Metzeler Elephant Run to Taupo racetrack 2004

**Firefight** · 14th November 2004, 05:22

Pissing down North waikato atm

F/F

not going to Taupo anyway

**RiderInBlack** · 14th November 2004, 05:27

Awake now and feeling better for the sleep

Too late for me to make the run but:disapint: Hope the ride goes well

and route I suggested works. Feed back would be good (like times taken to get to the fuel stops extra). Weather looks good up here, hope it is good for you there

**wari** · 14th November 2004, 05:44

DOwn at HOLeshot on the northshore and there is no-one here ... :spudwhat:

GEt your fair weather riding tired arses down here NOW ... !!!

I'M STILL going to TAupo ....

ALso ... If the turnout is POOR ... I will be leaving at 7:30 ... not the advertised 8:00 ...

THis HAS been a SPankme message ... TYped by wari ...

**Firefight** · 14th November 2004, 06:25

have just ridden Puke to Glen Murray and back, rain has stopped, some blue sky can be seen lurking over bombays, northly wind picking up, but roads mostly drying out,

F/F

**swanman** · 14th November 2004, 07:35

Time now is 0830 in Taupo. Light rain, was heavier earlier. It appears to be clearing though. That said there is low clould almost everywhere.

According to the Sunday Herald rain is forecast for the morning only.

We shall see. If want can text/call me for details on 021 2158689. I'll pop up the track in the next hour or 2 and see how it looks.

Fraser

**Gixxer 4 ever** · 14th November 2004, 17:05

Was a good day Not many pic's but here are two. Good to meet you Spank. :spudwave: Hope the trip home was uneventfull

**swanman** · 14th November 2004, 18:39

Well that went OK. I was slow as hell round the track, but at least I went on. Feel sorry for the guy that binned his Ducati, looked expensive.

As for the ride back, torrential rain, followed by clear spell. I enjoyed it when we upped the pace. Hope there are no nasty infringment notices coming our way!

Right what's next?

**Holy Roller** · 14th November 2004, 20:08

met at Bike Force Rotorua 9am being true to form I was there a bit early after leaving in torrential rain that not even the guttering could remove the sheer volume of water falling from the sky. A dozen or so bikes departed for Taupo via Putaruru Whakamaru and the back roads to Taupo. Fair to middling weather for the ride even some dry road for a bit.

Spank Me joined the group at Whakamaru great to finally meet some of the KB guys. I was rapt to find a group of guys who rode at my pace. Arrived at the track and signed in and looked over the bikes assembled all seemed to be under 10 yrs old except an old trumpy and my XV, still it made it there and back and kept up with the group I was riding with.

The prizes were duly dished out, the question answer prizes were at bit of a laugh as no one wanted to answer them but for those who did there were hats and polo shirts and magazine subscriptions. I gave my hat to my boy as he was not able to come on the ride due to the weather. The ride was well worth attending just turn up and be in with a grin to win some great merchandise.

The ride home was wet and windy, decided to go via Murupara to Te Teko and home. The service station at Murupara had its pumps being upgraded and gas was dispenced by some ancient pump that came out of Motat.

For those who did not go because of the rain or turned back as a group did at Waiouru you missed a great day. Watching the super motard and quads hoon around the track before the guys took their machines for a blast was cheap intertainment. The Duc that binned was a mess (photo below) but glad that the rider was up and about obviously gutted that he had dropped it by his gestering.

Swanman that you with your knee down?

**Marknz** · 14th November 2004, 20:56

Mmm, well I reckon you'll pick up this bike quite cheap now....

http://www.bikepoint.co.nz/DesktopDe...as=bikepointnz

**hodgeman** · 14th November 2004, 21:45

Thanks must go out to the lads at Forbes and Davies for organizing the event and for giving away the prizes at no cost to anyone.!
Shame about the weather, and the Duc
Man we should al have a moments silence for that man.....

Looking forward to the next ride once I get my bike back.
Should be this week, YEAH!!

Saw Ghost Rider last night, if anyone has seen it they'll tell you about a man who rides a GSXR1000 through traffic in Sweden at 260+kms, who makes a 68km trip in under 15 mins!!
Crazy, but good for a laugh.

LB · 15th November 2004, 04:59

.
.
Oh dear....this is the second time this Duc has crashed at Taupo! A year or two ago it crashed very hard in the esses.

Anyone know who was riding it? Not a guy called Jason?
.
.

**White trash** · 15th November 2004, 06:26

Originally Posted by Holy Roller

Swanman that you with your knee down?

That's Jimbo600. What a star.

**White trash** · 15th November 2004, 06:33

Great ride there and back. I enjoyed every single second of it, even the pissing rain for about a third of the journey. Shame more people didn't get their butts out on the track as it dried really quickly.

Swanman, that bike of yours is a JET on the straight. Good to meet Hodgeman and a few others.

Good to LAP Deano on the track (heh heh, sorry mate)

Teh ride home got pretty Psyco from Raetahi south. Lots of scraping, grinding and sliding on perfect 25 deg roads. Absolutely balls out for 80k or so. Get to Wangas, fill up with gas and 2 minutes later, Velox catches up on her 250. Good stuff.

**Deano** · 15th November 2004, 08:09

Originally Posted by White trash

Good to LAP Deano on the track (heh heh, sorry mate)

Teh ride home got pretty Psyco from Raetahi south. Lots of scraping, grinding and sliding on perfect 25 deg roads. Absolutely balls out for 80k or so. Get to Wangas, fill up with gas and 2 minutes later, Velox catches up on her 250. Good stuff.

Yeah Yeah - took me while to find my rythym as usual. You weren't catching me quite as quickly towards the end of the session. Gotta be more positive going up through the gears too as I missed quite a few down the back straight.

Velox will be an absolute demon on a 600+ sports bike. Prepare for an ass kicking boys.

Thanks to the organisers for a great event.

BTW - the guy on the Duc told me he had thought...."I'll just do one more lap" before he ended up crashing. Isn't that always the way ?

**Velox** · 15th November 2004, 11:59

Good work for organising it Metzeler and F&D people - there were some pretty decent prizes there! Just a pity about the rain eh? I didn't realise so many KBers were there - I met a couple of new ones and caught a fleeting glimpse of SpankMe but that was about it (apart from people I already knew). Awesome ride up and back, it just wasn't so good on the Plateau where it rained the whole time (north of National Park). Lots of fun in the Paraparas, man - you guys are fast!

A couple of funny incidents though from the ride up and back...

After we had passed through National Park, 3 of our Wgtn crew hooned off into the distance and 1 dropped behind so I was battling away in the middle somewhere when suddenly I saw them coming back in the opposite direction motioning that there was a cop ahead. I thought that maybe the road was blocked (flooding or Police maybe?) and so turned around to follow them. We passed the other one of our other guys going in the opposite direction and I waved and wondered why no-one else did until I realised that there were 4 bikes in front of me, one was yellow (which we didn't have before) and Deano's helmet had miraculously changed colour. Realised I had no idea who these people were and turned around and headed back north. Oh dear. But - the front bike was a new GSXR like Jimbo's.

Secondly, when we left the track at Taupo I put on my styley $2 shop poncho thing over my jacket and got it tied up at the back so I wouldn't turn into a kite. Got into Taupo and as I stopped at the second intersection I suddenly found myself sitting inside a small black tent in the middle of the road. As I braked it all just neatly flowed over my head and went down over the instrument panel and turned into a little 'dome of isolation' pitched at the stop sign. I had to just turn off the bike and laugh, must've been funny for the guy that pulled up beside me at the same time.