TOTO

Day 3 – Friday 24.02.12 – Preparing for the TT2000

It is an early morning wake up at 9am. The TT2000 official start is at 6pm and we have to get ready for the event. That includes get the bikes all packed, chains (ok my chain) lubricated, stock up on cereal bars and water etc. I had a slight suspicion that I had forgotten to get WOF done on the bike and more importantly the old one had expired. Further check on my part reveals that it had in fact expired about 20 days ago. Oops. That's another thing on my plans today then. Gremlin is attempting the diamond award in the TT where I am only doing the basic route (only 2000km). This means that he needs to start riding at 6pm and I get to have a sleep in a bed till the next morning.

First thing is first, and we head for breakfast. On the way into the street where out 5 star motel is, there is a nice bakery which as it turned out is full of all sorts of yummy stuff. Doughnuts, cakes, sandwiches, fancy bread, drinks….you name it, they’ve got it. I settle on a dark bread sandwich and Alan goes for a roll of some sort. We both end up with the orange juice too.

While we are eating our sandwiches on the bikes outside the bakery I happen to find another part on Gremlins’ BMW that had broken. A dust cover of some sort has cracked. My friend starts to cry loudly – amusing. He is not very pleased as I make countless remarks on the (lack of) reliability of his giant steed. He better have a fat bank account as the said giant had just gone outside of warranty. A quick repair job with some duck tape and the BMW looks like brand new again.

After breakfast we cruise into Hampton Honda where the TT is going to start from later that day. My first task is to find out if I can get WOF done by them. The reason to check with a motorcycle shop if this is the case is my “slightly” louder than standard exhaust. A bike shop might be more inclined to pass it as a safety feature rather than an annoyance-to-others feature. Unfortunately WOF is not one of the services that the bike shop offers, however they are very kind to recommend the local VTNZ just a few kilometres down the road. Problem this isn’t. Gremlin and I split up and I go for WOF while he is attending work matters for the next half an hour.

I rock up to VTNZ and am very kindly greeted by the lady on the desk. Proper forms filled, my money taken and bike is lined up waiting for its WOF. I return to the waiting room and start reading my book. My attention is drawn to the lady on the counter again. She tells me there is another more comfortable waiting room on the other side of the building where I can have a nice coffee. I like the sound of that. Get my gear, and move to the other side. As soon as enter I am greeted by a breeze that seems to have come from the south pole and possibly brought a few penguins with it. This caused me to completely forget my intention of having a coffee. Instead I put on bike jacket on to prevent hypothermia. There are another two guys in the waiting room who are shivering with their short sleeved shirts and are busy staring at the TV. The two blokes are obviously interested in perfecting their shortbread making skills.

Ten minutes pass and I am called by the WOF inspector. Bike has passed with the exception of my headlights. Apparently motorbikes are only allowed to have two lights for high beam and I have three – Illegal. The WOF officer is also a motorcyclist and he tells me that my bike will pass if the lights are disconnected. I follow instructions and promptly disconnect the illegal modifications. Approval of the officer is obtained and I get my WOF sticker, which he had kindly even laminated for me. What a champ. VTNZ gets 9/10 for the services with one mark being deducted due to the weather conditions in the waiting room.

I meet Gremlin at Mitre10 down the road from the VTNZ station. We had forgotten to purchase some NeedIt (spelling?) – all bonding/fixing paste that after applied becomes hard. Would be useful if one of us has a tumble in the off-roading adventure we have planned after the TT2000. As we get in I make myself useful and finding the product required from the first try – I'd purchased it before when I butchered the engine covers of my race bike, but that's a subject to another story.

The next stop is the local countdown supermarket to obtain the needed supplies. We find the muesli bars, drinks but seem to have missed the sandwiches. Gremlin requests help from an assistant and even after he has been pointed the sandwich stand he still walks right past it. And he is giving me trouble for having bad sense of direction.

After the supermarket we return back to the motel and Alan starts his preparation for the TT while I chill out in my room undisturbed. At one point Gremlin comes over and hands me the liability/ terms and conditions form which I had naturally forgotten. Correction – which I had never remembered. Nice to have someone organized around to make up for my clumsiness.

At 5pm we leave the motel and head over to the gas station. Alan rides to the gas station with no gloves. I made a remark about that but the daredevil likes life on the edge. As we arrive at the Shell (Z) petrol station there are heaps of bikes riding in and out taking on fuel etc. What catches my attention are the three Yamaha Super Tenere parked out front. Those guys are going to have a nice comfortable ride. This is the bike I am hoping to be riding in the hopefully not too distant future.

Having filled with gas we rock up to Hampton Honda and there already about 100 people already meandering around the place, looking at each others bike setup, gadgets, taking pictures etc. We park up close to the street. Having attended the TT2000 twice before I notice a pattern emerging. There seems to be a few different types of people attending – those being separated by how prepared they appear for the ride. There are the people like Gremlin and I – caring almost everything that might need, such as tools, spares, levers, foot pegs, cable ties, tape, cold clothes, warm clothes…you get the picture. The other extreme being people (typically on sports bikes) showing up with either just wearing jeans, leather jackets, thin summer gloves and no luggage whatsoever. Not even a backpack of any sort. Of course travelling light has its advantages but that appears to be a littler bit too hopeful for someone about to be riding a minimum of 2000kms in the next two days. Not too long after this Mike (the organiser) gathers up all filthy biker scum and gives the standard safety briefing. He outlines the fast that the media has been kicking up dust regarding the event and the standard warning are given to be good and play by the rules. Speeding, crashing or dying are discouraged as with will give negative publicity to the event, and the rider who causes it.

Briefing out of the way, everyone collects their TT2000 blue shirt that they will need to photograph at all checkpoints and gear up. Most of the people are starting the ride straight away and only a small part are going back to sleep – like me. I make sure Gremlin gets everything sorted, help him with attaching his shirt to the bike – a method he uses in order to save time while stopping. Him being all ready we wish good luck and good bye and Gremlin Sets off.

I return to the motel and wind down with some food while watching a documentary about sniper school. Early night to bed as I’m aiming to be up and going around the 5am mark starting my TT2000 run.