Personal entry

This weekend marked my 7th MDA (Muscular Dystrophy) Ride, whereby we deliver presents to children in the Central and Lower North Island (excluding Wgtn). Over the past few years I have taken on the responsibility to maintain profiles on the children, as well as planning our route around the visits, but that doesn’t require much effort as it is just a tweek here and there now. I did introduce a couple of new route options this year though.

Our numbers almost doubled this year, with ...

I managed to rack up a few Km’s (about 1500Km) this week with a scoot up to Patea and back on Tuesday, then again on Friday, but returning Saturday and today was a coming together of 8 Ulysses Branches at Cheltenham.

Tuesday’s ride was to take Ann up to Whanganui to see her folks who had both been in hospital. It was a fleeting visit and we had to battle a gusty westerly crosswind, which was hard work as we’d get buffeted from both sides and on the return, the oncoming trucks were ...

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The fifth Capital 1,000Km Cruise is now done and dusted with 36 bikes starting and 36 finishing. (one with a hardy pillion).

The route was an easy choice this year as it was rumoured last year that the Gentle Annie (Taihape – Napier Road) was to be sealed, so I prepared a route (along with a reserve) then once I saw from Banditrider’s Blog in July that this had been completed, I was soon on Mapsource to sort the finer details, finally coming up with a wee doozy that took in our new ...

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Just had the black and the helmet pinstriped for a bit more presence and vis. I used a reflective tape (in Wellington Colours) and had some scuff stuff added to reduce the damage from stone chips and scuffing where the red is showing wear.

Just need to swap the GPS mount over now and she's ready to go.

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Charity Ride
When ...................This Sunday @2:30pm 6th of November
Where...................Meet @ DPC 1:45PM 257 Gt south Rd Drury
or head straight to Albany The Warehouse carpark @2:30pm
WHY.....................Awareness for the Burmese refugees in Thailand
Whats in it 4 me....Spot Prizes, also 2 x Track day at Pukekohe circuit will be given away

How much............Donations welcome but not necessary ...

The GC and Getting Home

The decent ride on Friday helped to get a good nights sleep and I was up by 0600 again, scrub-up, breakfast, then prep the gear and go over the fuel stops again. We were surprised how dead it seemed at the Turangi Cabins as usually, the place is littered with bikes and there are heaps of people about, tinkering and chewing the fat, but this year it was very quiet and it turned out, there were only 67 starters for the main event. We had been pre-warned a month ...

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Getting There and The Extension

Being the 25th GC (Grand Challenge – 1,000miles in 24 hours), the anniversary event was marked with a 900Km extension on the Friday, to make the event up to a 2,500Km Long Weekend. As soon as the event was promoted I registered my interest and must have got in pretty quick as I was surprised a couple of months ago, when I got my registration pack in the mail, to see that I was #1. Also, as per the 20th GC, a video was being made of this event.
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For those of you that know me, know that I took up motorcycle riding for the first time when I was well into my 50's in 2006, and last year when I sold my last bike, I took up guitar lessons (oh and by the way I bought another bike this last May).

Well motorcycling was a personal objective "never done it before so give it a go", guitar - my parents bought me a guitar when I was very young but the navy got in the way and I didn't carry on the interest back then.

Today, ...