Part Two of my travels 21st April-25th April.
General plan:
Wednesday afternoon: Wellington to Hawera
Thursday: Hawera to Morrinsville
Friday: M’ville to Pukekohe for the track day
Saturday: Post Classic meeting at Pukekohe
Sunday/Monday: back home via the good weather
Friday morning I got out to the track around 10am. Quite a few people were there already. It was a good day weather-wise.
Turned out to be a really good turnout of bikes, bodes well for future bike-only track days at Pukekohe.
I met heaps of KB’ers, and have forgotten most of your names already sorry…..SPMan, BabyB, xjxjxj, Motoracer, Kiwidan, Kiwistorm, MikeL, SpankMe, Firefight, White Trash, Kwakakid, GPercival, Bob Knight,
xjxjxj very kindly offered to rid my Monster of it’s chicken strips, footpeg hero knobs and to put some scrapes on my titanium toe sliders. I thought about it long and hard but declined.
I had decided not to go out onto the track as I was on my own a long way from home. I was quite happy just watching and soaking up the atmosphere. As the day got on more Post Classic guys turned up too, some of whom I knew.
I headed back to my motel late in the day and had an early night.
Saturday dawned fine again. I hitched a ride to the track with some guys from my motel who were racing a Triumph and a Ducati. It’s a pain being at the track all day in your bike gear. The track was covered in light mist, and it was quite eerie seeing the horses racing through the mist. The mist cleared very quickly once the sun got a bit stronger.
There was a really big field of entries for the Post Classic, it was great. Heaps of people that I knew. I was kind of helping out a mate who races a GSX1100 - I was Chief Pusher. His bike is hard to start, as it’s got really high compression. He’d been having some electrical problems, and had replaced the coils and ignition system after the meeting at Manfeild the weekend before. First race he got a bad start as the guy in front of him bogged on the line. Second race (the 12-lap GP) he got a cracker start, and on lap 3 was coming third when the ignition bombed out. Into the pits, had a look and part of the ignition had broken up. Luckily he’d brought the old ignition with him so he was able to refit that. The bike went, but it wasn’t running quite right, so he only made about 8th in his third race. Ah well. His brother was racing an F1 Ducati in the pre-89 class. He’d not raced at Pukekohe before and ended up getting second in all three of his races - bloody well done - especially considering his top gear went in practice so he was on the rev limiter in 4th all the way down the back straight.
Motu came up and introduced himself which was really nice.
We headed to the prizegiving and spent a couple of hours there. I went back to my motel around 8pm to try and find what the weather was going to do. I decided that I would ride back home the next day (Sunday) as the weather on Monday was supposed to pack up. I’d rather be at work on Monday in the wet than riding back home.
Woke up bright and early Sunday morning, and rode out of the motel at 7.05pm. Today’s plan of attack was to head down SH1 to Ngaruawahia, then down to Otorohanga, Te Kuiti, Taumarunui, National Park, Paraparas, Wanganui, and home. All was well till I got to the bottom of the Bombays, when the fog started. Shit. Some of it was okay, other places it was so thick I was down to about 70kms. I swear I never went through Ohinewai! I felt a little guilty at Huntly, as there was an Anzac Day service in the cemetery and there was me on my loud bike going past. I tried to idle past quietly. It was still slightly foggy round Whatawhata/Pirongia way, then just before Otorohanga the fog turned to light drizzle. Shit. At Te Kuiti I gassed up and had a couple of coffees. Put on my waterproof overboots, and my silk liner gloves. By this time it was fair pissing down.
Ah well. Carried on, and despite not liking riding on wet roads, I actually really enjoyed the ride. My Diablos felt really planted, and the bike is so easy to ride. The rain stopped a bit before Raetihi, though the road was still wet/damp for most of the Paraparas - damn, it’s one of my favourite pieces of road!
I saw quite a number of bikes on the road, I waved at them all and apart from a couple, they all waved back. Shades of “hell freezing over” for me too Jim2!!
I agree with Hitcher, it’s such a lovely time of year with all the autumn colours in the trees. Real magic.
Once I got back onto SH3 then SH1 it was a bit boring, but at least it had dried up and I was on the home stretch. Along the Paraparaumu straights this bike headlight came barrelling up behind me real fast, so I pulled over to let the fast guy through….and guess what, it was Hamish (hubby) who’d come to give me an escort home! He’d been at the BP station at Waikanae, but I hadn’t seen him as I was concentrating on sorting out my lane at the lights. We had a cracker ride over Paekak hill, and got home at 2.45pm. Not a bad time from Pukekohe - 7 hours 45 minutes, with probably close to 300km of wet roads, and three gas stops.
So all in all a good weekend. I have decided I am NEVER going to sell this bike. I will buy others (and have already done so, it’s almost here!) but this is my first Ducati, and I am just so in love with it that I will never ever part with it. I have never had a bike that I am so passionate about. I have really loved all my bikes, but not like this.
Bring on the next long trip!!
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with mist & rain
That's pretty impressive. Well done. 
.
Originally Posted by Hitcher
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