Hamilton & follow the river, 8th Jan

[Teflon]

Has to be one of the best KB rides i've been on, great roads, good company..

Catch ya all next time

[Mental Trousers]

That was fun!!

I dragged my butt out of bed and headed to the MacDonald's, which, funnily enough, is only 100m from my place and hence the reason it was to be the meeting place. I pulled in just behind f00t who was on a very dodgy looking something ..... it had a VFR400 motor and frame/swingarm and that was all that could be identified. So we grab some food and sat down to wait.

Eventually, Teflon (TLR) pulled in, followed by jahrasti (636) and Teflon's mate Murph (R1100). Pathos turned up but said his bike was off the road so he wouldn't be coming. Soon as they'd all arrived we rolled out to the BP just down the road when Bane (GSX 750) found us. Once Murph had gassed up we headed out through the back of Melville on Peacocks Rd, to Airport Rd and onto Mystery Creek Rd, skirting around Cambridge and heading for Lake Karapiro.

The X Games were on out at the lake so we took it a bit easy around Cambridge/the lake, watching out for retards and H/P. But once past there I eased the throttle open a little and we got into the fun stuff.

The road down the western side of Karapiro is very interesting, lots of tight stuff that's constantly going up and down through rolling countryside with a pretty decent surface (except for some parts that had Lichen) and virtually no traffic. We had a bit of fun down through there and after a while pulled over to the side of the road for a wee break. From that point on I wasn't sure where to go as I hadn't been down there for years, but I knew we just had to follow the power pylons and they'd lead us to the Arapuni dam.

So we moved on from there with Teflon in the lead and me at the back this time. After a nice cruise we got to the Mangakino to Te Awamutu road and headed for Mangakino. But less than 3k along the 3 of us at the front had to stop and turn around. When we found the others, f00t was carrying his drive chain in his hands!! The join link had gone awol and he had to walk back up the road for find his chain. He pushed his bike up a farm driveway and left it there until he could get back later on with his van to pick it up. Meantime, Trumpy pulled up heading in the opposite direction. Turns out he was thinking of riding up to Hamilton to join us for the ride back down, but he got out of bed too late and ended up going for a ride by himself.

Trumpy carried on while f00t jumped on the back of Murph's recently purchased R1100. They lead the rest of the way, meaning the pace was somewhat slower as Murph had only had the bike a day and had never had a pillion on it.

We made a bit of a detour into Mangakino, but the petrol station had closed down years ago (shows how long it is since I was down that way). So we headed down the road to the Shell, but decided we might as well fill up at the station near the cafe at Whakamaru.

After filling up, we headed over the road for lunch. I sat around waiting for my all day breakfast while everyone else tucked into pies and rolls. Screw that, I wanted food.

We sat around there for ages just talking and watching bikes go past. We decided that SH 1 sucks and has far too many cops, so we went straight back up the road we'd rode in on but kept on it to Te Awamutu. Murph and f00t were at the rear this time, so the pace was quite a bit quicker. The sun was out, the road was hot and tyres were sticky.

Once in Te Awamutu we took the back road to Hamilton, the one that joins up with the road to Pirongia. Once we turned off the Whatawhata to Pirongia road, we all went our own ways, jahrasti heading for Ohaupo and the rest of us going to various parts of Hamilton.

It was an excellent ride. The roads were good, company was great, traffic minimal and nobody stacked it. Unfortunate that f00t lost his chain but thankfully it didn't smash the cases or lock up the back wheel.

Definitely a road to do again sometime soon. Next time might be a trip down to the cafe that Trumpy was headed for.

[Warr]

Sounds great... appart from mechanical troubles..... I'll keep a lookout for the next ride

[marty]

that'll be the rockclimbing cafe at wharepapa. really nice coffee, and lots of hot climbing chicks.

[bane]

yep good fun all round. Have to say that even after the best part of 10 years in the Waikato, Ive never been on many of those roads

Tail end charlie on the way down gave me plenty of time to listen to the great sounds emanating from the bikes of Teflon and Jahrasti(? on a 636). Pace certainly picked up on way back, great fun. Nice to see some cages pull over to let us pass in the twisties.

Great to put some faces to KB handles

[Momentum]

damn it sounded like a good ride i did not get home till 12pm today and only got the pm them.

wish i could have come