Epic Adventure Part 3: Brown Fury heads to the BIKOI

[motorbyclist]

Closer to wellington the highway widened and we had our own lane, and then the highway got wider still and we began the decent into wellington. Sure enough, Brown Fury gained speed down that speed hill. So much speed, that a ticket was a real possibility (80kph zone too, it turns out) and I was concerned as to how much brake ability I'd have at the bottom with overheating drums, an overrevving two-stroke and chassis shaking at it's safe mechanical limit. We got to the bottom ok, and continued along the motorway all the way and even through a tunnel!

For once the SMC makes it somewhere when they say they will! But we were far from finished. We decided to head for parliament before bed, if only to save us finding it in the morning. This, it turns out, is no easy feat. We ended up lost, until somehow getting onto a road that took us right out of wellington. We headed back in and at last we manage to find parliament and enjoy a bit of well-deserved smugness for being a day early to the protest.

Next on the agenda is Dinner! In the search for anything at all we somehow find ourselves on the motorway out of the city, and it appears that there there are no offramps for 8k. This means we have to climb that infernal hill we had jsut decended! Some time later, we replay the whole "entering Wellington, oh look how pretty the lights are, blah blah blah" all over again except this time the tunnel is closed. Luckily there wasn't much traffic now it was well past 10pm, as we were riding like a combination of Auckland drivers and lost tourists through the city. Finally we come across a Burger King, but the lit sign is hardly a beacon of hope. The lack of diners should have set off alarm bells, as should the shrill indian music coming from behind the counter. The food was absolute crap (uncooked chips, failed onion rings, off tasting drink etc) and let's just say I've seen bathrooms at student bars in better condition than this place. This was the first time Danae didn't finish a meal from BK and I was none to impressed myself.

Already well out of learner restrictions, we decide to find Danae's mum's place, which was a challenge in itself. We nearly end up on the motorway out of the city again but we managed to bail out before it happened. We managed find the apartment out of pure luck - we happened upon streets rather than consciously finding them, and just so happened to stop outside her apartment when we were ready to give up. Now, where do we park? I've heard Wellington was beginning to take an Auckland approach to motorcycles and after debating for a while we spot a cycle rack across the road - the spaces between the two bars were huge. "Good enough," we both said; if cyclists can aprk there then why can't we? We lock up the the bikes head into the apartment for a much needed sleep.

[Danae]

1. The view from the loft
2. Mt Messenger - epic views and awesome roads
3. What is this strange thing?
4. Caution: Track Hazards!
5. ATGATT!
6. Hawera...it would seem there is a very large tower here

[Danae]

1. Welcome to Levin....Levin welcomes you
2. The beehive!
3. We seem to be having an abundance of strange towers today...
4. Finding a proper park is for wimps!

[motorbyclist]

sorry for stopping guys (if anyone was actually reading it) - will resume shortly!

[Ixion]

Where is the poor little innocent abused two smoker ?

[motorbyclist]

haha atleast we have one remaining reader! Danae is preparing the coverage of the BIKOI before memories fade any further and when the light starts to fade I'll put up the rest

[Danae]

We left at a semi-reasonable hour on the day of the bikoi. Finding our way to parliament wasn't nearly as hard as navigating the night before; we simply found the queues of traffic and followed passing bikers. Bikes, bikes everywhere! The entire stretch of road along parliament glistened with bikes as though it itself were made of chrome. Hondas, yamahas, suzukis, harleys, beemers and many obscure makes and models. All were here to protest the ACC levy hikes for motorcyclists. If these bikes were all cars, there was no way they would fit in the entirety of Wellington.

motorbyclist and I found a park down a sidestreet between a Goldwing and a driveway. Our synchronised parallel parking needs work; one day we aspire to be like the motorcycle gang in Mad Max, whose parking skills are almost too perfect.

The brilliant sunlight was a stark contrast to the damp and miserable weather we had on the way down. Although I would have almost preferred a bit of rain - we found ourselves cooking in our leathers within a minute or so.

We heard an indistinct burble on a loudspeaker of some sort - taking this to mean the rally was about to start, we followed the steady trickle of bikers onto the parliament grounds. The main gate had been locked, a heavy-duty chain wrapped around it with a butty padlock holding it all together. You would almost think they didn't want us there! Nevertheless, the bikers pressed on, climbing over the wall either side of the main gate. It made me feel like we were in some old movie - storming the gates of parliament to protest! All we needed were pitchforks and torches.

Hundreds of motorcyclists were already assembled by the steps of parliament. A sound system had been set up; it all looked very professional. Film crews and cameramen dodged through the crowd. 3 News, 1 News, radio NZ, national radio...all were there to capture this occasion. Several Kiwibikers were spotted - gijoe in very appropriate Spartan attire (ATGATT!), Squiggles acting as BRONZ' bitch, Spankme and many others. Banners and loud signs were waved throughout the crowd. We found a spot with a good view of the stairs, slightly apprehensive yet quite excited. With this many angry people, a huge number of things could go wrong.

The speeches started, and throughout it the crowd let out their battle cry: "WHO'S NEXT? WHO'S NEXT? WHO'S NEXT?" Members of parliament hung out of the top windows - some even joined in the chanting. The sounds of Harleys spluttering off into the distance echoed around the grounds every now and then. You had to wonder why they were leaving in the middle of the whole thing.

At one point Nick Smith himself walked down the stairs. The boos and hisses from the crowd were deafening. He attempted a speech but the angry rabble rabbled angrily, drowning him out. From what we did hear, it was just the same old bullshit we had heard a thousand times already, and that a decision had not been made.

The media were loving every second of it. That very evening it was all over the news. We hoped that the rest of new zealand would see, and would wonder, "Who's next?"

[Squiggles]

[motorbyclist]

OK, sorry about teh lateness, but I've been busy.....

[motorbyclist]

So it's the day after the BIKOI, and the weather isn't looking great. After another horrible wellington coffee we decided we had better tension our chains and adjsut brakes before setting off again. Unfortunately we didn't have anywhere to do this, so we blocked half the footpath and set to work. It was mid morning by the time we were good to go, so we set off with plans to hit up a repco for moar oil whenever we found one.

It was cloudy and began to drizzle, but once we had made the hillclimb out of the capital we were all good. We stopped for oil somewhere around paraparamu and continued north. We stopped in Levin and met up with Rach and Pussy (KBer's all over the place!) and had some fush and chups before heading north. We gsoon got to Foxton where we had our first decent coffee in days, and reinvigourated we set off!

It was a loooong ride to Sanson, there wasnt much wind and the rain had all stopped. We cruised along around 80kph for what seemed like forever before finally arriving in Sanson. It was here that I was hoping to stop and Let Brown Fury cool off for a second but we pulled in right behind a milk truck, and feeling a surge of acceleration as it broke the air for us, I couldn't help but open up the throttle and follow it out onto the road headed for bulls. The truck was actually sucking me along behind it at what must've been 100kph or more, and left me nicely sitting in a warm pocket of air while Danae was falling behind in the wake. This went well with Brown Fury singing along util half way along the passing lane by the aerodrome, half way to Bulls.

Then, disaster stikes

Brown fury suddenly starts losing revs, and the speed drops. I fall out of the air pocket and then I know I'm in trouble as Brown fury is producing zero power. In goes the clutch and I can get the motor to rev up a bit and it sounds ok but then I let off the throttle and the motor cuts out. shit. Shit. SHIT.

On the side of the road I'm worried - I know I may have siezed her, but the motor turns over fine, if a little easily. The plug looks good, but she won't start! A ute stops and out hops a guy asking if we're ok - he (Mike) lives just out of bulls and knocks off work soon if we need a hand, so he leaves his card and carries on. Then we hear the Blip-Bluuuurp of a white car with police colours - shit is that a cop? No, it's not, but wtf? The car does a U turn and comes back up. There's ACC SUX across the front and it's full of some fairly large guys.... Turns out they're bikers (we later find out it's the ACCSUX guy here on KB) and might know a thing or two about motors, and how to get them going, because with a bit of fiddling we're running again!

[motorbyclist]

I'm concerned, however, because she idles quite high for a while before settling down to idle - have we sprung an air leak? So we head off to Mike's at a snails pace, checking a few times for a change in the plug colour but it's still mint...

At mikes home we're greeted by his wife and little girls - they're bikers too and mike's got an awesome 10acre block with a few sheep (including a newborn lamb) and a boat he built himself floating in a puddle. It's a great family setup and they do offer to let us stay but first I want to open up Brown Fury.

The carbs are clean, the plug is good everything is as it should be.... A few runs up and down the driveway on a new plug give the same results. Heck, it's even revving right out and producing good power, just it doesn't return to idle properly.... After much deliberation and a few phone calls we decide to keep heading north to Hawera to meet up with Paul again and look at the bike the next day at the bike shop Paul works at.

We take extra caution the whole way up, and manage to get lost in wanganui where we stop for dinner at a pub. It's getting dark and we're still half an hour away from Hawera when we meet paul coming the other way in the Action Suzuki ute and we load the bikes up into that and head for his place. The rest of the night is a great time talking with Paul and his wife over a few (many) beers until it's past midnight and Paul realises he has to be headed for work in 6 hours!

Hopefully the next day will tell us Brown Fury is all good to go.....

[motorbyclist]

the next and final day WILL be up tomorrow morning, before we embark on epic adventure Part 4!

[Danae]

Photos out of order?!

1. The ACCSUX car!
2. Bikes on the back of a ute ):
3. Delicious food at a delicious cafe
4. Moar petrol!
5. Lost in Wanganui
6. Maintenance on footpaths of Wellington

[motorbyclist]

So after breakfast we pootled on into Action Suzuki to have a look at the damage; the mechanic reckons that if I partially siezed the motor then the rings might be bound or buggered and the high idle problem would be a result of the rings not working at all....

We decided to remove the Race pipe to have alooksee at the piston. A few minutes later it's very apparent that I've seized it as the piston and cylinder wall are both heavily scuffed/scratched. mystery solve- no wait, what's that on teh top of the piston? There's a bit of metal stuck in it at the top edge by the exhaust port, and worringly a screwdriver can't dislodge it.... Things go downhill from here. We pop off the head (5 bolts)and look at that the top of the piston and the head are both cratered by something rattling around inside - and tehre's a few bits of metal lodged in the piston crown... Now we have to find where that came from, so off come the cylinder and oh dear look at that...

One of the circlips holding the wrist pin in the piston, the same clip that got lost in my shed and found on the floor, had broken into several pieces. These pieces ahd then gotten wedged between cylinder wall and piston, and not only left huge grooves in the cylinder wall, but actually cut channels in the side of the piston! Some bits had made their way up through the rings, breaking them, gotten smashed around in the combustion chamber a bit and then either buried themselves in the soft piston crown or made their way out the exhaust port (one had been chopped in half doing this and that's the bit of metal we first saw). The other circlip was loose in its groove from the wrist pin wandering around and smashing into it and was about to come out.

Considering that Brown Fury had limped along with good power for 150km in this state, I decided now would be a good time to give it a break and simply come down tor rescue it.

Pulling the piston out required the use of a hammer and drift, ass it had deformed slightly and was not only holding only a few ring fragments, but the wrist pin also! We wander across the road with the top end to an engine recon place and they're keen to fix up the cylinder and head (0.5mm bore out!) for about $90 (actually came to $80 in the end), and I already know where I can get parts (comes to $150 for piston and gasket kits), so rebuild-ride-rescue mission is go! Brown fury is put quietly to rest at the back of the shop for recovery in a few weeks.

So, how do we get home? Step up the FXAARgh! (more to come shortly)

[Danae]

Our plan for the rest of the day was to head straight up past Mt Taranaki, cut past New Plymouth via SH3A and follow SH3 the rest of the way home. Oh how plans can go horribly wrong.

We waved a tearful goodbye to Brown Fury, promising we would be back soon for the rescue mission. Jumping on the back of my fixxer was not an unfamiliar concept; Squiggles and I have gone on many the beer run (me carrying a teetering pile of 24 packs, with a couple more on the tank). But this time...IT. WAS. A. ROCKET. On the way down we were confined to a maximum speed of 80km/hr...and that was at rare opportunities (downhills, tailwinds etc). With an incredible +50cc, we were almost hitting 100km/hr!

We find a Honda shop and take a rest from our blistering pace. The kind mechanic offers to adjust and lube the FXR's chain, all for free! We thank him and speed off into the distance towards Inglewood.

Disappointingly, the only thing we ever see of Mt Taranaki is the base. Nonetheless it is a marker letting us know we are getting closer to New Plymouth. We reach Inglewood and Mt Taranaki is well and truly behind us. But just as we hit 3A, we become stuck behind a huge sixteen wheeler. The speed we were very much enjoying is cut down to 70km/hr. We groan as we go through beautifully twisting roads, and I know we are thinking the same thing; Imagine if we weren't stuck behind this guy! After an eternity the truck driver lets off his indicator on a short piece of straight road; motorbyclist jumps at the chance and we use up all the gears as we pass the truck. Freedom! The road twists and turns through hills, paddocks and sections of forest. Pumped up on adrenalin we blast through - well and truly enjoying ourselves. The centerline disappears. We blat past old, abandoned houses, in the process of being reclaimed by climbers and weeds. The road narrows. I hear a river nearby. Motorbyclist brings the FXR to a halt. Directly to the west is Mt Taranaki.

"Uh...this doesn't look like SH3A."
"I think we took a wrong turn somewhere..." I say uncertainly.
"How can we take a wrong turn on a state highway?"