"U2, 22, Te Awamu2" - The Trip Report

[limbimtimwim]

Thanks for the pronographic reply dude

Yeah, sorry, I'm in a weird mood

what turned out to be wrong with your bike? I shudder to think of how hard it must be to get parts for

Fuel tap full of 13 years of varnish. I suspect the fuel cut-off disphram was sticking or something. When I changed the air filter a few weeks back, the tap just pissed fuel; with it on, off or in reserve. Vacuum applied or not to the vacuum side of the disphram. Upon pulling the nasty thing apart, it looked like all of it's internals were present. So perhaps it was sticking open. I used to be able to run the bike with the tap in the 'off' position as well. Coming down a hill in the waikato, I guess it decided it wanted to stick shut. Or some varnish came loose and blocked the fuel tap. Gixxerboy's garage had some volitile stuff and the fuel tap got a lot of it poured through it. I removed the spring from the diaphram and now the fuel tap is consistent.. As in it pisses petrol everywhere again vacuum applied or not. Coming back down to wellington today, it actually felt a little *better* than before, so perhaps I have had a very slight fuel starvation problem for awhile.

Someone is gonna pipe up and say "Mehhh!! You will get a crackcase full of petrol unless you fix the tap". Yes, I know.

Fuel tap looks the same as an NC30 tap, and it looks to be a Keihin part. So I suspect it may not be that hard to find a brand new tap.

[VasalineWarrior]

Heheh lucky then. Nothing worse than being stuck in the middle of f@#*ing no where with a bike that doesnt go. From the sounds of it you got help there pretty quick from the honda riders club or something?

[limbimtimwim]

Heheh lucky then. Nothing worse than being stuck in the middle of f@#*ing no where with a bike that doesnt go. From the sounds of it you got help there pretty quick from the honda riders club or something?

The world swung into action: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...d.php?p=549495

[Velox]

Limbimtimwim - riiiiiiight. Someone's been hanging out in Te Awamutu a little bit too long mate.

On that note, the Crowded House song 'Mean To Me' has to be my song of the trip cause ever since Skelstar mentioned going via Te Awamutu the bloody thing wouldn't get out of my head! ("And the sound of Te Awamutu had a truely sacred ring...") And then the best thing was that it says "in the bar of a small town hotel" and we went to the bar of a small town hotel!!! That's just great - made my day! (What a nerd).


Awesome write up Skelstar!!! I'd just add that I could see a little bit more than you made out on the SH with my tinted visor - it was real bad on Vinegar Hill though. Thanks for putting up with me getting sick of it at the end there! But - yep, a great trip. My shouler/neck was still saw today though! That's really not a touring bike!

That whole thing was real good for me to get to know my bike more cause I feel like I'm a bit better in the corners now. I think I learnt to lean a little bit instead of trying to push the bike down into it. I'm sure there's more to say but I can't think of it right now. What a mission though! 22's awesome. Auckland's not. Ooh - Motomail is though!!!


Cowpoos - I don't think so buddy. We were stopping lots (but we're used to that from riding with Suzukis quite a bit) and you try doing the whole thing in one go on a sports bike! And we went the long way. AND I have to stretch further across the tank and get sorer arms and needed to stop.

[SPman]

That whole thing was real good for me to get to know my bike more cause I feel like I'm a bit better in the corners now.

well.....you were quite a way ahead of the 2 slackers on the Hornets..........

[limbimtimwim]

Limbimtimwim - riiiiiiight. Someone's been hanging out in Te Awamutu a little bit too long mate.

Yeah sorry. It is kinda my second home though.. Seriously..

That whole thing was real good for me to get to know my bike more cause I feel like I'm a bit better in the corners now.

This probably means I won't be able to keep up with yo' any more.

Bugger.

[Ixion]

Cowpoos - I don't think so buddy. We were stopping lots (but we're used to that from riding with Suzukis quite a bit) and you try doing the whole thing in one go on a sports bike! And we went the long way. AND I have to stretch further across the tank and get sorer arms and needed to stop.

Mr Winja and I had an interesting debate about this a while back. Years ago I did Auckland->Wellington->Auckland in a day, on a 500cc Velo.

I maintained that for long distance touring a very fast sports bike would actually be slower than a smaller tourer. Partly because no mortal could ride the sports bike non stop. I only stopped once each way, and in Wellington itself. Mr Winja disagreed and reckoned that he could easily do it faster on a GSXR1000.

My argument was that although the GSXR would obviously be far faster than my Velo (or modern equivalent), it's extra speed would only be able to be used on rare occasions - for reasons of safety, practicality, and not getting stopped by the police.And the time saved by the extra speed would be lost in extra stops

While the tourer would plod along (I cruised at around 80mph - 130kph nowdays, with the odd excursion to knock on the door of Mr Ton - I had very high gearing), but it would keep that speed up constantly. And the combination of a touring riding position, better fuel economy , a bigger tank, and an untired rider would balance out the lower speed.Especially on the return trip. It's hard to ride 700km pretty much non stop, then get back on and repeat it the same day.

We never did agree, but I think your comment reinforces my argument.

[cowpoos]

Cowpoos - I don't think so buddy. We were stopping lots (but we're used to that from riding with Suzukis quite a bit) and you try doing the whole thing in one go on a sports bike! And we went the long way. AND I have to stretch further across the tank and get sorer arms and needed to stop.

yes I hav.....and will be doing it again on friday [after a trackday too] and sunday.....hav done the trip in 6 hrs before

[Velox]

yes I hav.....and will be doing it again on friday [after a trackday too] and sunday.....hav done the trip in 6 hrs before

Well we were going for the ride as opposed to just getting there so it was funner than if we'd just hooned up. (We were only in Auck from 11pm til 11am which was a bit of a laugh.) And I would have keeled over and died from pain so it was all good.

[Velox]

Just a few pics....

[skelstar]

Where are all the people V?
Oh...you said 'bum'!!!

[skelstar]

Heres a couple of pics for y'all.
They are a bit out of sequence.
1. V 'melting into the pavement' at Ohakune on the way home. Two v-sexy bikes lined up .
2. LBTW checking his Haynes user manual.
3. Panorama at top of Vinegar Hill on the way up. River terraces in background.
4. V and me on SH22.
5. LBTW and V loading the bike onto the truck.

[skelstar]

well.....you were quite a way ahead of the 2 slackers on the Hornets..........

Wheeeyy...thats fighting talk.
If you werent riding a Gixer Thou Id issue a challenge (an empty one) like everyone is prone to doing these days.

Back me up here V. please?

[limbimtimwim]

5. LBTW and V loading the bike onto the truck.

This picture is a fake. Why did you paint Honda colours on my Suzuki?

[limbimtimwim]

Here is a picture Eddieb took on Monday of his 888 and my RVF up that little side road where we swapped back bikes on Saturday.

See, this bike is fine.