General Bike Ravings

Yes well, another one gone and another one gone and another one bites the dust!

The plan for 2012 was to do the Awakino Gorge and around the mountain (ie Mt Egmont/Taranaki), so that's what we did with a few diversions via Mauriceville, Halcombe-Stanway and Aria thrown in for good measure and to provide the 'road-less-travelled' requirement into our mix.

The lead-up for me was to resurrect and check the route out of the archives, since it was an option drawn up 2-3 ...

Attached Thumbnails

           

This year's C1KC (or Capital 1000Km Cruise) actually started for me about 2 to 3 years ago when playing with Google Maps &/or MapSource to come up with some options for a nice wee pootle. With the Awakino Gorge probably rating in my top 5 rides in the country, I thought, “that would be nice!” and set about seeing how it could be done within the prescribed Km's …without being predominantly a horrid boring grind up and back on SH1 & SH3. Well that can't be avoided really, but we did OK. Anyway, the ...

Attached Thumbnails

 

Sunday

Up at 0700, no-one had really discussed what time we should be getting up in our room, but it seemed everyone liked the time and ran with it. I had a breakfast of Countdown supplies and most of us were ready to go before Qkkid had even surfaced… slow bugger! He tried revising what time he had said, but none of us were having it.

Before heading out I headed around the corner to get gas then returned and everyone was ready to go. Mplant was joining us for the day’s ...

Attached Thumbnails

       

Saturday

Last year I’d had to skip the Gathering as I was mid prep for my USA Trip and my bike was somewhere on the ocean anyway. This year there were no such problems, so why not catch up with a few folk I don’t often see.

We met at the BP Papakura Autobahn… for once, I was actually early, around 0815, with barely a soul in sight. GiJoe came out of hiding in the shops, but declared he only had a daytime leave pass, so would return to Auckland some time during the day. ...

Attached Thumbnails

   

With crap forecasts predicting crap weather, I haven't done much riding lately and didn't expect to do any this weekend either. This hasn't been very desireable because after the long lay-off and witht the Capital 1,000Km Cruise on next Saturday, a few rides to harden up the butt would have been quite good, so with a hint of blue sky this morning I thought, 'Bugger the gym, I better go for a ride!'

I figured anything up to a tank of gas (500-600Km) would be good...but where to go? ...

Attached Thumbnails

 

I'm so sore. I can't believe how sore I am. Didn't crash or anything silly like that but I did do lots of laps on a totally different bike, one that I haven't ridden for well over 3 years and I haven't been on a bike at all for over 9 months.

The test day at Taupo the day before the final round of the Victoria Club's Bridgestone Winter Series was on a Friday so I had to take Thursday off work to finish getting the bike ready. Things like changing tyres (I really hate doing anything ...

Get Farkled!!...It has a sort of ring to it that might shock or perturb some non-bikers, but I'm pretty sure most most bikers would know what one was on about....although even then, I've yet to hear a the exact definition and origin of the word. Some would say it stands for Functional-Sparkle, while others insist it stands for Functional-Accessory-Really-Kool-&-Likely-Expensive?

Having just bought my new bike, it came with three farkles, namely:
a Rider Seat (Sculpted modified ...

Attached Thumbnails

           

So I'm pretty new to Kiwi Biker and this blog stuff, but after doing a welding job for a guy recently on his Suzuki TL1000S I realised that there are lots of guys out there who are modifying bikes, or giving it a bit too much at the weekend and cracking frames etc, that need a welder with a knowledge of bikes!

I've always been about bikes - from schoolboy motocross as a kid in the Isle of Man, watching the TT, riding the course, doing track days, racing Her Majesty's highways in the ...

Attached Thumbnails