KoroJ's Blog

Some of the family came down to Wellingrton last night and we went to the last show of Cats, at the Opera House. It was a great show and we had a big ride today, so it was a Berry Berry Nice weekend. (I say this because for part of the ride today, we were joined by Dick Hubbard on his Beemer).

The ride was departing from the Plimmerton Weigh Station at 0930, to go to Hunterville for lunch and I took my son Lance who is visiting. We were up before 0800 to get ready and on the road by 0845 for a fill at Shell Mana before getting to the meeting point where there were already half a dozen bikes. Ken and Dick pulled in shortly after us and I couldn’t help asking, ‘with such big bags, had he brought us all breakfast’? Before long we were briefed and 21 bikes pulled out at 0933 with Lance and me on TEC duty, having an uneventful ride up to Bulls, where some topped-up, some had coffees and we all chewed the fat for a bit.

From there Ken and I swapped rolls and I led out for Fordell and over to Hunterville. It was a great clear day and on the way from Foxton we were treated to a spectacular view of Mt Ruapehu and from Bulls we still had that as well as Egmont/Taranaki in our sights. I kept the pace just over 100kph and we were soon winding through the back roads, excercising maximum care to avoid any mishaps. The road is OK, with minimum road works and I didn't spot any stock but there were lots of patches that don't see any sun and hence had a rich coat of green goo that needed to be avoided.

We only had one moment where the bike shifted a bit to the left, but with the temp at 16°, we were in Hunterville by 1220, then waited for the rest to arrive before heading across to the Argyle for lunch. It was great to sit in the sun, enjoying a drink with mates.....not to mention the enormous hamburger, before splitting up to head for home.

About 10 of us decided to head up to Mangaweka, where some topped up, then back down through Rangiwahia, Kimbolton and Colyton to Ashhurst where a couple more needed a top-up. Just prior to Ashhurst, Steve deviated onto some crappy little minor road (as he does), and as I was exiting a right hander, my attention was diverted to a ute, stationery in the middle of the road just up a bit and next thing I knew, I was just on the verge and heading for a reasonably solid country mailbox. With no time to think I had to opt to drop onto the grass and try to go round the box, or try to retain control in the loose stuff while endeavoring to ease back onto the road. There was no way the ST would have stayed upright on grass so fortunately it made it back on to the road and we stayed in one piece to continue over the track to Masterton for the last stop before the last stretch for home, finally getting there at 1735.

It was a nice day with the temp varying between 14 – 17° as we cruised and socialised over 550 nice Kms achieving a nice 17.2 K/Ltr (not bad since I need to replace the air cleaner) and now I have 44,444Kms on the bike. Nice, .....Berry Berry Nice!!