Had such a great ride in the weekend that I just had to share.
I had been a bit sickly during the week so left it til the last minute to decide if I was gonna do the poker run...but in the end the decision was made for me cos my club pres (Slappas MC) reminded me that we had been invited so it would be rude to NOT go...
So Saturday morning I stood in the gararge wondering which bike to take...the X1 has a brand new set of tyres but the Firebolt has the ventura rack (it was gonna be a tenting overnighter...). However the Firebolts rear tyre wasn’t looking that great...oh well never mind, I opted for the firebolt and decided that I wouldn’t fang it too much on the straights LOL.
YEAH right! met up with Kath & Marty and headed south, we had 160kms to ride just to get to the Te Kuiti Riders clubrooms! For some reason Kath was worried we would be late and so she set a blistering pace ... typically we got there with heaps of time to spare ( LOL) and were surprised at how many bikes were lined up, a good variety of mostly HDs and Triumphs with the odd Italian and Jappa amongst them. Mine was the only Buell.
The ride took us over ‘the Pungas’ from Te Kuiti to Taumaranui and that was one seriously fun road, corner after corner.... yee ha. I sat at the back of the front group of hoons...they were setting a good pace so I was quite happy to use them as my early warning for gravel/roadworks/sharper than expected bend etc... had a blast!
Gassed up and regrouped then headed towards Turangi...another fabulous road taking us up to breathtaking views before winding down amongst bush lined roads. Carried on through rolling hillsides barely seeing any other traffic and eventually stopped at a country pub that put on lunch for us...pig on a spit and salads etc... yummo!
We were warned about a mufty cop waiting down the road and so all left at a leisurely pace which of course became quicker and quicker till the ride once again stretched out into small groups riding together. At this point I wa riding with Marty & Kath. I could see Martys’ brake light come on going into a 55km lefty followed by Kath braking even harder and sighed to myself thinking “blimmin HDs...braking where I don’t need to...” Well cos I am aware that they brake going into corners I always give myself plenty of following distance and that was lucky cos this time there was a bloody good reason for slowing down,the entire corner was a mass of bleeding tarseal. I went around sweetas and out of habit checked my mirrors for the other bikes that had been following me.
No lights...kept going ( no point in stopping cos there were a shitload of other bikes still to come ... ). I had a gut feeling that someone had come a croppa and that turned out to be right. More on that later.
This next bit of the saga about the goat track is a repost from another thread talking about gravel so apologies to anyone who has already read this bit...
Got to the turnoff for the campsite and it was a forestry gravel road all the way. No worries, deep breath, let it out and relax. It was a fairly long road with lots of twist and turns and I was tootling behind marty & Kath doing just fine until I came around a corner and was confronted with a steep hill(upwards). The tracks that had I had been riding in were no more and became two higgledy piggledy ruts.EEEEEEEK! I made the mistake of starting to go up it and then hesitating and stopping to think about what line I was gonna take...big mistake! Cos of course every time I tried to go forward from a standstill the back wheel would spin and slide and since I was on the XB and supposed to ‘be looking after it’ I decided not to risk it. Flagged down the next bike (a Harley, barstards had no troubles with the dodgy terrain LOL!) and asked him to send my mates boyfriend down to ride it up for me.
Marty jumped on the Buell and gave it death up the hill and made it look soooo easy! But ya know what? I felt no shame whatsoever in admitting that I didn’t have the balls to ride it up that goat track myself! (FYI when I told AJ he was also relieved that ‘his’ bike made it up the goat track un harmed LOL).
Anyways time to put tents up and get into the serious business of boozing and telling tall stories...not to mention catching up with heaps of familiar faces. The boozing was well underway when a halt to the festivities was called. We were told that one of the guys hadn’t made it around a corner (the bike directly behind me on that knarley tar covered corner). He lost it and went headfirst into a powerpole. Dead before he landed back on the road. Bike (Triumph Speedmaster) totalled.
Those of us who had arrived earlier and didn’t know about it were shocked and gutted, infact I have a bit of a lump in my throat thinking about it now.
So our fallen comrade was toasted and remembered in the only way we could and that was to party hard til the sun came up.
Well not all of us managed a sunriser but yours truly sure did. I spent the night getting chatted up and propositioned by luscious men! Kath and I are hopeless with names (well ya know, ya meet soooo many people!) so we always assign nicknames...so I was partying into the wee hours with ‘hot-guy’ (for obvious reasons) Fertiliser Guy (real long story LOL!) and Mohawk man (once again obvious reasons) hahahahaha... all of them gentlemen, even if there were a few offers to keep me warm in my little tent LOL.Anyways about 4am I said “night boys! I’m off to bed!” Went and had a shower and collapsed into my sleeping bag. Actually got a few hours kip before the ride home later that day. Oh yeah and the ‘boys’ stayed up all night, they were definately looking worse for wear...LOL. Got a txt from Mohawk Man yesterday arvo...reckons he is gonna give up drinking! hahahahahaha...Harden up!
So the 2 members of Slappas MC made a favourable impressionand next year we are assured of club accomodation in the lodge! Aside from that one tragic event it was the best poker run I have been on in years cos it was spent RIDING! Only ONE pub stop. 3 cards drawn at the beginning and 2 at the end, $40 for lunch, dinner &brekky plus live band and an awesome place to stay.
I’ll be there again next year! Te Kuiti Riders, you rock!
...it is better to live 1 day as a Tiger than 1000 years as a sheep...
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RIP.
Originally Posted by buellbabe
we were away! 
It was an absolutely most awesomestest weekend ride!!!
.."What's with all the lights"..officer..
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