Opoutama weekend pics

**merv** · 18th May 2004, 21:47

Motu says he likes to see pics.

Well my trip to Opoutama the weather started out like in these pics on Thursday:

**merv** · 18th May 2004, 21:50

... and turned like this on Friday. The returning to camp shots at night the flash light on the big rain drops makes it look like it was snowing eh!

LB · 19th May 2004, 05:41

Is that a railway viaduct in the Thursday photo?

Thanks for the pics.

**merv** · 19th May 2004, 07:44

Originally Posted by Lynda Blair

Is that a railway viaduct in the Thursday photo?

Thanks for the pics.

Yeah us railway types can't help ourselves. Its the Kopuawhara Viaduct, of workers camp getting swept away in a flood fame when they were building it.

**750Y** · 19th May 2004, 15:41

hope You enjoyed Your stay. you'll probably recognise the location of the wedding shot i posted a while back.

**k14** · 19th May 2004, 16:13

Man that bridge looks awesome. How old is it?? Certainly a decent engineering task.

**750Y** · 19th May 2004, 21:29

yeah that bridge is pretty cool. as a kid i used to ride it in the train. My grandfather would go there specially to get his hangi stones from the river bed below, he is buried at Opoutama. Onenui station(the sign pictured) was originally one of the family sheep stations back in the day. thanks for the pics, i enjoyed them.

**merv** · 20th May 2004, 07:41

Originally Posted by k14

Man that bridge looks awesome. How old is it?? Certainly a decent engineering task.

Its been there a while. The flash flood that killed 22 workers when they were building it was 1938 and the line to Gisborne opened in 1942 so I guess the bridge was finished just before that. Great work with reinforced concrete back in those days eh and especially during war time!

**Re-cycled** · 20th May 2004, 15:06

Hi Merv, Great pics. Just trying out the system really, as a K-B virgin.

**Motu** · 20th May 2004, 16:48

Yeah,show us where ya been.

The Yammy looks squat Merv - is it balanced front to rear? Happy???

**merv** · 20th May 2004, 20:07

Originally Posted by Motu

Yeah,show us where ya been.

The Yammy looks squat Merv - is it balanced front to rear? Happy???

Yeah its awesome on gravel roads - heaps of power so you can keep it sliding and with the high compression engine it has great engine braking allowing easy slides going into corners too. I bought it on the basis of riding Brendan Keogh's WR and the most amazing thing about it is the spread and usefulness of the power. It pulls like an XR and screams like you wouldn't believe. I did not expect it to have the bottom end power it has with such a short stroke engine - its all done with electronics - throttle position sensors and the like. I was telling Lynda and Re-cycled today that much to my surprise a quick squirt on the bike, now it has a few kms on it, and it just wound round to 160km/hr on the clock with no worries (closed road under controlled conditions - yeah right!!) . I was running it in on the Pukemanu run and kept thinking what's a safe speed with this engine - 100, 120? 120 on gravel was only needing about 1/3 to 1/2 throttle so I thought it must have heaps left. So now I know if I cruise at 120 I'm a long way from pushing it hard. No rev counter eh! By my calcs its doing 7,800 at 100km/hr and about 12,500 at 160 with no sign of finishing so I suspect it will do 13,000rpm in top gear.

As for the squat suspension to suit my short arse, I have got it well balanced but being lower on the same wheelbase it has reduced the wheelie capability slightly. No problem dirt riding lofting over jumps or over small streams or anything like that though. The light weight is the biggest plus of the WR and it just tracks so straight no matter how rough the terrain. The shape and size of the frame, peg position and all that stuff is perfect for stand up riding too - nice and slim. The seat is a bit hard so you gotta stand up from time to time and on the rough you want to anyway. Only negative I found on this last run is it was a bit bumpy on corrugations and at this stage I had left the Ohlins shock set as Robert sent it to me. I've gotta experiment a bit with damping settings I think as I've already back off the preload a bit. Shorter shock though does mean I'm using the stiffer part of the progressive rear linkage so I may not be able to make it perfect - but that is a compromise of shortening it eh! Other solution is just go faster and glide over the corrugations.

**farmachick** · 9th November 2005, 13:09

Hi, i was just looking at the pic's you took on your trip, the one of Onenui Station, that is where i live, its a beautiful place when its doesnt look like it does in that pic, hope you enjoyed the trip up there, bye for now

jo