Gremlin's Tall Stories

Once again, I was tasked with the burden of work requiring me to be in Wellington for the Friday, to complete some new computer installs and some other items. With the staff in Auckland for the company function I would be left to my devices (and make sure it was all functional for their return on the Monday morning).

The boss was prepared to fly me down to Wellington and back on the day, but it would mean a long day… and oh wait… no riding. He knew I would prefer to ride (is there ...

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I know, an unusual blog for a biker (especially one with only a L plate for cars), but it involves other bikers, so why not?

So the reason for needing to get south after the Learner Ride to Cape Reinga was Wanpo’s birthday celebration. He’d invited a bunch of his mates for a bit of karting, and despite being slightly worried (those who have been on KB for a while will know bikers and karting are an interesting mix) who really cares? It’s not like I own those karts (in hindsight, this ...

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 ...

Some may have noticed Toto becoming a star in print, around August, in an issue of KiwiRider (thread here: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...o-in-KIWIRIDER), as one of those regular NZ riders, and featuring his profile. Of course, he’s far from normal, but I digress.

Apparently people talk about me, and my name came up several times as a candidate for being profiled, due to the long distance riding I enjoy doing. Hanne makes contact with me back in September ...

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Normally I woudn’t dedicate an entire blog to just one mod, but I thought this could apply to so many different bikes, was extremely handy and pretty easy to do.

The 1150GS had big fat handlebar grips, but when the R1200GS came out, they used thinner grips. I’ve been using my thinner ones since January, but the Hornet and KTM both have/had Oxford Grips, and you get used to thicker grips. I’ve also got big hands, so thin grips actually get quite annoying as you have to close your hand ...

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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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