Castlepoint ride pix - 06/04/07

[Trudes]

Oh Hels, I feel for you, that bloody bike!! I think it seriously needs to go to the naughty corner! (Next time I see it, I'll give it the lazy eye and a stern talking to for ya!)

[Kendog]

Is there such a bike - you got 750 on the brain boy?

It is a magic number

But yep, there is a 750 Bandit. A friend of mine (Adrian) has one. Imported it from somewhere.

[merv]

Merv. Good to see you got my worst side in that pic.

Seeing its a full frontal are you saying your backside is the best? Ronin has got you guys all thinking nothing but arses.

[merv]

Edit/ why are there two bum shots of me?!? Damn I'm going on a diet!! cheers Merv!!

Why are you concerned you look good? I'm having problems this year, must be my age, I've never weighed so much before and with us blokes it goes straight to our guts. Mrs merv reckons I should back off on the weekday lunches and all the eating and drinking while I'm away working but a man's gotta have fun eh!

[GSVR]

Garry was the Uncle B corner the one I thought was which I'd picked up from Jimbo600's comment after the accident?

Not sure Merv as I'm not sure which corner you picked out. It has a reasonably fast flowing bit of road before it and the actual corner tightens up at at point where the crash occured. Theres a really big bulge/lump in the road on the outside of the corner that would be easy to spot and the inside has forestry with a belt of trees then some bulldozed piles of dead tress behind that. Theres a small sign on the side as well saying something about forestry. Hope that helps.

[GSVR]

Good day... except for when I had a heart attack coming around the hill to find you all stopped on the side of the road... thanks to Ronin!! Glad you are ok buddy...... just take it easy.

Edit/ why are there two bum shots of me?!? Damn I'm going on a diet!! cheers Merv!!

Thanks for alerting me to the photos! You don't need to go on a diet what you need is a couple of sizes smaller jeans or better still get some leather pants.

[GSVR]

Well, I almost got to Castlepoint. What a mint day! Cheers for coming along. That road is pretty cool. Shame I didnt quite get to Castlepoint but there's always another time.... Once I fix my bike. It died on the way home while going over the Taka's on the way home. I managed to startit and and ride it to the summit, where I stopped and smoked a few ciggies. The bike had been revving at 3-4000 while idling all day then on the way home it started jumoing and lot power going up hill. It died but it started again. On the way home I couldnt go faster than 80 and up hill 40. I was worried that a cop was gonna pull me over for going to slow! Anyway i got it home. Gonna throw it down a cliff tomoro.

You stopped and smoked "few ciggies"? Maybe your bike suffers from asma and you brought on an attack. I thought my bike had died on the trip back as the engine died then it let out a huge explosion from the exaust and there was no power as I was slowing down threw the gears trying to get it back into life. Fortunately it did. Some sort of feul issue.

Do you have a fuel filter on your bike as it a good idea to put one on older bikes as there tanks can be pretty dirty. Sounds like you may have some blocked jets.

[Hawkeye]

Merv. Good to see you got my worst side in that pic.

Seeing its a full frontal are you saying your backside is the best? Ronin has got you guys all thinking nothing but arses.

My backside! I don't think so! I was thinking more about the squinting due to having the sun straight in my face and not having the sunnies on.

Oh! and Merv. I don't do full frontals for anybody

[KoroJ]

After all the ‘bumming’ around on this thread, here’s a ride review.

An early(ish) start to the day, and on my last bar for fuel, I commenced by filling at the Caltex Kaiwhara’ before heading the 30km on to Rimutex.

After years of travelling in cages on main hiways and utilising ‘big’ signs, I have found my nav skills to be wanting as I find myself forgetting to look for the small yellow jobbies for directions. (No ladies, this is not an admission that men don’t know where they’re going). This can be further compounded by going on group rides whereby you follow the leader, enjoy the scenery and don’t really bother to take note of where you’ve actually travelled. How many of you have done a group ride, then tried to work out what roads you had taken and had difficulty?

This accepted I decided I needed to either get a GPS Nav Unit or a decent map book and being a Jewy Bastard, it was the map, complete with all the road names, yellow roads for sealed and white roads for unsealed. However, on studying up for potential rides, I soon discovered there were white roads that I new were sealed….bugger!!

Well, the reason for this wee digression is that when looking at possibilities for the day’s ride ahead, I noted that there was a potential ride around the Gladstone Water Towers then along Te Parae Road to Tauweru, but it was a white road. I would have to check it out.

With this in mind, I pulled into Rimutex at 1035, fuel economy on 18 km/l, and checked in with Hels for the planned route, advised her I would meet them at the Masterton Mobil, and off I went.

What a blast, I think most of Wellington were heading over the ‘takas and I probably passed 15 – 20 cages on the way up and 30 – 40 on the way down, including 2 on a yellow line with a cop coming the other way. Fortunately the cages had left enough room to slide through inside the line. (NB. I rarely pass any cars going down the northern side except for a couple of places near the bottom but the traffic was soooo slow.)

Anyway, through Featherston and onto Martinborough, round the square and out past the golf course for Gladstone, this was great, rolling countryside and I only encountered 4 or 5 other vehicles in about 50kms. Past Gladstone, then the water towers and looping around, I found Te Parae road and it looked sealed so on I pushed but about a km down the road, sure enough, great berms of thick stuff. It was definitely a white road so back I went and continued on to the Mobil where I found Lissa & Garry H waiting. I must have been travelling at 1 or 2 klicks over the limit as my economy at this point was down to 16 km/l…..like I said, what a blast.

About 10 or 15 minutes later the rest pulled in, we chatted for a bit then moved out. As I had already had a good time, I was quite happy to go sweep behind Garry H. We settled into a comfortable pace around 110 kph and the group stayed together until a brief stop (at Uncle Bruce’s corner I believe) after which I ended up following Lissa on the GN, which I didn’t find a distraction, but it did make me appreciate having tons of grunt. She was good as gold till it came to cages, some with boats, and short overtaking opportunities. Consequently we slipped behind the others until we roared around a 25kph corner and there they all were, lying about and milling around like they’d just come out of church. I parked up the ST by the apex with the hazard’s on and waited for about 30 minutes (who knows how long) until a decision was made for Ronin and STR8 to head back while the rest pushed on for the coast. A few minutes later and we were there, drinks were had, food consumed, views taken in while sitting on the rocks and ‘chewing the fat’ and before long it was time to leave.

We were all ready to go but no one was moving so I took the initiative and led out. I tried to keep the speed around 110kph again but often found it drifting up and before long we were back over Bennett’s Hill and I was indicating to turn off toward Stronvar. I stopped at the corner to let the others decide what they were doing and just two of us continued on, back past Gladstone and into Martinborough where he had to fill up. He went off on the Paliser road, but that was too straight for me so I continued directly back to Wgtn and heading up through Khandallah I noted 412 kms for the day and 16.9 km/l on the economy. Indications that we’d had a great day.

Thanks to Hels for organising the day. I’m just sorry that you’ve ended up the butt of all the jokes…or is that…your butt has everyone’s attention. It was not a ride I had thought of doing but what a great road and it’s about 30 years since I was last out there. (I think from memory, there were 7 of us in a Fiat Bambina)??!!

Sorry Ronin, bad news sure gets around on these forums. Next time you find yourself getting distracted, feel free to think of my hairy arse…and snap out of it.

Here’s looking forward to the next awesome adventure !!

RE attachment.. it's cropped from the originals posted on this thread.
What else can you do when someone bins?

[Lissa]

after which I ended up following Lissa on the GN, which I didn’t find a distraction, but it did make me appreciate having tons of grunt. She was good as gold till it came to cages, some with boats, and short overtaking opportunities. Consequently we slipped behind the others until we roared around a 25kph corner and there they all were, lying about and milling around like they’d just come out of church.

It was the first time I had been all the way to Castlepoint on the bike. I kinda had a really bad ride out there, and not just because of coming across Ronins Accident. I found some of the corners terrible... slipperly shiney looking. I tried to keep up with the rest of the guys, but I just dont have the power to do it,esp like you said with all the cages, and the fact I cant get up speed quick enough to pass safely, so took my time finding the right time to do it. Felt really bad for you having to sit behind me KoroJ, I hope it didnt spoil your ride out there. Its days like that, that I get really disappointed in my bike.... but then again, at least I made it out there safely

And best of all the weather was PERFECT Cant wait for the next one.

[merv]

Was the ride home better though Lissa? Glad you made it out to the beach, it'll make the next time much easier.

[WasPhantom]

looks like a fun time was had by (almost) all - where are rides like this "advertised"? As I'd definitely be keen to come along on the next one.

[KoroJ]

Felt really bad for you having to sit behind me KoroJ, I hope it didnt spoil your ride out there.

Not a problem, Like I said in the report, I had already had loads of fun before getting to Masterton and I was quite happy to take it easy. Besides you didn't look like you were having any problems except for a lack of grunt to overtake in real short straights. Doesn't help when the cages go real slow round the corners and take off on the straights either.

[merv]

looks like a fun time was had by (almost) all - where are rides like this "advertised"? As I'd definitely be keen to come along on the next one.

Sometimes on the home page otherwise keep an eye on new posts each day.

[elle-f]

great reading koro thanks