Touring & The Bikes You Use

We are all crazy in our own way…

Having done the TT2000 with Gremlin in 2010 I was definitely hooked to long distance rallies and also ended up doing the Rusty Nuts’ Grand Challenge. There as no question I was going to go down to the TT2000 in 2011 as well.

Some people go through extraordinary lengths of preparation for the TT. This sometimes includes obtaining a whole new motorcycle, with extended fuel range, accessories setup, and clocking thousands and thousands ...

So, picking up from the Blog of Day 1, it’s 10pm, leaving Queenstown, and now we are properly into the night section. Don’t want to go too quickly, as you simply don’t have as much light, yet don’t go too slowly so as to lose time.

I did have one handy trick up my sleeve for the night section. During the 10k service the mechanics worked on the bike for two full days. She now sports 8 forward facing lights. Low beam (HID), high beam (+90% bulb), OEM fog lamps (wasn’t able to get the ...

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Again with the early alarm… much too early… no choice, must get up. It’s 4.30am.

Into my gear, luggage is lugged down the stairs of the backpackers and piled outside. 5.15am we fire up the bikes and pop down the road to the BP that confirmed the previous night they are open 24/7. Other bikers are there eating, we only need gas, and I get a couple of bottles of Powerade (still wondering where Mizone blue went to).

Another short trip to McIver & Veitch, there are already ...

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Toto’s not broken Honda hasn’t been sorted in the beginning of the week, so while he was offered one of the rental fleet of BMW, he declined, opting for his own GN250. Yeah, you read that right… he WANTED to do it on his GN250.

Of course, this meant his pace wouldn’t be quite up to mine. Actually, allow me to correct, his pace was slower than almost anyone else, and couldn’t barely ever reach the speed limit of 100kph. Thursday and Friday’s plans were altered slightly. He would head ...

....................DAY 2.

Nooooooo! The alarm went off at 0530 and dragged me from my coma! Up up and away, I got dressed, packed the luggage panier, extracting the day’s supply of bananas and water for the top-box, checked the tyres – 42psi on the button, exchanged the summer gloves for winter ones out of the wets and fuel panier, tidied the topbox, snacked, had a nice hot cup of tea….and we were gone at 0630.

I thought it was bloody winter as scooted ...

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 ...

In early May I leave the mild winter of the Coromandel to spend three months riding my motorbike around Europe.

My route will take me from the UK, through the D Day beaches, down the Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, then Portugal. In mid June I will spend a week or so with friends in Spain, then it is off along the Med Coast to the sights of Italy, ferry to Greece , then through the Dalmatian coast , across to Austria, Czech Republic , Poland then up to the Baltic states . ...

Once again, I was marshalling for Paeroa, which means an early start Sunday, so the accommodation is sorted for officials, marshals etc. This year, same as the last, accommodation was Thames. They were happy to have us last year, and presumably having their motel booked out for a night appeals to them.

Ange had asked to have a go on the BMW, so I took her down on Saturday. As is Gremlin’s way, we left late, departing Auckland at only 2pm. Ange needed to be in Thames to give the accommodation ...

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