Awesome "Mystery" Road

[buellbabe]

LOL is that loose people or pebbles??? Either 1 can give ya a fright!

[DemonWolf]

well last time I rode it.. it was both (yeah yeah.. can't spell either)... a mate on his Honda Interceptor slid out in front of me.. had to take avoidance measures to miss riding over the top of him and his sliding bike.. and after sorting that out.. catching up to the group coming down through the ranges the corners had loose pebbles on 'em. I was beginning to wonder why I was riding that day!

[buellbabe]

HATE those loose pebbles. I was once in the middle of no-where on a gravel road at dusk heading downhill and suddenly found myself on loose tiny pebbles . It was like being on marbles, I had absolutely no control over the bike cos she was just sliding over the top of them, kept it upright but needed some serious attitude adjustment when I reached my destination! Aaargh!

[DemonWolf]

Yep, know what ya mean. =)

[tracyprier]

Done that run myself. They sure are great roads. Even better is to carry on down the back roads to Raglan, forget Ngaruawahia. There is about 1km of gravel near Raglan and that's it, perfect roads.

That's what's great about biking even up in AKL. Get off the main roads and there's no one around

On Saturday I went riding with a friend who took me on some roads I have never done before. Our destination was Raglan and we didn't touch on State Highway 1 the whole way there. Instead we went along 100km's of fantastic back roads before we even got to Ngaruawahia, actually the back-road I am talking about IS a State Highway but it certainly didn't feel or look like 1. Blissful winding roads with a few straights thrown in... long enuf for my companion to pull a few wheelies! At one point I was riding along thinking " OMG! this is Motorcycling Nirvana", the scenery was beautiful and it seemed as tho we were riding on a neverending stretch of well cambered left-right-left-right corners... definately got into that Zen state where ya just flow. Absolutely fabulous! Those of you who live in Franklin County will probably know what roads I am talking about, I am kinda loathe to spill the beans cos I want to keep this road to myself!! Selfish I know but it was just so fantastic to be riding on a road that basically had no other traffic on it (ok a couple of cars and a tractor but that was about it)! And as for speed camera HA! no worries. Then to top it off we had a great blat from Ngaruawahia to Raglan, lucky there were no coppers cos we definately pulled some speeds well over "licence losing" mark!! Yee-bloody-ha!!! All in all it was an awesome day and I am reminded yet again of how lucky I am to live in this country where we can ride all year round and if you don't mind going off the beaten track and riding the occasional bit of gravel then some truely brilliant roads can be found right on yr backdoor step!

[buellbabe]

might give that ago next time... 1 km I don't mind ;-)

[Motu]

In a couple of weeks it'll only be 500metre - they are very close to sealing the stretch before the one lane bridge.It was a fun road when it was mostly gravel.I went down it at night once on the XLV750 and the seal/gravel changes kept you on your toes.