Two months ago I spotted a bike on Trademe that tickled my fancy, a 1995 Yamaha TRX850 in pearl white with a red frame. I put it on my watch/wishlist and decided I'd do some research on the bike when I had some spare time. I ended up speaking to a few friend that had owned TRX's before and the idea of it being 'a very under-rated bike' became a common theme. As I looked on the internet I was finding more and more reviews flaming Yamaha for taking them out of production in 2000 and not coming up with a decent replacement despite carrying on the TDM line of bikes (which shared the same motor) with a new fuel injected 900cc motor.
I bit the bullet and as the bike was at Motomart in Wellington I arranged for James Deuce to take a look at it for me. He jumped at the chance and ended up doing me a 13 page writeup - basically 1400 words and lots of photos showing the various 'trick bits' on it that weren't even mentioned in the advert. Turns out it tickled his fancy too, and he finished with the words 'If you don't buy it, I will'.
At this stage I was starting to get pretty keen on the bike, so after taking a quick look at airfares I was on my way to Wellington for the day for $120 return to take the bike for a spin myself. Needless to say I loved it. I thought over it for about two weeks as I wanted to be sure that I actually wanted it, as it turns out I did. Got the money sorted, rang up the shop and said "I'll take it".
On Tuesday I flew down to Wellington, Jim kindly picked me up from the airport and took me up to Motomart to pickup the bike. After completing the required paperwork and transferring the money across I was on my way.
As I was staying in Paraparaumu for the night with a family friend I had decided that Paekakariki Hill was going to my way across. I left Motomart, and without checking my directions which I had written down, headed up SH2... all the way to Upper Hutt! I got there and thought 'fuck, im sure that the road across was before here'. Sure enough I saw a sign saying Akatawara Road up a head and knew I'd gone to far. By now the sun was behind the hills so I checked my directions and shot back to SH58 and then rode straight past the turn off for Paekakariki Hill.This didn't become apparent until I was in Paremata and now riding up the coast. The sun was well and truly setting now so I didn't bother to stop and ask the locals for directions up the hill and instead shot through to Paraparaumu where I had beer and a nice curry waiting for me!
I got up at 6:35am - I don't usually do early mornings. By 7:15am I was now on my way North, first stop Levin. After picking up a FZR250RR headlight for the bike (same shape, but much better performance) I shot up SH57 to Aokautere and then took Paihiatua Track across to SH2. This was my first real chance to put the bike through it's paces with some twisty roads. Initially, it was shit, not because of the bike, because of me. I haven't ridden a sports bike properly in about 9 months and have mainly just been commuting on my old CB650. It took me the first half of the road to sort my lines out and get used to having a hammering 850cc parallel twin delivering the ponies the the rear wheel. By the end of the road my wrists were somewhat sore from engine braking power that I just wasn't used toBut I now had a fair idea of what the bike could do when I was in the right headspace. The road was mint, kind of like a baby Coromandel Hill!
From here I stopped in Mangatainoka for a few photos of the Tui brewery before getting on my way for breakfast with my friend in Dannevirke. After some delicious Pancakes and a great coffee at 'The Vault' cafe I headed back down to Woodville and took Saddle Road up over the hill past the Wind Farm. What a cool road! It's nice and twisty, and then all of a sudden you come around a corner and the big spinning wind turbines seem to take over the skyline, i looked out for telly tubbies but didn't see any. Those turbines really are quite big!!!
I continued on through to Fielding via Bunnythorpe and caught up a few of my cousins on their lunchbreak at school. Just before I was about to leave a fat and stumpy teacher came out and told my cousin she 'shouldn't be out on the street hugging wierd aliens'... I guess the teacher really was from another planet. I fired up the bike which got the attention of around 50 or so students so I was very careful not to make a dick of myself as I leftthough I couldn't resist giving it a handful as I left, I had to show the retard on the mini chopper what a real bike sounded like.
I 'supercruised' the back roads from Fielding to Marton, then across to Wanganui. Filled up with gas and headed for SH4. About 5km out of Wanganui there was a sign saying "SH4 - National Park : CLOSED".
SHIT! I stopped and spoke to a road worker and he said that the road would re-open in 15minutes, so I pulled over and waited. Soon enough I got the all clear and after passing two cars that shot away before I could put my gear on and get on the bike I had the road to myself.
I did all of SH4 through the Parapara's and through to Raetahi without having a car going the same direction as me. I had the road pretty much all to myself for 96kmAs you can see from the photos the weather couldn't have been better. The only clouds in the sky were contrails from airliners!
I then took SH47 and SH41 across to Turangi and then up the Eastern side of lake Taupo to Katmans workshop.
Total distance for day one: 516km
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Originally Posted by NinjaNanna
lol That was a GREAT ride!!!
Cold Kiwi 
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