Clevedon / Kawakawa / Kaiaua Road

[Coldkiwi]

Did we meet at outside the real estate agents in Clevedon a few months ago 750? Aff-man with the VF250 was with me then.

 

Was that you?

[750Y]

Yeah bud, that was me, did You get a new bike? I'm sure You weren't on the zx then. I remember You both but not which one was on which bike. I remember one of You had a black leather jacket and 'doc marten type shoes'??? the other one had sweet f-all for gear. I remember thinking at the time That I had an old leather jacket that might've been of some use to that person, albeit a tad beaten up. Did You head out through there after I saw You? BTW I got that place I was mumbling about missing out on that day. good to see ya. How do You like that road now?

[Coldkiwi]

Sodding awesome! (until they started ripping it to shreads!) I'm a bit of a regular out that way now but didn't venture out there till a few weeks after we meet you. Those straights at miranda a good - the only place I've got the 250 near its top speed other than pukekohe

Yeah, I had  the ZXR 250 then but got the zx-6r in mid feb (oh yes, loving that!.. see the April 5 testing session at Pukekohe thread)

On the riding gear, it was me who had the full leathers (never leave home without it) and my mate aff man who had the old (ex-mine and pre-crashed!) jacket and skate shoes! Thanks to my pestering and bikerboy's generosity, he got himself some decent KBC gloves, stylmartin boots and a decent helmet now tho:bigthumb:

Hope to see you again sometime

 

[wkid_one]

No dreads - you may be thinking of Harry on the Yellow TLR

[Motu]

I've been riding this road for over 30 yrs,back when it was mostly gravel.Wish it was still gravel - hardly any traffic then.Still one of my most favorite roads,I go a bit nuts on it,specialy the climb over the hill just out of Kawakawa Bay.The whole loop - Hunua Gorge,down Happy Valley,then back up the other side,maybe even going over Skyline rd - Clevedon to Hunua,can be done in 3 hrs - good morning warm up.

The loose stones on the road don't really worry me,but i don't like to come across them mid corner with no warning!

[750Y]

No, there's another guy on a yellow vtr1000 with dreads. I was talking to him at the lights at Pakuranga one time. I noticed his brake reservoir was brown. I saw it parked at the gym opposite lagoon fitness in Panmure, or was that You?

[Nouseforaname]

Well after much talk about this road i finally managed to venture out there on Sunday for a bit of a run down to Thames for lunch and then back through the plains and down the southern motorway back into auckland........ I was F#$%^N horrified to find out what a bloody death trap that road is..... now i must admit if it was sealed properly and the monkeys who perform road works did their job properly it would be a damn good road, but in it's current state i'd prefer not to come around a blind corner and meet a gravel pit pretending to be a road..... owell, give it a few months and ill be back out there :-)

[Yamahamaman]

Hmm. It was like that back in February. Wonder just how long the repairs are going to take.

[Nouseforaname]

yeh it was abit rough but it would be nowhere as bad now..... if you went out there now you most probably wouldnt think much of it, but it was my first ride out there so i guess it was all new terrain and i was being super careful....... but yeh, still a few dodgy patches here and there but thats our roads for ya :-)

[MikeL]

I did that road on Sunday too, on the way to Coromandel. First time I had been on it. Found it slow going at times - partly because it was wet, but I agree that the surface leaves a lot to be desired in places. Hard to decide whether it's better to put up with its defects for the sake of the good stretches and lack of traffic and traffic cops, or suffer the tedium of the main highway.
BTW I just love the road from Tairua to Whitianga and then on to Coromandel township - could do it every weekend

[Yamahamaman]

You would know about The Old North Road (SH16) - one of my favourites. Another is SH31 (Ngaruawahia - Otarahanga and still another #2 between Paeroa and Waihi.

[MikeL]

SH31 has also recently become one of my favourites. To ride it as I did a couple of weeks ago, in the early morning with the lovely autumn colours, a hint of mist, and no traffic, was sheer magic. As for SH2 between Paeroa and Waihi, that too can be magic - especially in summer in the late afternoon or early evening. Trouble is, you're unlikely to have the road to yourself for long. Too many trucks, campervans, boat trailers, SUVs and other unnecessary vehicles cluttering up the road. At least it's a reasonably good surface now and the washouts aren't as frequent - can anyone else remember the Karangahake Gorge as it was 15 or 20 years ago???