last friday (7/01/05) a mate and i left wellington at about 4:30PM to deliver his bike to Auckland for him to sell to another mate... this is where it starts to go wrong. (get comfortable cause this is one long saga)
we ride up SH2 and then over the Haywards hill, Paekakariki hill down SH1, bypass Levin to Palmy, SH3, SH54 to fielding.
at the BP servo in fielding, Dan (my mate) noticed a sulphur smell. didnt say anything, just thought it was nothing. ok filled with gas continue on SH54 over Vinegar Hill to SH1 where we stopped and discussed how it was such and awsome road and after meeting a nice bloke on a VFR750 we continued onto waiouru.
we stoped in waiouru and filled the bikes. as i went to pay for the gas dan called me over to his bike (VFR400 NC30) which was squeeling... kinda like when you watch the TV on the AV channel. Hmmmm, not cool. Now Dan has just finished a Motocycle Mech course last year so i orignally had no concerns. by this time the nice bloke on the VFR750 catches up with us at the servo, he lends us some of his tools so we can take the fairings off to have a gander. on closer inspection no fueses blown, battery red hot, Regulator/recitfier dead cold. hmmm, now we have lost all ignition lights and it wont turn over.... HMMMMMMMM! not cool. dan reckens that the reg?rec had packed up and melted the battery. oh, and i must say that this was at about 10:30PM on the friday.
right then... ring people and say that we were going to say the night and fix it in the morning. no problem right?? WRONG!!!! all motels and the pub booked out and no one would just let us sleep on thier couch, nothing!
ok... now getting really late it stood like this: 1 stuffed VFR400, and my single seater ZXR7RR!!!! ok, were stuffed.
after walking around a bit an seeing what was availible, we settled on a row of bushes at the intersection of SH1 and SH49 (Ohakune Road) by now it was about 1:00AM on the Saturday and woke about 6:30AM.
Ok, now what.... Dan had a mate in Wanaganui that would have the spare parts we needed. ok, mint. this might be still salvagable....
Dan rang his mate and sure enough he had the parts and as quick as said dan shot down to wangas on my Zed. now this is where you would think it starts to get better... just keep reading cause it gets WORSE!!
Dan just got outside of Mangaweka where he finds some of new zealands finest... the basted fined dan for 112 in 100. not too much damage... $80 and 20 points, but Dan already had 90. (loss of licence for 3 months upcoming)
ok... now back on track out to wanganui got a new battery and reg/rec. ok... sweet. mean while i had been sitting at Caltex, Waiouru from 8:15AM to 12:30 PM.
After all this, dan finally arrived with the parts. sweet, i am now fully confident that we were on the way home.
we put the parts on and everything was back online again. but wait.. theres still more! hit the starter and it was like the battery was flat... not cool considering the new battery was full charged. hmmm... now what?
ok. ok, right crash start it. she will be right.... nope.
ok, whats the funny smell.... something like rotten eggs, oh. yeah.. the CDI has just fried its self. game over.
my girlfriends father came out from palmy with his van and picked up what was left of the VFR and took it back home. so after a near 20 hour ordeal, just before 4pm on sat afternoon i finally set off for Te Awamutu and got home at about 6:45PM.
so thats it... my hellesh trip home after my Xmas holidays in wellington. forevermore shall i hate waiouru and especailly the row of trees adjacent to the grass reserve where we sleept.
Many thanks to Jason Hulme of Wanganui for the parts, the helpfulness of the staff at Caltex waiouru and to John Rushworth for coming up from palmy to pick dan up. with out these people we would have been stuffed.
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Originally Posted by JohnBoy
... A story to tell da grand-chillens fur sure ... 
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