A Wee Pootle

[banditrider]

This ride is intended as a “warm up” for the Grand Challenge in October. As such the aim is to cover approximately 984km in a day. This is not a tour or a race so there’s no unnecessary stops or excessive speeding – 13-14 hours with stops should be achievable without going silly. Start time is 8am at BP Rangitikei so be there earlier for gas or if you need caffeine. The route map is available here.

Stops are as per the map:

• Palmy – National Park, 249km. Gas & slash and back on the road.
• National Park to Te Kuiti, 231km. Late lunch.
• Te Kuiti to Turangi, 256km. Gas & slash. Maybe a coffee everyone’s been behaving themselves.
• Turangi to Palmy, 247km. Greasy takeaways in town anyone?

Things to know:

• Not a race, don’t come if you intend to end up in a ditch – we’ll leave ya there!
• There is no support vehicle so stay out of the ditches (see above) and have a reliable bike.
• The biggest distance between stops is 256km according to Google Maps. Who know how accurate this is? Don’t come if your bike won’t do 280km+ on a tank at a good cruise. There is only 3 petrol stops...
• If you haven’t attempted something like this before then maybe this isn’t one for you – some of the roads are going to require a bit of concentration even after the 900km mark.
• If you get tired then stop, let us know, find somewhere to sleep, then go home when you’re fresh again – remember: no crashing!
• If the weather looks totally crap on the 12/9 then we may put the ride off to the 14^th.

If all that crap hasn’t put you off then stick your name down on the calendar event here and we’ll see you at the BP on Rangitikei Street at 7:45am on the 13^th of September.

[blacksheep]

bike won,t do 280 kms on a tank,couldn,t afford at the moment anyways

[Blue Bandito]

Ok, I'll come, just so you don't have to go by yourself

[yod]

hmmmm.....

[cowboyz]

nice. will see how the finances work out and what my position on the 4 points is. Sounds like a good run.

[Meanie]

hmmmm.....

Ditto hmmmmm

[banditrider]

Enough of this hmmmmmmming, is you in or is you out?

[yod]

too early to tell yet mate.....hmmmmm

[Meanie]

Enough of this hmmmmmmming, is you in or is you out?

Oh all right then, Ill come, just to add a bit of colour

[cowboyz]

can we stop every 80k or so for a smoke?

[sinfull]

Lol you leaving this open for the for the big tank tourers only BR ?

[yod]

can we stop every 80k or so for a smoke?

nope

you'll just have to have three at each stop to keep you going

[cowboyz]

good o.


hey BR. do you use mapsource mapping? have you got a *.gdb file you coud email me of the route?

[banditrider]

Lol you leaving this open for the for the big tank tourers only BR ?

We want to use it for a practice for the GC so we're riding it like that. In the GC we try to ride non-stop for a full tank (unless we have to pick where the gas stations are) which is 300km+ plus. This won't be the last one of these we do so maybe we'll have one where the gas stops are a bit closer together. This time around we want to be on the bike 99% of the time.

can we stop every 80k or so for a smoke?

Get an open-faced helmet!

good o.

hey BR. do you use mapsource mapping? have you got a *.gdb file you coud email me of the route?

Nah, google maps. Would a Google earth file be useful?

[cowboyz]

We want to use it for a practice for the GC so we're riding it like that. In the GC we try to ride non-stop for a full tank (unless we have to pick where the gas stations are) which is 300km+ plus. This won't be the last one of these we do so maybe we'll have one where the gas stops are a bit closer together. This time around we want to be on the bike 99% of the time.

sounds like a plan

Get an open-faced helmet!

your a hard lad.


Nah, google maps. Would a Google earth file be useful?

might be able to do something with google earth file. can you email one to me at lance.broyden@xtra.co.nz?