Just wondering if anyone else has done this on a small Dirt Bike with knobblies ??? (whoops forgot I now have XRJ's Adv tire on rear)
Took off last Sunday, the 28th at 5.45 am (was up at 3.45am, road over to Napier) met XRJohnny, who was riding his XR650. Woollies on our seats , back packs, spare 21 inch tubes each & Johnny with his trusty but heavy tool kit heading up the East Coast to see if we could have a fun day with some gravel and clock up some Ks.
Coffee at Wairoa, breakfast/petrol at Gizzy, photo at Tolaga Bay, petrol/ice cream at Tokomaru Bay and Johnny took some of the local kids for a ride on my “Mean looking bike lady” ( its black LOL). They loved his bike better!!.
Pushed on to Whangaparoa Bay along State Highway 35 for a much needed lay on the grass and recovery NB Johnny had been losing knobs off his back knobbly all the way from Gisborne((see photo taken of tire at Tolaga Bay). Opotiki for gas and an hour or so lunch stop around 3:30ish. Then on to the Motu for a bit of gravel and standing up on foot pegs to avoid that "monkey butt" that was starting to set in on dirt bike seats.
Back to Opotiki AGAIN along state Highway 2, a cool gorge ride along the Motu River. (Can anyone tell me the name of the gorge ?) but as time pressing couldn’t stop for photos. Gassed up again and headed to Whakatane.
We weren’t anal or should I call it ORGANISED and hadn’t worked out our route in relation to Ks so called into Whakatane to make sure we wouldn’t be doing loops around Napier to make the 1000Ks. . . . Just a bit of the “she’ll be right” attitude.
Wet road and dark all the way to Taupo via Kawerau.
Arrived at Bernard’s (bikeflite) at 11:45pm. Told him to expect us for tea at 7:00-8:00ish LOL. Bernard, the best host ever had a cooked meal, dessert and coffee waiting for us. Left for Napier 1:30ish, heavy fog, wet road but opened up to a beautiful half moon & a fab fast ride home. By fast we mean 110 kph on my 200 LOL with 14 tooth sprocket on the front. Gives the bike great pull on the hills & keeps revs up. NB 15 = std & use 13 for the dirt.
Quite fearful Johnnys rear would puncture on the Taupo Rd as his XR650 chews through knobblies on the road. We stopped several times to check & celebrate the 1000 k MARK.
Back in Napier 3.30 am. Back to Havelock & into my bed by 5.00am
In all 1064 ks (or 649.8 miles as it is on 2hundy) clocked up in 23.25 hrs. Took morning off work & we both thoroughly enjoyed the whole 24 hour experience. Love to hear from any other riders who have done the same. With less photo stops, a larger bike, bigger tank, all fast roads, no gravel etc I could have done far more ks in the 24 hrs but this was far more FUN.
Bookmarks