Touring & The Bikes You Use

I hit the sack at 2100 on Thursday night, worried that it was too early to go to sleep, but I went out with the lights, only to be rudely awakened by the alarm at 1230. Excited to be on my way after a couple of months of plotting and planning with screeds of emails between Jantar, Gremlin and myself, I dragged myself from the bed with a groan, scrubbed up, boarded the already packed and prep’d Enterprise and scooted the 10Km down to the Bluebridge Terminal….where I waited, with the 10 ...

I lay around for awhile, mentally running the day’s route through my mind and finally gave-up and got-up to shower and pack. As I went to drop the key at the office, there was Lance so we chatted for a bit before I went to check-in for the ride.

The first section was to Takaka and back and this was more unsampled road for me, from Mot’ onwards. I was a little slow getting ready so we were about 5 minutes late getting away, but then, others were still arriving to check-in. This proved ...

3 Strikes for the TT2000 and we were ‘In’!
Strike 1 – We got to do a 1,000Km ride
Strike 2 – We got to do 2 of them back to back
Strike 3 – It was in the South Island and we were due for a treat!

Sailings were organised and accommodation was booked for Christchurch and Nelson, tyres were good, the bike is always ready for a decent ride, we decided that a Bronze Flyer would suffice so we could approach the ride in a more relaxed manner and come Friday at 0725, ...

(Continued from Pt 1)............With that done, the usual rituals completed, we were back on our way and I opted to bring up the rear. From my perspective, in these conditions, this is actually the worst place to be because you cop all the crap thrown up from the other bikes. Also, when following another bike at night, my preferred option is to sit close behind within the range of my low beam and ride off the lights of the bike in front, however in these conditions one has to sit back because if ...

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It was a long slow wait for this year’s Grand Challenge (my 4th), until the last month which seemed to fly by and all of a sudden we were away again.

Last week I had the bike booked for a service, pre-empting the 78,000Km check at 76,500Kms, as well as replacing the Metzler Z6 with a new Avon Storm on the front, a new air cleaner, new left main bulb, front right fork seal and the usual pre-GC super WoF check to ensure no problems when Brian Rusty and his crew did their scrutineering. ...

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DAY 5 / Leg 4 – 26/03/09 – Wellington - Picton - Christchurch:
I had packed two lots of gear for the trip, with sleeping bag, wets, liners and spare gloves in one pannier and clothing etc in the other. (Camera and travel docs etc in the top-box). When I got home I swapped North Island maps for South, threw in the strops for the ferry. Took the clothing pannier up to the bedroom, threw out the dirty washing and put in the clean gear I had packed in a shopping bag. I was all ready to go. ...

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DAY 3 / Leg 2 – 24/03/09 – Bell Block - Cape Egmont - Awanui:
I had a great nights sleep, not requiring my MP3 as I couldn’t hear Steve snoring from his pad in Hawera. I got up about 0800, packed, puttered around New Plymouth, filled at Spotswood, then headed out to the Cape with a wee diversion around one of the bays after a recommendation from a chap at the Service Station.

Once again it was a matter of killing time until we were released so I took a couple of pix and chatted. ...

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Another Rusty Ride done and dusted, this time the Southern Cross Road Rally, touted as the longest Rally in the Southern Hemisphere….that is, until they hold the 10,000Kms in 10 days next year.

This ride is held every two years and I’ve wanted to do for awhile but haven’t been able to and I put off entering this year due to the cost, but when Ann won $1,000 BP Gift Voucher and I only needed to buy accommodation for 3 of the 8 days….well I had no choice.

Preparations ...

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