So this was the task and now the reality.
An amazing event put together by KoroJ and one of his Ulysses/Grand Challenge mates Steve (don't ask him about strainer posts). Faultlessly organised, meticulously planned, brilliantly supported, these guys rock! And so did our day out. Guys, if this is not a keeper for an annual event, I don't know what is.
The forecast really didn't look that flash. All week as I checked the rural forecast for the route through Wairarapa, Hawkes Bay, Taupo, Taumaranui, Wanganui, Horowhenua and Wellington ... all those forecasts for all those areas said rain after midday. Apparently the boys had considered a postponment, glad they didn't. The turn out was an amazing 20. If you think that the Rusty Nuts Grand Challenge is a national event and got 100 riders and here was John & Steve's 'local' event getting 20 - not bad, not bad at all.
The boys will post the official list of Who's Who but let's just say there was a full range of participants from 1300cc to 150cc. Yup, you heard it right, an FXR150 - and it finished! Go SweetP! In fact she would have beaten a Ducati 1098 if she hadn't waited up. And she did beat a CBR600F4Anyway I digress, on with The Grub's ride report.
The bike got a new chain for the event as everything else had been checked during its recent stay in hospital - more on that later. The bike and I are still not friends but we are on speaking terms. I just don't trust it. The trouble is that I can't work out if its me or the bike. There's no doubt that my off has made me a real nana and I need to get over that and commit to corners instead of being wary of them. The bike on the other hand has never felt right and still doesn't. Since I no longer have the pleasure of the daily commute over Paekakariki Hill Rd, I have lost my ability to train and refine and to build a relationship with a bike. I miss that and it's made me wonder if this biking lark is a good idea if it is just a daily 60K commute down a flat and straight motorway interspersed with an attempt at an edgy serious ride once every couple of months. One of the reasons to do this ride was to have the opportunity to re-train me and the bike. The anticipation was keen. The opportunity to just get out on the bike and go all day was too good to pass up. There was to be some roads that I hadn't been on before (Alfredton, Pongaroa, Fordell) and that just heightens the anticipation because down in this part of the country, those are legendary.
Leg (defined by the need for fuel) one of the ride was from Rimutex to Masterton, Alfredton, Pongaroa, Weber, Wimbledon, Porangahau to Waipukurau. The weather was bright, sunny and cool with no damp roads from overnight. It can't be better. This was the first ride ever where nobody stopped at the top of the Takas ... serious stuff, on with the job. The bike's setup for this leg was preload to factory specs for my weight and height and all compression and rebound settings one full turn harder than soft. The ride over the hill was great because of the dry surface which just allowed us to get in the groove - and as one rider said "... have a hoon, get it out of the system and settle down ...". I was enjoying taking it as it came and I really enjoyed the clear air and emerging day. Just one of those magic mornings
Finally we got into the serious stuff by turning off onto the Bidiford Road just outside Masterton. It's a medium width road and fairly open to start with a good clean surface. That doesn't last as the road gets into some narrow sections with a rougher surface and gravelly bits on it. The gravel is not from the road breaking up or anything like that, it's just that it's a little used country road with stock, tractors and implements using it. Gravel, bits of trees and stuff gets thrown onto the surface and there's not enough traffic to sweep it clean. Now normally that wouldn't be an issue - if you could see it. I couldn't. We were riding directly into the rising sun and of course there's lots of road side trees on country roads which makes for that bright/shadow/bright setp. My visor was reasonably clean and the Nolan has a pop down tinted visor. I had to use that to cut down the sun which was coming from just over the bridge of the nose but the tint is quite dark and that meant the shadowy bits weren't ... they were jet black! The expereince of going onto one end of a short bridge in bright sunlight and having the other end just a big black hole with no indicators if the road went straight, hard left or hard right increases the puker-factor tenfold. It's a bit of a blur as to where we were but later in that leg the road seemed to get gravellier and narrower and a lot of that gravel started appearing on the outside of off-camber bends. I had a couple of moments on these roads. Happy that there were no run-wides but a right hander over a brow that had some gravel I never saw shifted the bike a long way. Both wheels lost it and regathered it at the same time so no mess there - whew
OK, that's not the end of the earth, those conditions exist on hunderds of our country roads - but I hated it. I hated it because in my mirrors were 5 other bikes. So I was holding them up, spoiling their pace, mucking up the rythym of their experience of this beautiful countryside and road. Thats the reason I vowed that I will never do this road again on a group ride but I will go back and ride it with Nasty and on my own many times ... it's just too beautiful and interesting not to.
... part two -> ...
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Originally Posted by banditrider
(and thanks to Michael who stuck round to help and wait for us) SweetP was dispatched to get food while all this was going on.
..make the most of downtime here, as we had some serious time to make up. SweetP came back with Grub and Trevor in tow...we were almost done on the Duczilla, so waited for us and then wer were on our merry way.
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