Hardcore Biker
Looking Forward to Your Report
You will recall that I bumped into you at Westport and later at Springs Junction. I also thought I saw you on the Takaka Hill. Comming down towards Takaka as I was going up. Keen to know what you achaeived. Looking forward to reading your next post with the rest of your story
4 Wheels move the body. 2 Wheels move the soul
Whip it, whip it good!
Feel the love *hugs*Originally Posted by Gremlin
Comfortably Different
OoooooK. In my defence I have to say that I had decided that this will be an adventure and given that Sir Gremlin has his trusty GPS, and we were going to end up following everything that grazy gadget said meant that wether I looked at maps prior to the trip it didnt really matter.... tahts my story and I'm sticking to it
Pleanty of adventures and stories for the past 5 days. reports are to come soon...
Best Frenemy you could have!
The alarms came at 0430, much too early for my liking but no choice to be had and after half a year of waiting (I didn't do the first as the bike was in the shop being repaired) the 2010 TT2000 was finally here.
Showered in the freezing cold... damn toilet block was separate and breezy. Gear was put on and packed into the luggage with the noise of bikes constantly going past and we headed the 7km down the road filling up our tanks and grabbing some drinks for later in the day. At Hampton Honda, the main group had already left, apparently they had let out a couple to take photographs, and everyone had taken it as the time to leave. Toto was staying with me until Rakaia, where he would continue the basic route as it was his first time in the South Island and sightseeing was on his list. I was continuing down to Geraldine for the first of 3 flyers, aiming for a Silver Award. Left Hampton Honda around 6am.
It was cold, very cold heading down the straights, and I quickly found my right hand heated grip was definitely not working. Not such a great start when the bike is saying the air temp is hovering between 1 and 2 degrees, but I was fresh and knowing it wasn't quite the difficulty of the Grand Challenge, I would be reasonably OK. Pace was brisk, enough to pass some bikes, but passed by others. Didn't want to be stopping and chatting at this early stage, but the cover of night was a handy thing to polish off some early boring kilometres. Rakaia came into view, a quick stop to photograph the 50kph speed sign and say my goodbyes to Toto, who was already asking if I knew where the turn off was...
I had decided photograph almost every town or place required, as it was quick and I was aiming to stop 2-3 times a day with my increased gas range. I had even purchased a bum bag that sat on my gut, allowing me to take 1 glove off, phone out, take picture, put away, glove on and go. On top of the radar detector was also a small piece of paper with the places required, and the flyers of my choosing. Handy quick reference when you're tired. On the way down to Geraldine, I came across a Holden that was in a similar mindset to me, not going too far about 110, but slowing for oncoming cars. Used him as a rabbit until my turn off. Few bikes had been seen so far, but had no idea who was doing which circuit first, who was actually going for flyers etc, and travelling the same way, finding bikes was going to be rare. At Geraldine I decided to stop and eat, as my next stop was 400km. I had had some muesli bars made in preparation for the trip, and this was my sole food during the riding. All vital nutrition and quite tasty. There were bikes in Geraldine already and a few more arrived while stopped. Chatted to a father-daughter on a Pegaso from Lyttleton, who had forgotten his notes at home, so showed him the brief run down. Didn't end up seeing them again.
From Geraldine it was a boring run to Coleridge, but excellent time was made, and I suspect, made the big impact on the schedule, maintaining consistent speeds for long periods of time. Dawn had broken, so traffic was increasing a little, and some horse event thing was on somewhere. Up to Coleridge, a great road with rises and falls, and a few coleridge locals looking puzzled to see another bike. From here, I took the shortcut across to Arthur's Pass, using Lyndon Rd, as I had the gas range and the SM wouldn't have a problem with the road which turned out to be quite easy (at least perhaps in summer and dry).
Great run through Arthur's Pass, apparently missing the cops in it, perhaps they were south of Lyndon Rd, but I didn't see a single one, not that it would have presented a problem, as I try to maintain 110kph most of the time on the more main roads. Approaching Greymouth, I was tossing up between passing the 3 bikes in front of me and not, aware of the town approaching, but 90-95kph was robbing me of time. While thinking, ran a bit close to the bike in front, so decided to overtake, but as I did so, the radar detector chirped for the first time, so tucked back in. Sure enough, 1 parked on the side of the road, and as I was getting relaxed, more blue and reds with a sv1000 parked up... oh dear, looks like it was busy, with the food festival etc. As we rounded the corner to the roundabout, another cop, oncoming. Wow... 3 in one hit. Greymouth was the next stop, so knowing the KTM ran great on 98, into BP. Pity I didn't know the price until that evening. A whopping $2.139 per litre. Either they have big litres there, or I just got ripped a new hole.
Food and drink consumed and a short break, on to Ikamatua and Blackball. Had a blue/purple gsxf or something and a vstrom sweep pass, it turned out I would see them from time to time, and kept a pace similar to mine. At Ikamatua, they went into the town to go to the store to get a receipt, while I did my usual trick of stopping at the town sign. This in turn put me just in front at the turn off in Ikamatua and while they caught up quickly enough down the straights, they didn't pass. I assume it was my turn to be a rabbit. Stopped at the Blackball sign, this time, they copied me. I checked if I was holding them up, but wasn't, so carried on, them behind me. Excellent pace maintained, they stayed right behind until Punakaiki, where I saw the town sign, mentally nodded, then realised I needed to stop. Slid to a stop, preferring this to Pancake rocks, which would be busy.
Saw the guys stopped outside the pancakes rock entrance, and sure enough, they took a bit longer to latch on coming up behind near Westport. Didn't need to stop yet, so carried on through, while they stopped. I had chosen the Denniston flyer as the last for the day, as I have done it before, but this time, the road was not in a great condition, a lot of pea sized gravel on seal, which can be very slippery. Saw the two bikes going up as I was coming down. Up to Karamea, a great ride as always, but had a bit of a close call getting to Karamea, when I didn't realise how new the new seal was, and had a two wheel slide from left wheel track to right around a left hand. Slowed the pace a bit on the seal after that.
Found the Karamea sign and headed back to Westport, but with more of a head wind now, and hard going. Sorta struggled to get much over 120kph, what with full luggage and being a naked bike, so didn't try as I needed decent consumption to get back to Westport. 220km odd from Greymouth, another 220km for Denniston and Karamea... walking is muuuuch slower than doing 120kph. On the way south, I started thinking about the end of the route. My eta was already estimated at 1815 by the GPS, which, if I wanted, could leave plenty of time for another flyer, perhaps gold was possible. Not having the documentation for other flyers, I hoped there would be bikers at Westport Caltex, and sure enough, ran into STJim (who I've met on a GC prep ride) and a fella on a gsxr that had passed me twice on the straights to Geraldine (hehehe, tortoise and the hare, I have a bigger gas range)
They told me the proof was Springs Juction, for that flyer, the other 2 possible flyers for the day, I had already passed. Thought, oh why not, don't have anything else to do (definition of crazy perhaps? Doing over 1000km in 16 hours, I'm ahead of time, so may as well do some more?). STJim didn't stop long, but I stopped again, feeling sore from the pace and the previous stop was Greymouth. Gsxr was also doing Springs Junction, with STJim and I, but we did it separately. Buller Gorge, a delight as always, few spots of rain on the visor, but realised the extra flyer was going to allow me to dodge the front, which it did.
Got a good break going through Reefton etc, finding a cop parked up fishing, but pointing the other way so I saw him as I exited a corner, in plain view. With a pace of 120kph ish, it might have been worse if either of us were doing the opposite. Saw STJim stopped in Springs Junction after I had taken my photo, he was wondering what he could take. Told him to take the town sign, it would be fine.
I was really starting to feel it now. A little more than 300km remained, the 1000km mark ticked over and the strain was obvious. Back, neck, arse, all hurting, and the overwhelming sense of just wanting to be finished was growing. Corners were no longer entertainment, they were a small chore. An accident scene broke the monotony, but it was all cleared, except for a bashed up car sitting on a truck.
The Mot Valley highway was a great break from the straights of boredom, just a brilliant road and helped me ignore the pain. A long half hour spent trundling to Nelson, and Morley Honda for the completion of Day 1 just before 8pm. Checked the stats on the GPS. I had been on the road for 14 hours, 1 hour of stops. A moving average of 97kph and an overall average of 89kph ish from memory. Toto arrives within minutes, sporting a BP pie, the bastard. Nothing for me.
Trundled off the find the night's accommodation, organisers had said they would be much more strict on the 6am start for Sunday. Turned out the Hell's Angels were in town for their meeting, so the cops were kept busy, which was great from my view point, hoping it would extend to morning as well (or that the cops were tired and sleeping - either way, not interested in us). A great burger each from Smugglers or something, shower and bed. Freight train returned to haunt me, but not much, as I was too tired.
Best Frenemy you could have!
Cursed alarms... 0500... this was hard work, but at least my back felt a lot better than the previous night... These rides are hard work at pace on a naked, but hey, they were great in corners, which is what I wanted.
Doing the maths last night, I had decided that with being more tired on the 2nd day, getting 2800 points in the bag on the first day, it would be extremely unwise to push for the remainder of the required 7000 points to get a gold award, and scaled back my ride for Sunday to comfortably achieve Silver. Oyster Bay was dropped from the list, and Kaiteriteri-Marahau and Portage were all that was needed.
Got to Morley Honda late, around 0610, the main bulk of riders had already pulled out, but no problem, this day would be more of a cruise, and no need to push. Ended up leaving Richmond at 0630, after spending time cleaning my visor, filling up the hydrabak etc. Toto had already left, with his own route in mind.
Kaiteriteri was tackled first, thinking the extra light for Takaka would be nice. Struggled a bit to find the Marahau fire station, but asking a local, and I headed next door. Exiting Marahau, my first cop, why on earth was he going there at 0730 in the morning? Didn't dwell on it as it meant one less on Takaka Hill.
Raced up it, finding plenty of bikes coming the other way, and on the return journey, passed a few. Round Nelson, stuck behind incredibly slow cars through Nelson, doing 30-40... what is this? Early Sunday morning? Sheesh!!....
The aches and pains were back in their familiar places again, making me glad I had chosen to have a slower day. Passed a few bikes on the way to Queen Charlotte Drive, and judging by their pace, I was somewhere near the back of the pack, but no problem. GPS and calculations, I knew I had plenty of time.
Portage flyer was next on the hit list. Wow... how to describe it? 30km one way, at least 15km of that was 2nd gear, incredibly tight and narrow. Queen Charlotte Drive has nothing on this road. On the way out, came across a crazy fellow. Thought they had broken down, so stopped and asked if they were OK. Yes, they were, and was I on the TT2000? I have no idea how he knew, but confirmed, and he told me to get on with it. Hardly one to refuse, and seemingly havign obtained my own personal cheer squad, I returned to finding out how well a fully laden supermoto can go around corners. Got to the Portage Resort, having seen 1 bike leaving it, and I was pretty stuffed. Saw dreadlocks when going back to Queen Charlotte Drive, it looked like he was having a lot of fun as well. My flyers for the day were complete, and provided I still had all my proof, Silver had been achieved.
Roadworks continuing to be a common theme, Picton eventually arrived, and my first gas stop for the day. Felt like the end of Day 1 all over again. Knowing I was heading into cop country, the pace was legal for the most part, enough traffic had to be dealt with etc, but detoured around Blenheim, which would have sped things up a bit. Murchison came and went, the feeling of just wanting to be finished was strong again (seems to come up every time there's an abundance of straights). I could tell I was tired, I wasn't doing my calculations, keeping an eye on distances, just using the GPS and whether my final ETA was going up or down - it barely ever seemed to go down... just up, rather disheartening.
Got bored before reaching Hanmer Springs so upped the pace and eventually tacked onto the back of a busa and ST1300. Hanmer Springs was my 2nd and last break for the day. Found myself annoyed that I was thinking, the final leg, almost the end... and yet I still had over 300km to complete, and more than 3 hours... a whole ride for some... but short when you're doing more than a thousand a day. Busa and ST1300 had already carried on, I never saw them again.
Inland Rd to Kaikoura wasn't too bad, but couldn't fully enjoy it was I was too tired. Good road nonetheless (better than the boredom of SH1 anyway). Ended up upping the pace again, going unusually quick down the straights, but a strong sense of wanting to fucken finish the goddamn pain and punishment. Kaikoura to Chrischurch I can barely remember, lots of corners, more cars, nothing different to the other thousand kilometres that had passed under my wheels earlier in the day. I'd done the road on Friday anyway, but at least I didn't get the same greeting all over again. Didn't see a single TT2000 bike, a lonely ride.
Checked into Hampton Honda, Toto had been there a short while, and told of his humiliation by a scooter... well, he didn't say that exactly, but I read it like that. Stats for the day, I had been on the road for about 13 hours and covered over 1100km, stopped for about 1-1.5 hours, and overall average was high 70s or low 80s. Moving average was high 80s I think. Too tired to really care or think I should check it, but I had completed my goals.
Took proof to scrutineers, Silver was confirmed, then support the awesome organisers by buying the achievers pack, polo shirt, award etc. Hey, its not like you do these rides every fortnight. Consumed the sausages and drink on offer, and spoke to some of the other riders, bumping into LBD (now there's one crazy fella... the TT2000 was a leadup for the Rusty Nuts Super Tour starting tomorrrow...)
Eventually, we decide bugger it, no point still being here, thank the organisers and promise to return next year (which I definitely want to) and gear up. Toto needs gas, so he says, see you at the petrol station, which I confirm. As he rides off, I think damn, which one? No problem, as I pull out the drive, he's coming back, saying he can't find it!! Some things never change, how he ever completed the route must be one of Toto's wonders of the world, because I'll never know.
Back to the accommodation, still had the key from Saturday morning... lucky Toto didn't keep it. Still had two packs of muesli bars left (from 3) so had them for dinner and breakfast, Toto agreeing they were awesome, and he wanted some in the future.
Covered more than 2300km for the 2010 TT2000, in about 27 hours. Excludes the "commute" from Auckland
Currently in Wellington... rest of the ride north will come on another day... only getting back to Auckland late on Thursday
Little ol'Hornet Rides again!
Oh I chortled, I smirked, I guffawed, I laughed and I cried! Sounds like a fantastafabulous ride! My only gripe is ... I wasn't doing it myself!
Will be good to hear TOTO's side of things!
"I like to ride anyplace, anywhere, any time, any way!"
Hardcore Biker
Great reading - thanks for the reports
Whip it, whip it good!
Pair of menatlists!
Hardcore Biker
Aahh! so I was riding with a Gremlin on my back...Lucky I didn't come off.
Steve did say he recognised you from the GC's.
How a man wins shows much of his character....How he loses shows all of it!!"
Knute Rockne
Comfortably Different
So Thursday morning rolls in and at 6am I finally open my eyes from the nervous/excited sleep due to the long trip being round the corner. Long into MSN and what do I see , Gremlin on-line, telling me what an workaholic he is and how technology does not behave in the way he want, and he has had really not enough sleep. Being such a caring soul I decided to comfort him a little by telling him me just like him has just begun prepping for the trip, so we kinda in the same boat....kinda. I had been finished prepping and packing in 24 minutes while our knight in black had yet to start. haha such is Gremlin's world.
We were supposedly gonna meet at the petrol station at 9am, and leave at 10am. Some little bird had told me earlier in my sleep that that wont happen anyway so needn't I worry. So I roll in the petrol station , thinking oh, it seems I am late this time, but No. It was the Gremlin that was even more chilled than me and rolled up 30minutes after I had. I was trying very hard to hide my bemusement of his extra fuel tank that I had been hearing for the past 5 weeks prior to the adventure, and how this invention was going to work. I was soon about to find out...
Said goodbye to Sin City and off we went south on our adventure. We kept a good legalish pace so not to attract attention to ourselves. Turned out that even tho we were going almost straight route from Auckland to Wellington the route going on the western side of lake Taupo was really really fun and enjoyable. There were occasions that we would spontaneously turn into a direction unknown to me and there would be corn fields around and I was thinking " oh boy, here we go again" , but i must say that i was pleasantly surprised when it actually turned out to be a real shortcut as opposed to some extra 100kms of metal road like the Christmas tour...
It turned out that our man in black had not really a clue on how to use his new petrol tank in theory it was supposed to be "really simple". At the end of his patience he resorted to asking for my fuel can in order to make it to the petrol station, which I was kind to oblige. It seemed only natural to think that he had somehow broken it in the one day he had the bike back from the shop. He was gremlin after all - Gremlin by name, gremlin by nature as GiJoe says. So Gremlin enjoyed the feeling of filling Katie back with petrol while I strolled along in the military mine fields of the desert road, and took some scenery snaps...
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3457018_n.jpg
We arrived into Wellington, to strong winds and a storm boiling in the sky. I was thinking , boy wonder what the sea will be like. Turned out we had gotten to the ferry just in time. We found this out because by the time we had secure the bikes on to the ferry deck we were already kms away from shore. It didn't help us that the chains that the ferry crew had to pull across for us to tie our bikes onto were missing and we had to strap the bikes in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to make sure they ain't going anywhere we didn't desire. The good thing was that the ferry crew provided us with good strap on equipment so I almost didn't use some of mine I had bough especially for the journey across.
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._5295078_n.jpg
http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._2334551_n.jpg
Talked to a few bikers on the ferry, exchanged experiences and learned how some other travellers were going to spend their time on the mainland. I was well jealous of the guy on the Street Triple who turned out was making such a journey to the south island every few weeks to get some nice riding in. Well done sir, we should be all as lucky as you
Off the ferry we went in 3 hours and straight into the per-booked accommodation where I was told stories of other times at the same place where Gremlin had broken a good part of the inventory and so the owner remembered him well. Even despite that dark past the Graveyard/tombstone backpackers were amazing with their service, facilities, free breakfast, and continuous supply of cute foreigners of the female kind to keep me entertained
The day after I was finally gonna get a taste of the south island
p.s. here is a picture of how Katie and the Hooligan spent the night together - Honda love from first site...
http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._5999133_n.jpg
Hardcore Biker
You boys are truely a worry!
The only stupid question is a question not asked!
Hardcore Biker
Your parents must worry everytime you boys pack your bike gear
Comfortably Different
Well we got up on friday morning, with an abundance of Honda, Ktm, and Harley jokes. Got ready ra ra ra, and the Gremlin decided he must go straight down on sh1 to Christchurch due to his workaholism, but since I was a free soul for the whole day with no commitments I decided to ride to the garden city via the scenic route. And seiing that I'll be doing that I taught I may as well check out the condition of some of the roads that we were gonna be doing on the TT2000 the next day. So my route was as follows: Picton>via Queen Charlote Drive>Nelson>Takaka>Murchison>Springs Junction> Christchurch - a good 700km warm-up route for the TT2000.
Started off trough Queen Charlote drive and almost had to force myself to look at the road as every time there was an elevation in the road I was subjected to the unprecedented beauty of the sounds. It was fantastic. I stopped and took a few pictures, but if I had taken every photo oportinity I was not gonna make it to Christchurch that day. I also got my first taste of the South island straights, and the words of one of my colleagues were in my mind like a warning "Don't speed on the straights, don't speed on the straights..." . So I managed to exercise self control with the throttle and take in the views instead. The views were amazing.
http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...177_3341_n.jpg
I got to nelson in no big hurry got the impression that it was a really chilled out, clean town with plenty of people out and about. A generally fun city that I wouldnt mind living in. From what I had seen on the maps there were plenty of twisty roads around too to keep a biker happy. I headed for Takaka, which was supposed to have one of those super twisty roads leading up to it, and given that it was part of the TT2000 the next day I knew I was in for a treat. Before I get to Takaka however ther was a place that I had to go trough first. A place I found to have horrendous driving culture, where people don't look pulling out of driveways, reverse for no apparent reason, pedestrians are walking on the streets like drunks and ton top of all that the old grannies are driving with 25km/h on the main road. A biker's nightmare. The name of this place is Motueka. If you have to go trough there be on maximum alert in order to prevent some idiot taking your life, and if you get trough there alive and in one piece, you mist thank your lucky stars, and subsequently go to the nearest Lotto shop and buy a ticket. You would have been lucky. I'm happy to report that despite the dificulties I made it out of Motueka in one piece, but given that I would have to go trough this place 4 more times over the next few days I would need to come up with a survival strategy.
Got to Takaka hill and that was pure magic. Fantastic surface, great banking on the corners, almost no traffic, and the ones I came across gave me way asap. I imagine that catching them in the twisties in second gear at 7-8000 rpm and around 160 Db coming out from the pipe had something to do with itI saw plenty of camper vans parked on the lookouts and one was even shaking vigorously. I'm guessing the views have aphrodisiac like properties to the German tourists. The Takaka hill however had a secret to it. Any bike who rode it, had better do his/her homework really well. The fact is that the NZ cost saving technique while building the Takaka hill road had to show somewhere, and it wasn't in the road surface or the banking, so it showed in the barriers. Cheescutters. If you happened to run a corner wide into the barrier, you had a cheescutter there to stop you and since we know what happens to bikers who hit the cheesecutters, you would have an unpleasant situation on your hands to say the least. And this is all before you experience the 800m drop that follows after you collide with the cheesecutters. So the Takaka Hill road is a fun piece of tarmac, but care must be taken while riding it.
Got to Takaka, filled with petrol, enjoyed a refreshing E2 drink and on the way South to Murchison. I took Sh6 south which was amazing. really nice sweepers with the combination of some twisties every 10-15kms or so. brilliant riding. I had a good pace there and the lack of Smurfs, meant that I could enjoy myself to the max. 188kms took about 2hours, so an average of 94km/h. Good pace with a smile on my face
On I went trough springs junction, and trough Lui's pass. I was so busy having fun on the road that at one point had forgotten to look at the scenery, and only managed to do so when my teeth started shaking due to low ambient temperature. I looked around and what do I see - 200m above me on the peaks of the mountains there is SNOW. Well, that explained everything. That also explained the dark shiny parches on the road I was seeing in places of higher elevation. Black Ice. You can see a few photos I took in the pass...
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._7641173_n.jpg
http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6619171_n.jpg
Anyhow I finished the inland road and got back on Sh1 to Christchurch. I didnt expect this to be the longest and most boring part of the trip. You see the problem as they simply put it in The Matrix is Choice. If they had put on the sign "Christchurts - follow only this road" would have been fine. but because there were a number of options to get to to christchurch - via this plance, via that place, I decided that it might be more interesting that the sh1 and also meant that I could get gas somewhere which was magically almost gone from my tank. finally found a ptrol station and filled up. Met a few local hippies who offered to help me find my way seeing that I was from out of town adn was holding a map, but I kindly rejected the offer. I started getting txt messages - where are you , how is all going, but the top was when I started getting messages from Sharry in Auckland who knew I was lost. I decided not to answer but instead to find my way to the accommodation first and then casually reply that I was not lost, but taken the long way home. unfortunately from me entering Christchurch region at 7:30 till about 10:30pm it was know that I was lost and hence this thread is the result. Funny that it was created from a person who herself has the reputation of being a Lost Bitch
It had only taken me 3hours to navigate around Christchurch and clock up 70 city kms. not all that bad
Hardcore Biker
If you can get from Picton to Nelson then Christchurch and back twice and escape the South Island then, your Royal TOTOness, I am sure I can do this too
Comfortably Different
well i get lost in urban aread, outside of town i'm kinda ok
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