The 06 Brass Monkey Thread

**idb** · 6th June 2006, 12:56

I headed through to Dunedin on Thursday,

I left Arrowtown at 8am on what has been the hardest frost so far this year.
About 10ks down the road (at the Nevis Bluff) I struck fog which froze to my visor and clothing, I then realised I didn't have a neck warmer on - ahhh, good!
I decided not to turn back but carry on to Cromwell and get a new neck warmer there but by the time I got there I needed more glove inners too - and a cup of coffee.
So after buying a cuppa, a new warmer and another set of glove inners, meaning that I had three layers of gloves on, I set off into the fog again.
I only got as far as Tarras before I had to stop for another coffee and some cheese rolls.

Luckily the fog ended about there and it was clear over the Lindis but I had to stop in Omarama again for more coffee and cheese rolls.
It was a beautiful clear day and very, very cold - but boy does a bike sing when the air is so cold and dry!

Stopped at Otematata where OldRider and Lady OldRider werer kind enough to feed and water me - no cheese rolls this time but real food.

OldRider then came with me and showed me a back road to Oamaru which will be great fun in summer if I could ever find it again!

On to Dunedin and met up with some mates the following day where I proceeded to erase my memory - note to self, sake in little cups still contains alcohol!

Off to the site the next day over the road through Middlemarch and after a few stops.
Met up briefly with the KB guys but kind of got lost in the night after that - sorry about the snub everyone. I must admit I still wasn't on top of my game after the night before.

It was a shame because I was keen to try the Aucklanders' latte machine.

Good ride home from there and here I am.

Next year for sure as always!

**FlyingDutchMan** · 6th June 2006, 14:01

Well I too had a great time. I was certainly warmer and dryer than last year. I did have a scare or two with the cibby - somewhere between Oamaru and Palmerston it started making loud noises, but we decided by committee in Palmerston that the noise was due to a leaky header. Sounded quite neat actually, though a little loud on the ears - especially at 9000rpm (100km/h in top). But keeping it around 11,000 kept it nice and quiet. At the rally it was quite warm and sunny, a pleasant relief after last years rain. Had a few beers, collected my pre-entry prize of a cool Black T-shirt with a maniac looking monkey holding onto a snow covered tyre with the writing "Brass Monkey Rally - Do You Dare?". Watched the bike show (highlight of a push bike failing the jump the first time). Good time all in all.

The way back wasn't too bad either. About 30km short of Pamly, my bike started making more loud and unpleasant sounds. Some of them sounding like a shot gun going off between my legs. So I stopped to check it out. The engine prompty stopped and I could smell burning rubber

But guessed it was due to a lack of petrol, flipped the tank over to reserve and started it again (eventually) and took off to Palmy. Got there and couldn't smell burning rubber any more, so either I'd fixed the problem, or it had run out of rubber to burn. Open the tank to fill it up, and could see the very bottom - I doubt it would have made it another k.

Coming back to Chch was pretty good - it didn't start raining until Ash vegas, and for a change I didn't find riding in the rain all that bad. The visibility at times wasn't that great, but I stayed dry as a bone until Hornby where my lack of speed caused water to run down my jacket and into my gloves. Can't win everything I suppose.

**far queue** · 6th June 2006, 14:09

Originally Posted by Rashika

And that is one damn funny shot of SDU on her tippy toes on the DR...HA!

You'll love this one then - I think Lemans realised quite early that he'd forgotten to pack the stepladder.

The other pic is Transalper, Plug and some non KB'ers on the way down on Friday.

**T.W.R** · 6th June 2006, 16:22

Just got some 35mm developed today & chucked onto disc so heres a few more pics from the rally

1) Bikes making their way to the rally from Otaruhua
2) Looking towards main area from camp KB
3) KB misfits socialising at main area
4) Warewolf,Paturoa, & T.I.E
5) Everyone back at camp KB spinning woffle
6) Camp KB fire doing it's job early Sunday morning

**SDU** · 6th June 2006, 16:50

Originally Posted by far queue

You'll love this one then - I think Lemans realised quite early that he'd forgotten to pack the stepladder.

Ok I know I'm short but my feet do touch the ground- When I'm walking!
I think I provided entertainment for quite a few people on the trip.
It sounds like everyone enjoyed their trips.
It was good to meet everyone & to catch up with some old friends, Sorry that I didn't get to meet/ chat with everyone but hope to see you next year if not before.
Well being my first weekend off for over a year I proceeded to get rather fuzzy very quickly in the night (before dark

) but managed to survive past midnight before trying to catch some

.
But the Mystery Camp Snorer (anyone here owning that one?) put an end to that. But I somehow managed to snatch enough sleep to get me through the trip home.
Love the roads down Sth, I'll be back next year for some more. It would be neat to try out a few more inland roads. (more dirt)
Warewolf & Transalp & Plug would love to see some pics of your trip home.

Hope all who went had a safe trip home.

**paturoa** · 6th June 2006, 22:14

I'm now officially not a virgin. What a blast, for me the ride only came second to meeting you KBers in person.

I spent the 2 weeks leading up to the ride getting my gear together and getting nervous, got a bunch of new stuff including panniers, heated grip, wets, rear tyre, chain etc etc. The people at work were getting bored with me talking about the trip all the time.

Got up early on Thursday morning, after waking up about 2 hours b4 the alarm went off, isn't that always the way. I was extra careful wheeling the bike out of the garage cos of all of the gear on it. Well I was finally off, yee har!, first stop the meeting point at the autobahn on the southern motorway. T.I.E (CBR1000F) was there ready and waiting and his bike looked like it had even more gear than mine. When he pointed to the duvet I was especially happy as there was just no room for the espresso maker for me, and we had to keep up appearances. The new soft panniers have these little rain covers and one was already gone - duh!

Shayne was a few minutes late and we headed off close to 6:30. The first challenge was just over the Bombays (I hear you say "who cares, its south of ...") where we dropped into a fog that was trying to be a frost, so it was a wet & cold zero degrees for the first 30ks. Everyone had visor problems. We stopped at Tirau for breakfast and to thaw out. I was just about bursting and went for a leak There was an old GPZ900 parked by the loos and the door was locked, bugger, and I was already in the mood for a leak so the walk to the next loo was a challenge - wets are supposed to keep the wet out, not in!. Bacon & eggs in the sun and by this stage it was blue sky and warming up so the riding was looking good.

The next section was a right turn at Tokaroa and the back road to Wakamaru. I had a brief moment on a steep down hill section where I came around the corner and there was Shayne behind a large truck & trailer that was in a low gear down hill crawl doing about 20ks and I was doing about 100, threw out the anchors and lined up an escape route and stopped in time. More fog for a while, gassed up at Wakamaru, and then had a couple of icy sections thru to Turangi. What a stunning view over Taupo where we stopped for a few minutes. We then had a fantastic ride over the desert road.

Just north of Taihape I could see Shayne leaning right down on both sides of his bike and wobbling all over the road. Oh crap, not a break down already, he chucks on his indicator and coasts to a stop, no motor … dead. Anyway his new Katie M has one of those huge tanks and the reserve tap is at the bottom can’t be reached while sitting so he’d just run out of gas. On with the tap and a few cranks and we were off again.

We stopped for gas and a human refuel at Taihape but when checking the clock we would be on the edge for the ride via the Wairarapa with Maximusdemeritus which was a real piss off. I gave him a call to let him know that he could stay at work on a stunning day rather than go for a fun ride with us! So we did the direct route which ended up being a bit of a yawn. The amusing part was that T.I.E would lie on his tank bag and put his feet on his pillion pegs for a relaxed ride. We would cruise into towns and start slowing down, and down, and I’d be thinking that surely he has to take his feet off the pillion pegs and change down soon, but no, a couple of times I could see his bike do the stuttering thing as we got to about 40ks but the old Honda just kept going in top gear.

We got into Wellington with enough time to have a latte and go to the ferry terminal, so it ended up being a good call not to do the taka route with Max. Meet up with a few people at the ferry terminal and here was the GPZ900 from Tirau, and it was a mate of Shaynes.

The ferry trip was uneventful and we stayed at the Picton Lodge Backpackers. Not recommended, but biker friendly, as he was happy to lock our bikes in his garage.

Friday was a quiet trip to chch down the coast. Breakfast in Blenheim (bacon & eggs) was testing the limit of my stomach after a plate of fried stuff that was as tall as it was wide topped off with a flat white. I couldn’t eat it all but it was a mighty effort that was applauded and cheered on by Shayne and T.I.E.

Just south of Blenheim is a steep windy hill that has the most amazing amount of cow shite on it ever! T.I.E had a bit of pent up adrenaline and disappeared off into the distance at a high rate of knots. Stunning views down the coast. Lunch at Kaikoura was seafood chowder and was amazing.

After lunch T.I.E and I carved up a few twisties for ages and eventually met with light rain. Shayne wasn’t staying in chch and just kept on going. The rest of the trip to chch in the rain was quiet with several HPs giving us the look as we were cruising at 115 but didn’t do any revenue gathering for head girl Helen.

Arrived at the Dangerous residence and he told me over the phone where the key was and to help ourselves to his fridge. Wow is all I could think – you’re a good dude Dangerous! Dangerous knocked off work early and came home to meet us to which we informed him that we were then off again as T.I.Es rear tyre was shot. It was a very slow ride into town and he got a new rear at a reasonable price. Cycletreads have some powerful bike hoists as it managed to lift his bike with all of the gear still on it. Back to the Dangerous shack and Rashika was there and, D was taking her bike for a “test” ride – yeah right.

Wicked hosts took us to their local for a few and dinner. There were a bunch of KBers there and a fun session was had with the highlight being Speedygirl’s stories about body piercing.

Up early on Sat morning after more bacon & eggs…mmmmm…., and off we head, T.I.E, myself, Rashika and Dangerous. We get about 100 meters down the road and Dangerous pulls over, forgot something so he races back. Off we go again and this time we only got a couple of ks further and same again, I’m thinking it wasn’t that early and he didn’t have too many ales last night. So we head off to Rolly BP and meet up with FDM and others there. Next was a quick blast down the road to Rakaia where we stopped for a brief warm up and more people. Up pulls a ratty old XJ750 with a guy who was obviously heading to the brass with just jeans! I don’t know if he had anything on under the jeans but it didn’t look like it, either way he didn’t look very warm.

Several more stops but the pace was fun with lots between 130-140ks thru to Palmerston. Just for a change I didn’t have bacon & eggs and joined the long queue for petrol. The Pig Root was fun too and was getting noticeably colder as we headed inland. I followed FDM for a while and he was peddling on his gear lever as fast as Sarah Ulmer does on her peddly! He was keeping the pace well but I was in nanna mode for a few of the corners that looked like grit or were wet. The excitement was building as we turned left for the final run to the site. When we got there it was clear, sunny and warm WTF???

**paturoa** · 6th June 2006, 22:14

Set up the tent, blew up the air mattress etc and then had a walk around. Bloody impressive. I met a whole bunch of KBers of note was Oldrider and Mrs OR who came for a day trip – pleasure meeting you. Lighting the fire was the next challenge but with lots of advice, abuse and lighter fluid we accidentally got it going.

I caught up with Shayne who wasn’t staying at the site overnight (blouse) and a good friend of mine, Bob, who’s tent was only about 20 meters from mine. Bob’s beemer won the Best Modern bike prize.

Checked out the sights, lamb shanks, FMX, bon-fire, beers, lake, bikes, and generally shot the shit with a whole bunch of wicked KBers.. I don’t think I made a dork of myself other than saying “yes?” whenever the words wanker, jafa, or dorklander were said out loud.

I was a bit shagged and hit the sack early into my 3 sleeping bags (no duvet!) and had a toasty sleep. Got up in the small hours for a leak and it was freezing brrrrr. About 2 seconds after getting back into my tent it started to rain. The next thing I know I can hear people milling about outside, checked the time and it was time to get up already, nah, I’ll just lie here for a few more minutes as I could hear the drizzle on the tent.

The pack and leave the site was fun? too with a guy dropping a K75 and busting off his pannier on the now slippery hill. I had and easy exit up the hill and we were off into Palmy to gas up, say good bye, and head off to T.I.E’s mate just south of Timaru. Shower, Bacon & Eggs and crayfish, bit of a chat and we were off again. I had another moment just north of Timaru when overtaking a couple of cars, I wound on the throttle in top gear and pulled out, on the other side of the road was a big tar sweat and the rear spun up and broke loose. When we got to chch we beeped and waved as we went past D’d house and got a “wave” back.

It started pissing down and got very dark and very windy as we got further north and finally gave up at Kaikoura where we found a warm place to kip. It was getting dangerous and we were soaked, cold and the rain just kept getting heavier. At one stage the wind was blowing so hard from behind that the steam from my exhaust was blowing up into the headlight beam in front of me.

Got up early Monday and went thru to Blenheim for breaky. The road was dry … WTF. It was a good blast. When we got to B, I had a B&E McMuffin, and while sitting there noticed oil drops / splatter on my wets. The look on T.I.E’s face said it all ...oh shite! I went all over the bike and can only conclude that I got the oil from somewhere else as there were no leaks or oil splatter on the bike.

Got to the ferry with plenty of time to spare only to find out it was delayed as the crossing was very rough. We eventually got on the ferry and were off, fantastic cruise up the sound that turned to shit as soon as we left Tory Channel. The boat kept slowing down as the waves just got bigger and bigger. There were people chundering everywhere. T.I.E went for a piss but couldn’t because the toilets were full of people chundering. There was lots of chat about the weather on the central plateau and the go was deemed to be Wanganui, Ratahei, Nat Park, Tauramaruni thru to AK.

We headed off north from WN at 3pm and had a slow and booring trip thru to Wanganui. T.I.E decided to kip there but I had people flying from WN to see me at work the next day so had to push on. It was dark by now and I just froze either side of Nat Park. Well it was a boring ride thru to AK and all tucked up safely at the homestead at midnight.

Memorable moments:
- watching FDM wrap himself around his bike, knees up by his ears and elbows near his pegs and peddling like crazy
- bacon & eggs everywhere.
- shooting the shite with KBers.
- FDM heading off in a pissed state to “see” the chic in the beer tent.
- KB hospitality and friendly people.
- Lake Taupo on Thursday morning
- not getting too sore riding my wizz bang
- T.I.E’s relaxed / lying down riding style in his 1 gear bike

Photos to follow

**warewolf** · 7th June 2006, 09:43

Originally Posted by serowdownunder

Warewolf & Transalp & Plug would love to see some pics of your trip home.

Well I traveled sans-camera, so I'm no good to you there.

**warewolf** · 7th June 2006, 09:52

Originally Posted by paturoa

Just north of Taihape I could see Shayne leaning right down on both sides of his bike and wobbling all over the road. Oh crap, not a break down already, he chucks on his indicator and coasts to a stop, no motor … dead. Anyway his new Katie M has one of those huge tanks and the reserve tap is at the bottom can’t be reached while sitting so he’d just run out of gas. On with the tap and a few cranks and we were off again.

Is that the Shayne I met up with at Hislop's Cafe, Kaikoura, having a seafood chowder on Monday afternoon? He has an '06 640 Adventure? He just needs to practice reaching the fuel tap; he's a bigger lad than me, and I can reach mine reasonably easily. That, or I've got a good 'ape factor'.

**scumdog** · 7th June 2006, 10:46

Good write-up all you guys, wish I HAD been there, sounded like you all had a blast! - and the weather not TOO bad either.

Saw a few heading north on Monday near Kaikoura - never got any loony bikers waving this time!

Loved the 'screen' on one bike that I saw going the other way - very creative use of a dunny seat for sure!

BTW Got drenched (and I mean DRENCHED) by a large rogue wave that reared up and crashed onto me in my F100 (CB near shat herself) while near the road tunnels on the Kaikoura section of SH1, any of you guys get a little wet from that too? The on-shore wind was very strong and moved the F100 at times.

The only blessing for north-bound traffic was that they were on the 'safer' side of the road away from the sea.

**idb** · 7th June 2006, 12:16

This is a BIKER forum SD!!!

**scumdog** · 7th June 2006, 13:59

Originally Posted by idb

This is a BIKER forum SD!!!

Fair point, it IS for bikers I suppose - even for those with a bike with the reliability of a jelly hour-glass.

**paturoa** · 7th June 2006, 14:37

Originally Posted by warewolf

Is that the Shanye I met up with at Hislop's Cafe, Kaikoura, having a seafood chowder on Monday afternoon? He has an '06 640 Adventure? He just needs to practice reaching the fuel tap; he's a bigger lad than me, and I can reach mine reasonably easily. That, or I've got a good 'ape factor'.

Bound to be, he only had 600ks on the bike b4 we set off. Talish guy, mo and goatee, with flip front lid?