KoroJ's Blog

I ended up having two rides this week. The KiwiBiker Cruisy Ride on Wednesday and the Ulysses ride to the Bike display in Palmy today.

Wednesday's ride was quite good with 25-30 bikes and the weather was great. The plan was to ride over the 'Hill then go to The White Swann in Greytown, but I decided to head for Martinborough after coming off the Hill, then took Ponatahi Rd and had a brief stop in Masterton to visit mum, getting to the Swan at about 2030. After having a chat with the few that were still there, I had quite a pleasant ride back, getting home at about 2210 having done 222Kms.

After the crap weather yesterday, it was looking a bit marginal today and wasn't going to be much good to do any painting on the house, so I decided to see if anyone would turn up and got away at about 0930, stopping for gas at BP Mana. The weather didn't seem to know what it wanted to do and eventually 6 of us departed Plimmerton with the temp at a pleasant 17°. We struck the odd small patch of drizzle and there were some pretty dark clouds and rain about, but not on our route through Shannon & Opiki and with reasonably heavy traffic, at one stage my economy got up to 19.9K/Ltr but was 19.3 when we arrived at Te Manawa.

The display was quite interesting and it was cool how they placed the bikes on and in front of mirrors so you could see all around them. A couple of the guys had a go on the simulator and performed dismally so the rest of us figured it wasn't worth the $10 and we went to the Herb Cafe in Ashhurst for lunch.

After that we split up with three heading back down SH1 and three of us going over the Track and via the Wairarapa.. The weather still looked pretty dirty in places and a text message revealed it was blustery in Wellington but once again we seemed to skirt the weather and at times it was quite hot with the temp getting up to 24°. Ken, Steve and myself have ridden together quite frequently over the last few years and I was thinking I might have to push it to keep up with them, but we had a most pleasant ride back, sitting a t constant pace and having another drink stop at the Tin Hutt before tackling the Hill.

There was still quite a bit of traffic on the road when we finally got away and I ended up in front and seemed to have an easier time of it as I slipped through the traffic and got away from the other two. There was a wind warning posted heading out of Featherston, but it wasn't that bad and knowing when to expect any puffs along with maintaining a lower gear selection than normal ensured and uneventful albeit reasonably quick ride.

I finally got home at 1725, having done 357Kms for the day at 18.8K/Ltr. It turned out to be an excellent ride and the small group meant we were able to keep together and have fewer stops. It's really great to ride with guys on similar bikes and that you know well!