World first: Shiver completes Grand Challenge!

[Hitcher]

In a recent world first, an Aprilia Shiver completed the 23rd Rusty Nuts Grand Challenge.

The Shiver’s rider has now completed five Grand Challenges.

The Shiver rider’s loyal Bandit-riding accomplice has now completed four Grand Challenges.

According to the Shiver’s odometer, this year’s GC was 122km, something that should be of concern but isn’t to New Zealand’s “most customer focused and experienced importer of European motorcycles”.

Fortunately a GPS provided more accurate commentary, which corresponded well to the 1,720km the odos of several other finishers confirmed.

Much has been made of this year’s weather conditions, which were at times suboptimal. How bad they were seemed to be a function of whereabouts in the field one was riding. Some of the faster riders experienced close to 20 hours of wetness. Team Hitcher probably encountered about five hours, most of which was torrential as we came back across the Waikato for the second time on Sunday morning.

These conditions were a good test for riding gear. Gear report and score out of 10 follows:

Rain-off overgloves. These work. They are impervious to rain. Buy some. 10/10.
Sidi Canyon Goretex boots. Why bikers faff around and buy boots that don’t have Goretex liners is a mystery to me. Cheap is as cheap does. These boots didn’t miss a beat. Warm dry feet. 10/10.
Rev’it one-piece waterproof oversuit. I bought this on Wednesday as a sop to the Water Gods, in the misguided hope that a $150 donation to a garment of this type would avert their attentions. The Water Gods knew more about this suit than I did on Wednesday. “We’ll make that smug prick wear it,” they said. I did. Oh how those Gods larfed. Don’t buy one of these. You’ll never get it on unaided. You’ll never get it off unaided. The fabric may be waterproof, but it doesn’t breathe. This means you’ll drown in your own sweat rather than in the rain. Buy a urinary catheter if you plan to wear one and ride alone. 4/10.
Shoei RF1000 (XR1000) helmet. Imported from the USA a couple of months ago, it was a pleasure to have one’s head in a helmet that fitted well for the best part of 22 hours. The visor didn’t leak and I had no issues with fogging either on the visor or on my prescription eyewear. 10/10.

In addition to this, I wore three layers of merino, a pair of polyprop leggings, my trusty Teknic Goretex jacket and my Spidi H2out leggings. The gloves beneath my overgloves were Clover ST03s – probably the best mid-weight glove ever made. I was warm, snug and dry, apart from a damp arse caused by perspiration with nowhere to go, thanks to the dreaded Rev’it one-piece. Reasonable offers for this will be accepted. It’s only been worn once…

Also worthy of mention are my recently-fitted Conti Motion tyres that rarely saw dry tar, and which often saw rivers of water washing across the road. If I hadn’t had similar feedback from many other riders about twitchy and skitterish riding conditions, these would now be in a dumpster behind a motorcycle shop.

The worst moment on these was yesterday at the top of the Raurimu Spiral hill, heading home down SH4. The tar was smoother than Lockwood Smith, lumpier than Tariana Turia’s arse, and wetter than the entire Green Party. In the course of about 20m, the front went twice and god knows what the rear was doing in addition to spinning up a treat. No rider skill at all was involved, but all survived unscathed, apart from one’s sphincter.

That said, I don’t plan to replace these with another set of Conti Motions, no matter how good the price. I shall probably seek solace in Storms.

Anyway, enough of the shameless commercial plugs and back to this year’s Grand Challenge.

Other posters have described the route in intricate detail. It was an absolute peach of a ride. Unlike other GCs I’ve ridden, it was largely devoid of goat tracks. The back road from the Te Uku timecheck to Huntly on leg 1 was an absolute pearler – probably because it was dry and warm! The same couldn’t be said of the stretch from Checkpoint 1 at Whangamata to Waihi which, in addition to being tightly twisting, was also very wet from a retreating thunderstorm. The roadworks on Pyes Pa road harboured no ill will to motorcyclists. The Paraparas too were moistly benign.

We were home in about 23 hours. We’d spent about 45 minutes quaffing pies and coffees at Rotorua on the last leg home, given that the weather was on the improve and the finish line was easily in sight. Otherwise we didn’t muck around at checkpoints or at fuel stops. The Shiver has a 15 litre tank, so more frequent stopping for gas was required than has been the case in my previous three Grand Challenges. Gas was taken on at Te Awamutu, Whangamata, Rotorua, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui (if I’d been smarter I wouldn’t have needed this one), Wanganui, New Plymouth, Te Kuiti, and Rotorua. In addition to those stops we also had quick stops to don wets (western access road and again at Kopu), to have a drink at Huntly, and to check in at Checkpoint 5 at Paengaroa.

Mrs H says she enjoyed this GC more than any of her three others. Thanks to Rain-off Gloves and especially to the ministrations of the Legend that is Robert Taylor for setting up the suspension on her Bandit (Racetech emulators on the front and Ohlins rear spring replacement). For the first time she left her trusty sheepskin at home and didn’t miss it one bit. Sheepy is very happy about this, given the wet weather encountered en route. Bandit handled superbly.

It’s always a pleasure to meet up with regulars and newbies at Turangi each year – it’s like a family reunion. This is one event that soon sorts out any egos. The only person you have to prove anything to is yourself. The riding standard is exemplary. Nobody does any silly shit and riders don’t mind following or being followed.

Every year I learn more about what the Rustys do to bring this event together, make sure everybody gets home safely, and enjoys the experience. Without them there would be no Grand Challenge, and the biker community would be the poorer for that. Our thanks once again go to Lee and his team. You guys and gals are fantastic and consummate professionals.

Next year will be GC 24 – a good practice for GC 25, which will probably be something a bit special…

[Cloggy]

Nice writing Hitcher
I thought I saw you in one of the pictures posted in another thread.
1700 odd km and 23 hours on a bike, that is quite an accomplishment.

[shafty]

A nice read. Good luck with the speedo.

[KoroJ]

Interesting and informative read Mr H.

It's a relief to see that perhaps my speedo isn't overreading.

I concur on Rain Off gloves and Sidi Canyons.

I must have been near the front to get 5'ish hours of dry.

Roll on the 24th GC!!

[XP@]

The Dri-rider suit is the same.

I bought mine on Friday am after getting to work and having to wring out everything down to my undies (except my socks cos me boots don't leak with the overboots on).

I asked if it would let water in, they said "no".

Bouyed with the prospect of having a dry 1000miler with whatever the weather I thought i would put the suit to the test. It lasted until just after New Plymouth when the river in my pants started (and yes I know the difference rain is COLD other stuff is WARM, this was COLD).

The nice chappies at the shop are getting me a new one, or maybe i may change it for a dry suit, probably be more suited to my needs...

[vifferman]

I could've told you - despite those who swear by them - one-piece rainsuits are crap. The one I had (can't remember the brand) wasn't too hard to get into, but if there was the faintest hint of a glimmer of solar radiation of any kind, the suit autamatically reverted to its Broil-in-the-Bag mode. I wore it all of three times, then sold it on TardMe. Two-piece oversuits are much more betterer.
Even more betterer still is gear like Spid's Gran Turismo jacket and/or trousers. I have the latter, and they are great (apart from when one is not wearing the thermal liner, and rain trickles down the outside of the goretx lining, which feels almost exactly the same as rain trickling down the inside of the lining...)
Yesterday my Macna Summit jacket inexplicably failed, when I had a most deja vu visit to MacD's abode for a cup of coffee, chat, and to collect a MotoGP DVD or two (many thanks once again, Sir!) Yes, it pissed down mightily while I was there, and repeated the performance on the journey home. (This has happened on previous occasions). Still, a ride in the rain is better than no ride, and it was only my second in the last 10 days or so, so I made the most of it, despite the deluge.
For some as yet undiscovered reason, I had one (1) leak...somewhere... which allowed water to form a cold and spreading patch centred on my belly button. (My mother-in-law was off the opinion that it was in fact an outward leak from my belly button, but I find that unlikely...) Trouble is, the source of the wetness is somewhere other than the wetness's final destination, and tracking it could be... interesting. In not quite two years of jacket ownership, this is the first time it has been other than totally warm'n'dry.
Most perturbing. And moist...

[Gremlin]

A Dri-Rider one piece did ok for me last year on the GC, but couple with a one piece leather suit... toilet stops were... tricky

I opted for the easier method of cordura two piece, much easier on stopping, but it had picked up its maximum load of water by the end...