modem configs, the only downside being a weekend trip and work both sides during the week, but who cares? Any ride is a good ride in my book.

Of course, the only annoyance was that the bike equipped for it, with heated grips, GPS, plenty of luggage, etc., ...

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