Personal entry

A night ride was scheduled for Friday this week but after unseasonal snow on the Rimutakas and Tararuas earlier in the week, the weather was still crap so we called it off. Sunday was looking good and I considered a ride up to Tokaanu for a soak in a hot pool, but in the end and after sleeping in, I decided on a reasonable local ride.

The bike was set to go so I just had to get ready and leave to top-up at Caltex Kaiwharawhara, even though I didn’t have a fixed rideplan yet, apart ...

I’m not sure what came first, the ride-plan or the excuses for the ride, but Steve & I arranged a ride for today that would fulfill several requirements. We needed a pre-GC ride that would include a bit of night riding, we needed to check a couple of sections of the Capital Cruise to be run in November and we wanted to revisit the outstanding road that runs around the Kawhia Harbour from Piopio to Te Kawa. This road was a section of last years Grand Challenge and I remembered having a blast on it ...

It was my intention to go for a decent (1000 – 1100km) pre-GC ride today, starting between midnight and 0100 to get a bit of night riding in, then explore a few roads up in the Waikato, but as it transpired, events and the weather worked against me so I just ended up going for a local ride.

It was a great day when I got up shortly after 0800 with bright sunshine inspiring me to remove the liner from my jacket and after a light snack I departed to stop by the office at 0930. From there ...

The usual winter blues have been prevalent this year but compounded by an effort to cut back on spending and the easiest way to save money is to cut down on the Kms. This hasn’t been too hard because the weather has been so crappy and I’ve been so busy at work, it’s been pretty easy to not ride, other than the Ulysses Club Rides.

I have found however that one can get a bit stir-crazy and in desperate need of a blowout and that happened last weekend. There were no programmed rides ...

Today was programmed for a short ride to Lake Ferry, but we figured to go via Ngawi first.

Having checked the tyre pressures yesterday I just needed to fill at Caltex Kaiwhara then head to the meeting point at Brown Owl. The weather was great in Ngaio but once I got on the Hutt Road it looked a bit dismal over the Rimutakas.

By 1000 there were ten riders assembled for the briefing and I led out on the free ride over the hill. The conditions were OK, with just the odd ...

I dropped the bike into Boyles on Monday afternoon to get the forkseal fixed on Tuesday and requested they keep it an extra day and do the 72K service and put a new rear on, if they could get a Storm……two days and just under $1,000 later……!! (I guess what I expected but tried not to think about.)

Today was day two of our mentor programme so eleven of us were present and ready at Whitireia by 0900 again. This morning was spent in the classroom going over our general knowledge of the ...

Today was a Ulysses ride to Owlcatraz in Shannon. I didn’t really want to go as I discovered yesterday that my right front fork is bleeding, but as it wasn’t serious and I was the only one from the rides committee around, I thought I should go.

Watching the weather forecast during the week, it didn’t look like the ride would go ahead but it turned out OK on the day so I got ready and departed about 0910 to fill at Plimmerton and get to the weigh station by 0940. By 1000 there were ...

At 0845 yesterday, 11 of us met up at J’ville before heading out to Porirua for Mentor Training with Andrew & Lynn Templeton of Ridesafe.

This was the first of a two day programme which is being conducted using the facilities at Whitireia, ie a classroom and a carpark, and fortunately we had another reasonably nice day for it, albeit rather chilly which wasn’t too much of a problem as most of the day was spent in the classroom. The first day focusing more on improving our individual ...