Touring bikes and just touring in general
So Nerrrd and I decided we would take a wee tour through Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Gisborne a few weeks ago starting on Thursday morning (Anzac Day) in Auckland and returning (to Auckland) on the Sunday late afternoon so, 4 days, 3 nights. The plan was to do some camping (which is kind of new for us both). I won't lie but we didn't really think the whole thing through as well as we could have/should have! This was the route planned originally: http://tinyurl.com/csdl35t ...
So nerrrd inspired me to start thinking about possibly camping when I go on my trips. It's hard trying to plan trips around where I can stay for free! Tent etc gives you more freedom, well that's the plan anyway... I'd been using a bag I got for free from the gym I used to go to. It's been helpful for my trips thusfar but no good for when it starts raining. So anyway I got this bag: http://www.kathmandu.co.nz/packs-and....html?___SID=U ...
Gravel, roadworks, wind and sun - you're not my friend! Went on a nice trip in the weekend North Shore to work in Central Auckland on Friday, left work and stayed the night at a friends in Cambridge to help break up the trip a little from Taupo to Hastings the next day. Left Cambridge after a lovely bacon and egg mc muffin brekky and headed to Taupo to meet Grashopper on Saturday morning, few spots of roadworks, some road ripped up really bad on the way there, but somehow I survived... ...
A New Year. A new challenge. That means a new motorbike tour. Regular readers of this forum may recall my contribution last year, detailing my 21,000 km , 22 country swing through Europe on my 2008 Suzuki V Strom 650. I finished the blog by hinting I was contemplating a tour of Morocco and Turkey in 2012. Well I have contemplated and I am off in April 2012 for a four month tour. This year the trip will not be entirely solo as a couple of friends want to join ...
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 ...
Some may have noticed Toto becoming a star in print, around August, in an issue of KiwiRider (thread here: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...o-in-KIWIRIDER), as one of those regular NZ riders, and featuring his profile. Of course, he’s far from normal, but I digress. Apparently people talk about me, and my name came up several times as a candidate for being profiled, due to the long distance riding I enjoy doing. Hanne makes contact with me back in September ...
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 ...
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. ...