KoroJ's Blog

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.

Having done this event five times before, I am pretty well prepared, the bike is always ready for a ride, it had its 120,000 Km service on 26/9, which included a new front tyre (Bridgestone 023), then after having rear tyre problems, it received a new rear on 10/10. I had also bought a new ST in October, but with only 3300Km on it, I thought I’d keep the red to do this job before trying to sell it.

One change to my GC preparation this year was that I bought a GPS at the beginning of the year, so I tried programming previous routes into it from the old Ride Instructions. I did a couple and it took over 2hours for each route, so I ended up having to take the laptop as well!!....lucky I’ve got an ST with lots of luggage capacity! My other prep consisted of a few rides, starting with a 700Km Butt Burner and building up to include a bit of night riding as well. So, apart from that, it was just a matter of pulling my GC check-list, ensuring I had everything I needed, pack the night before, give Ann a kiss and a hug on Thursday morning and say, “I’m just off for a ride! I’ll be back in 5...... (days)!”

The weather forecast for Thursday was dismal, so I arranged to meet Steve at BP Mana at midday to ride straight up SH1, it was an uneventful trip, except for the part where we were too early arriving in Levin and Steve didn’t stop to wait for James (Transalp). (I seem to be making a habit of leaving him behind?) We arrived at 1515, checked into our cabins, got the bikes scrutineered (with no problems), settled in, went to fill the bikes and had a coffee in town, walked down for a feed at the Truck-Stop and later that evening, found out what Friday’s route would be, so went off to plan for that, loading it into the GPS and organising fuel stops. As it turned out, it was a very informal affair in that we could leave whenever we wanted and just had to collect three Electronic Till Receipts along the way. There were 37 starters for the extension and IanF woke me when he started at 0330 in the morning....I figured....‘he must want to get back for lunch?’

Apart from that, I slept reasonably well, arising on Friday at 0600, scrubbed up, had a feed and we rolled out at 0746. Mike (ST) had left a bit earlier, as had James who was kitted out to video other riders on the road with forward and rear facing cameras mounted on the side of his bike, but as it was wet, and Steve and I were in no hurry, I led out at a sedate pace, over the Ponanga Saddle to National Park and down the Parapara’s to our first checkpoint in Whanganui.

We had discussed fuel options and in the end, decided it was just as easy to get fuel at each checkpoint, rather than buy something for the sake of it and as we approached the roundabout leading onto Dublin St Bridge, Mike was just pulling out from the BP, but there were still other riders there, so we crossed the bridge and went to the Shell garage, where James happened to be filling. It was 0932 and so far we’d done 170Km at an average of 95kph.

After filling we hooked up with James and hit the road again with me leading out along Somme Parade to miss the lights on the main road…except I haven’t spent much time in Whanganui over recent years and I missed the turnoff onto Halswell St, recognising it as I rode past so we just hung a u’e, nipped up the hill and were soon back on SH3 and heading for Opunake....still at our sedate pace......until we were soon passed by the GinnyMan (last year’s ride blog refers, but he was riding a TL this year) and his brother passed us...so we tacked on behind them for a bit. This was more uneventful riding (except for the antics of CameramanJames and his efforts to extract footage) and we got to Opunake at 1058, doing the 131Km at an average of 102kph.

We departed Opunake at 1115, looking forward to the ride over Mt Messenger and through the Awakino Gorge, although we were still kitted out in ‘wets’ and unsure of what lay ahead, with the plan to have lunch and another fill in Te Kuiti. Well, the weather cleared just after New Plymouth, so all of a sudden, we found ourselves on dry roads and having a great fang over Mt Messenger. CameramanJames was like a dog off the leash through here, streaking ahead, dropping back, swooping past again, all the while gesticulating madly. Steve thought one of his signals was to indicate he was filming….but James was just try to get more out of the rubber band that was driving the 650. I thought we got some awesome footage through here with me up James’ date (or just ahead of him through the big sweepers leading to Mt Messenger, then cranking through the really tight stuff going up the hill, passing him and streaking to the top then down the other side….but this was where James was to extract his revenge for us not waiting the day before. There was no footage and he says he doesn’t know what happened, but I think he just left the cameras off, got us all excited and that big repeated gesture was, “I’m winding you up!”…..it was bloody awesome fun but!

Between James causing a rush of blood to our heads and the temp jumping at least 6° through here, all of a sudden I found myself expiring, so a quick change of plans and we stopped in Mokau for lunch and to strip off the ‘wets’. We arrived there at 1246, doing the 145Km at an average of 95kph.

It was rather pleasant having a snack then relaxing in the sun for a bit before moving on at 1322, with Steve in the lead and we now had the Awakino Gorge to look forward to. There was a bit of traffic on the road and as we were preparing to leave, Toto passed through on his Hornet and we had him in our sights. He was getting along pretty well, albeit a little more casual on his passing than us and this was OK as we slipped up the coast, but as soon as we embarked on the gorge, still stuck behind a truck, I was concerned about not maximising the enjoyment of the road, so as soon as Toto & Steve seemed to hesitate on a passing opportunity, I was in like a robbers dog and took it for them. I did have to apologise to Toto later, but ……nah….I’m just an arsehole!

We were soon paused in Te Kuiti for gas (for Steve and James) and back to a moderate pace up to Kihikihi, across to Cambridge, then up SH1B to SH26, through Morrinsville to Te Aroha, and on to the last checkpoint at Paeroa. More uneventful riding, although it was annoying to have to pass cars twice because we had been sticking to the prescribed route, which took us through the towns. We lost Mike along here as well. We passed a Beemer, then got into roadworks where Mike got separated, but as I still had 4 lights in the mirrors I thought we were sweet, until we got to Te Aroha and Mike wasn’t there, finally pulling into Mobil Paeroa just after us. We arrived there at 1553 having done the 222Km at an average of 88kph (included the gas stop in TeKuiti)

We were gone again by 1615 and on the home run to Turangi, The route took us back to Te Aroha, continuing on Te Aroha-Gordon and Old TeAroha Roads, did a couple of jinks across to SH28 to take that down to Putaruru, then SH1 to Tokoroa and SH32 through Whakamaru and down the Western Access.

It was all easy riding…..except for the bit where I was daydreaming, listening to the music and suddenly found myself having to make a decision of, left to Atiamuri, or right to go over the dam. Damn…..I stayed left and hit the piks, taking Steve with me while Mike cruised past thinking, “Bloody idiots!” (James had swapped to film another group from Paeroa). We scooted down ’32 and arrived at Turangi at 1831, doing the last 231Km at an average of 101kph.

It was an easy ride and pleasant day in the end. The GPS had me a couple of K’s short of the 900 (I must have been taking short lines through the corners), while my speedo said 910Km and Steves said 933Km….go figure. The Total Avg for the day was 83kph and Moving Avg was 97kph, which was easy enough on our sedate pace. After all, we still had 1600Km to embark on the next day.

We checked in, had a good Rusty Feed, chatted, then looked at the GC route. …..Whew! easy Navigation but gnarly!....so I headed off to programme the GPS for the next day, before chilling out, chatting with other riders and discussing fuel options with Steve, finally hitting the sack at about 2230.