Biker culture, politics and general issues.
Are we there yet?...that's the motto of NZ Distance Riders (NZDR) and Yes Siree, we got there...we made it!...and had a shitload of fun on the way…..whew! Last weekend was the culmination of another year's planning for the 2015 Nth Island 1600. The creation of a route and selection of checkpoints, selection of colours for rider and volunteer T-Shirts, design of badges, patches and certificates, production of Rider's Guides, organisation of volunteers for selected manned checkpoints, ...
I've done a few rides this month in an effort to build up for the North Island 1600 on 10-11 October, but thanks to wrecking the rear tyre, I haven't done as much riding as I had hoped. On Friday the 4th, Woody and I had an early departure from Wellington in order to scoot up to KSS in New Plymouth to get my rear shock replaced. I've had the OEM shock in for a few months as I haven't been able to get away from work, but it's all done now and the bike feels like it's back on rails.....I ...
Bloody marvellous! I went for my first conditioning ride this morning. I decided that about 500km would be good and worked out a route up by Wangas, then across and back through the Wai’rapa, which ended up at 530km, would be just what the doctor ordered. The straight and boring ride up ‘1’ & ‘3’ to Wangas would be arse numbing and on an early (0700) start I wouldn’t have to worry about cold, damp patches, then I could enjoy a few nice roads on the way home. And when it worked out at 530km, I thought, ...
Damn, two months between rides is tough going. I got a bit of a surprise when I filled this morning to see that the last fill was on 14 June and even if I hadn't been working 7 days a week since that last ride, I doubt I would have been out much as the weather has been such crap. I don't mind riding in the rain but what gets me is the focus required to find a line through the tar slicks. Our roads really are in crappy condition. I was supposed to work today but last night I thought, ...
When I changed from riding an Intruder cruiser to the ST1300 sports tourer, I considered getting a radar detector, however, I figured that a detector might well encourage me to ride faster than the allowable limits and therefore opted an alternative measure of speed control and that was riding off the economy gauge, whereby if the speed rose and the economy dropped, then one was inspired to button off a bit. Ahh the joys of being a tight-arse! The other major factor that entered into ...
Today was a Uly ride to Hunterville for lunch. My worker has abandoned me for three months so I definitely don't have time to ride at the moment....and hence I needed to go. As it was a relatively long ride, the start was scheduled for 0900 rather than the normal 1000, so I checked the tyre pressures last night, as well as packing the wets and other usual gear, charged the Sena and phone, then had to get up early this morning to scrub, gear-up, fill at BP Mana and get to the Weigh ...
Commercially, stepthrus rule! They carry everything including the kitchen sink.....and the bar-b-q!! ....or the recyling. You can use them to ...
We spent a week in Phuket recently and that was a bit if an eye opener. On the night we arrived, I was gobsmacked as we were driven to our resort at Patong Beach (about 40 minutes) and small bikes and scooters were passing us on both sides, and vice versa. Then at one point, a bike passed us on the inside, then continued to pass the vehicle in front of us as they negotiated a right hander. My heart was in my throat because the road was quite narrow and twisty, with no verge and a ...