Touring & The Bikes You Use

Damn those Wellingtonian riders. While chatting at the end of the Grand Challenge, Wuzards-Eugene and XP@ had tried to talk me into doing the C1KC, or Capital 1000km Cruise. Organised by KoroJ, its a 1000km ride starting in Wellington and runs each year. Aimed at attracting more riders into longer distance riding, it's a ride I have never done before.

Of course, there was a small hitch. It started in Wellington at 0630 on a Saturday morning. I was in Auckland. Rather than take a day ...

Attached Thumbnails

         

Sunday morning broke fine and clear… the best day for riding (Just my opinion) on the long labour weekend break….

This was the 1st decent ride since the trip up north to the Twin Bridges and out to the Whangarei heads for lunch back on Fathers Day in September.... or the last quick blast around the Coromandel Loop....

Amongst all the other spring cleaning chores carried out on Saturday I had managed to clean the bike…. and check the fluids etc… so we were good to ...

With the Grand Challenge complete, Monday was a comparatively leisurely affair. Going to bed late the previous evening, missing the usual breakfast affair on Monday morning was an obvious choice. Afterall, with the nice bakery down the road, where's the motivation to get up early?

Up around 9am, packed up, and Toto and I were probably last to leave the holiday park just after 10am. We weren't even going very far, popping down the bakery probably 1km away, where we waited for Toto's ...

It’s “only” been a 12 month wait since the last one, but the 2010 one was finally here. The plan was to try and finish off any work by mid-afternoon, then pack, load the bike and head down in the early evening. This year, I even have a handy helper, in the form of Toto, who is doing his first. He takes the entire day off, heads down early, and then proceeds to txt me. “Should I take my laptop”, “When are you coming”. I suggest he ask for two rooms near each other, so we can find each other. The ...

Around Tuesday I collected my new textile trousers from Quasievil and with the microphone sorted, I was only waiting for my helmet to be finished with the wiring. Mileage on the bike meant it needed almost 2000km put on during the weekend, service was organised for Monday (well, drop off, and they service as soon as they have time). The initial plan therefore called for 2x 1000km over the weekend, service, tyres and everything will be ready for the Grand Challenge (next weekend).

...

Attached Thumbnails

 

I bought a new helmet a little over a couple of weeks ago, as my new long distance helmet (still have the Shoei XR1000), but I've been looking at the speed of my stops, and concluded that if I don't have to remove the helmet, I don't have to remove the plugs, balaclava etc, balaclava needs jacket adjusted, as it slides underneath etc. In short, a flip front helmet was called for. Get to station, lift front, ea, drink etc, and no potential problems with fuel station attendants either.
...

Well as part of my plan to do my usual business of riding whenever, where-ever and however - I took Cindi my CB1000R Predator up to Cape Reinga today. The last time Cindi and I were closest to the Cape was when we accompanied Gremlin to Dargaville. This first mission was a failure due to the usual tardiness of Gremlin.

Today, we remedied that! I was up at 6am .... brekkie and prep saw me bolt out the door at 7.15am and we were away riding! Did the back roads to SH16 and the boring ...

Attached Thumbnails

           

Saturday night, I had spoken to Toto about riding on Sunday, but he was working. He did want a txt to see where I was going, as he wanted a short ride somewhere, so perhaps he could meet up. I got to bed late on Saturday, ok, 4am Sunday, with Daylight Savings taken into account, so I wasn’t up before midday Sunday anyway.

Once I had read up on the Zumo 660 vs 550 (currently have the 550, and I won’t upgrade to the 660) and planned a route – maximising the fuel range, as the 2nd fuel ...