Taupo Trail Blaster weekend just past (9 & 10th Sept)

[F5 Dave]

What is it with Nick & his rides lately, seem to attract the rain?

Well have to say one of the best rides I’ve been on lately, not that I’ve been on any lately, but I love that loamy through the forest stuff with nice berms. Dive in throw it on its side with some power on, next one is tighter & softer, hit the picks, slam it in & fire it out. YeeHaaa!

Did the 12k short loop then the 37k main loop. Had a Sammie & did the big loop again, rain had started to make visibility a little harder & areas were getting slippery, my offsider was having a drag with his glasses/rain so sat the next one out & I set off again to do the main loop a 3rd time before it got too muddy.

Too late, it was a different track & sloppy/slippery with only a few patches dry enough for a pleb like me to have fun rather than tiptoe try-&-not-fall-off mode.

We decided to flag it & drive back to wgtn that night.

Did anyone do Sunday? Bet it was pretty gooey.

[okill]

i did both days saturday was ok but rain sucked got soaked managed to stay on bike whole day stayed at goldensprings saturday night and it poured down all night was gonna head back to welly but rain stopped bout 6am got to sunday track and it was dry as couldnt believe it was way better than saturday managed the 31k twice and 13k twice was sore as hell though grips kept slipping which ruined my day

[F5 Dave]

ahh crumbs, never thought the ground would dry that much?

31k? was it another set of tracks?

Araldite the grips but then use some stainless tie wire & twist the ends, ideally with a spinner tool, but at worst case a set of vice grips & spin. Then trim & poke the end into the grip so it can't stab you.

[okill]

yeah sunday ride was on the w side of highway 5 just before the te toke road turnoff on ya right they had only used the track once before so was good riding i thought the sunday tracks were way better than saturdays .

[F5 Dave]

Ahhh! ya killin me!

[tysonzane]

I went to the ride before this one and it put me off bothering to come down to this weekend. To me i thought it was just all the same stuff over and over again and didnt have much variety, the berms were great but the whoops that were there from start to finish just totally killed it and my sprockets haha. My Shinko on the front also hated the dry thick pumice which didnt make things too enjoyable.

I think i would have enjoyed it much more if it was pissing with rain but thats just me. Im normally a open farrm land or native bush track type of person.