Rode Christchurch to Wellington yesterday.

**petesmeats** · 11th November 2006, 17:18

I rode up from christchurch to wellington yesterday (as you may have picked up from the thread title) cos i finished my studies for the year (half an engineer now... yay!!!) and wanted to get home for some decent home cooking. I left christchurch at about 7.30am and headed off in convoy with a dude in his car. The first part of the ride was hellish. It seems that i may have had one or two too many wines at dinner the night before, and not to mention the fact that there was a bit of a frost. I wrapped up in all my warmest gear though and it warmed up pretty quick. The bike seemed to not be running to well either. It was faltering around the mid rev range (6-7 thou) and was sluggish on the uptake when throttling on at around 100kph. (Does anyone have any ideas about this?? I thought it could be a carb prob or an air filter prob but havnt had the time to check it yet.)

We made it to kaikoura though with no problems at all and stopped at aroma's for a shearers breakfast which was awesome.... Pretty decent hangover cure really.

We were keen to stop at meatworks for a surf in kaikoura but it turned out that there was bugger all surf so that wasn't a go. I decided not to piss round waiting for my mate so i shot off and had a bloody awesome ride from there on in. I just love the section of hill south of Blenhiem (sp?). Those corners are so nice and sooo smooth... Pity there are only a few of them though...

Got to picton and jumped on the lunchtime ferry. The crossing is probably the most boring thing in the whole world... especially when you have just been riding, but we got talking with this really cool old lady who we talked to for ages and she knitted my mate a red/purple fluffy scarf.

Got off the ferry pretty quick and had to pull over to wait for my mate in his car... The only place i could find to pull over was on the side of the road which goes to SH1 and SH2 on double yellow lines...

A couple of people rode past and a couple of them were gooing to stop and help me which was cool... Pity i was not broken down... Thanks to whoever they were, it is nice to know that you would help me if i was actually broken down...

Anyway about ten minutes later he got off the ferry and we convoyed it back to my house...

All up a really successful ride... Made it in one piece and with no speeding tickets or anything. Thouroughly enjoyed my day.

I'm keen to do some rides while up in wellington though... I have done the Rimutaka's once last year and would be keen to do it again a couple of times... Are there KB rides that go over there for people who are medium paced???

Anyway i wasn't really planning on posting such a big post so i will sign off now...

Pete

**chanceyy** · 11th November 2006, 17:55

great write up mate .. congrats on being half way to being an engineer .. the last half will really fly

sorry can not help ya with bike faltering .. no mechanic here

**Shazz** · 11th November 2006, 18:09

hey might have been knowen it was heading home, or it wanted a stop for some big "CrayFish", huuuuummmmmmm

however its a nice write up ,and hope you sort it out, or it sort's its self out,

good to know you had fair weather and a soft sailing

**merv** · 11th November 2006, 18:45

Half an engineer, good on ya from myself an ex-Canterbury grad and post grad engineer. I agree with you on the ferry trip, with me being a Hawkes Bay man myself and having stayed 5 years total down there to do post-grad too I had at least 30 trips on the goddamn ferries to and from home and it did get boring. Silly me I've been in Welly ever since I graduated the second time and was I so pleased when the fast ferry Lynx came in 1994 cutting the trip initially to 1hr 45mins but then the do-gooders got them with speed restrictions and the fast ferries are no more.

**Skunk** · 11th November 2006, 20:58

Nice write up. Faltering could be the carbs icing up if it was below about 5 degrees C. Maybe. Just a thought.

Sunday 10am at Caltex Rimutaka.

**Colapop** · 12th November 2006, 11:02

You set for summer work? We're looking for semi grads...

**petesmeats** · 12th November 2006, 16:23

Originally Posted by Skunk

Nice write up. Faltering could be the carbs icing up if it was below about 5 degrees C. Maybe. Just a thought.

Sunday 10am at Caltex Rimutaka.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't that cold... Plus the bike was tucked up in the garage till 7am so i think once the bike got running it would heat up pretty quickly... It has done it before but last time i changed the plugs in it and it seemed to help. But that was only 6 months ago so i don't think my bike would work its way through a set of plugs in six months...

**oldrider** · 14th November 2006, 10:47

Enjoyed your write up.
Funny I have been back and forth for many years on the ferry and have never been bored yet.
I even worked on them for a little while too as a marine engineer.
I enjoy the rides to and from the ferry and like to see how quickly and efficiently I can get on and secure my bike and then get off again at the other end.
It always seems such a long wait and then a mad bloody rush. (I think it is the mad rush that presses my buttons)
Kevin bloody Wilson's song springs to mind, "and it was over before it began" suddenly you are on the road and biking again!

Cheers John.