Brass Monkey, 4 June 2011

[Winston001]

Another Brass Monkey ticked off. Caught up with GhostBullet and the Sensible chap although he was on a Triumph this time. In the morning discovered FJrider and then watched KiwiPhoenix doing donuts and trying to run over a baby rabbit. Karma slapped down and...I guess a new mirror is a small price to pay eh Donna??

It was a good rally as usual but I was surprised at the lower attendance.

Rallies do fade sometimes but this one is iconic and I'd be sad to see it peter out. Maybe some sort of entertainment or a marque to gather in - I dunno, but it lacked the energy and excitement of past BMs. No jumping exhibition this year either (that I saw).

[Jantar]

I've just arrived home from the Chatto Creek club meeting, and the BM reports there were also not very encouraging. The general feeling was overpriced, a stale format, poor food quality (except for the Oterehua ladies), a band that was very good when they weren't playing and a smaller than usual fire that went out when the rain started. Somehow I'm almost glad I just rode there and back without going through the gate.

[Winston001]

Actually I thought the band, Honeybone were good. They certainly ticked off the Motorcycle Rally Top 100. They were young and enthusiastic - good to see. The lead singer couldn't always be heard but that might have simply been a sound snafu.

But yeah, stale is a fair comment for this BM. Still had a good time anyway.

[Flip]

Well I had a great time.

It took us 2 days and 2 motorbikes to get there, the old sidecar terminally died going up Burke's pass, we made it back home late Friday night with the side car on a trailer. We got up very early did a very fast trip down through the MacKenzie on Saturday, making to the site just after 3, don't know how I didn't get pinged.

For me the great thing about the Brass is the adventure of getting there and the folk I catch up with each year when we get there. It's got fuck all to do with the organised event.

Didn't like the first band much, the steak sandwiches were fantastic as usual and our air bed went flat so we slept on the ground, which was fine anyway.

Brass number 24 knocked off now looking forward to next year.

[KiwiPhoenix]

Another Brass Monkey ticked off. Caught up with GhostBullet and the Sensible chap although he was on a Triumph this time. In the morning discovered FJrider and then watched KiwiPhoenix doing donuts and trying to run over a baby rabbit. Karma slapped down and...I guess a new mirror is a small price to pay eh Donna??

Hi there! Good to meet you again!!!! Yeah, an aftershock rattled the bike and the donuts just finished it off, a quick repair job at Jantar's saw it fixed enough for the trip back. Bruised knee and a sore ankle but I'll live. Will rest up a few days and then give Walter (the bike) a stern talking too!

Well I had a great time.

It took us 2 days and 2 motorbikes to get there, the old sidecar terminally died going up Burke's pass, we made it back home late Friday night with the side car on a trailer. We got up very early did a very fast trip down through the MacKenzie on Saturday, making to the site just after 3, don't know how I didn't get pinged.

For me the great thing about the Brass is the adventure of getting there and the folk I catch up with each year when we get there. It's got fuck all to do with the organised event.

Didn't like the first band much, the steak sandwiches were fantastic as usual and our air bed went flat so we slept on the ground, which was fine anyway.

Brass number 24 knocked off now looking forward to next year.

I agree, the ride is what is good about the rallies. Most of my rides have had an adventure attached to them. It's wonderful catching up with folk!

2nd Brass done and dusted! Well the pants are dusted off now!

[Gixxer peter]

you weren't the guy on the green c50 doing donuts in the mud on the way out sunday morning? awesome , look forward to ride report

Yep that was me and the team, i guess the power just took over.

[oldrider]

Caught up with GhostBullet and the Sensible chap although he was on a Triumph this time.

Like the man in the TV cheese advertisements says, "good things take time" but eventually the truth will out!

Mr Sensible truly is! .... Such is maturity!

[jafar]

Hope you got home safely!

Was a good weekend! Great company and nice weather (compared to last year!)

home safely, our lucky last got a tyre late on tuesday , rebooked the ferry & is on his way back

[QUOTE=allycatz;1130080862]

A special thanks to flip & kris for their hospitality

Don' t I get thanks for dinner???? Cook ya own next year pffttttt!!!!!

Yes you do, thanks Allycatz for dinner

Next one is the cold kiwi, that should be fun too

[Winston001]

For me the great thing about the Brass is the adventure of getting there and the folk I catch up with each year when we get there. It's got fuck all to do with the organised event.

Agreed and thanks for pointing that out. Its the journey, not the destination. That was my theme when I spoke to a Rotary Club a few years ago talking about why people would ride long distances through snow and ice to camp at one of the bleakest sites in New Zealand.

[Gixxer peter]

Day one. Rolleston to Temuka.
4 of us set off in the late afternoon on Thursday we were on two C50s me (4th brass) and Johan (2nd Brass), a CPI Olivier city, steve (brass virgin) and a SJ50 , my father ( brass veteran) no bike bigger than 49cc.
It was a pretty slow and boring trip along those long straights, the top speed of the CPI was only 45kMH it took 4 hours to get to Temuka, out for a few beers and a steak.
My c50 managed 188 miles per gallon, about $1 an hour to run.

[Gixxer peter]

Day two. Temuka to Otematata.
We headed inland via Pleasant point up over the McKenzie pass and down into the fog in the Hakateramia valley. The ride up the through the Haka Pass was much easier than last year in the snow. The 50s made light work of the “high” passes. We stopped for a couple of hours for a private guided tour of the Benmore power station and stopped the night in Otematata it was about now that I realized that the only electrics that still worked on the c50 was the horn, few more beers and another steak.

[Gixxer peter]

Day three Otematata to the Brass site.
A hearty breakfast at Kurow and up and over the Danseys pass, the danseys evaded us last year due to rumors of very deep snow, we stopped at the Dansey pub for a couple of quiets and a pie.
Got to the site and found that numbers seemed to be well down on previous years and the temperature was up..
Meet up with Sam who was joining us on the way back to ChCh, he was riding a Yamaha zuma that he had kindly offered to collect and bring home to his father. It was Sam’s first brass and he had put a lot of thought into what people would drink there if it was cold, so he bought along some stout and a $6 bottle of South Africa’s best merlot, he later discovered that consuming the drinks helped to lighten the load on the scooter as it caused him to purge all the remains from his stomach. A pleasant evening was had by all with some “great” advise on which route to take on the return trip planned over the Omarama saddle.

[Gixxer peter]

Day four. Oturehua to Twizel.
After a short sleep (did anyone else hear the couple in the tent near the fence line opposite the bus? I don’t know what he was doing but he was doing it right, she was “agreeing” with everything he was doing) We packed up in the rain and as the rain eased we headed away, multiple donuts in the mud as we left the site, everyone was impressed with the way we handled the massive horsepower (read horsepower singular) of the scooters, only 2 fell off before we even left the site. We stopped at the Vulcan pub at St Bathains, a slight detour but well worth a visit. The locals were well under the weather when we left at around 10:00am, Sam was very disappointed at the lack of star trek memorabilia at the pub……..
On advise we chose the eastern loop of the Omarama saddle (that takes you over the little Omarama saddle) 4x4 track to head to Twizel. The night before we were a little under the weather and the people offering the advise were also, so our intell as to which would be the best route was a little hazy to say the least. We took multiple photos of the first river crossing as we were lead to believe that there would only be one, about ten more later we were through the worst of it or so we thought.
Digressing a little… some of the crossings were quite eventful on a scooter, one Sam got off and started to wade across to check the depth, but I flew past him, to try and splash him, and found that at the deepest point only the handle bars were left sticking out. We dragged it out the other side and it restarted but need the carb stripping to get it to run better. The others found easier place to cross downstream where it wasn’t as deep. Most of the bikes needed the carb pulling to bits on the side of the track to get running smoothly again. We attacked the “hill” on the far end of the track and found that the 2 strokes just slowly crept up to the top, but the 4 strokes suffered from altitude sickness and asked to be carried the last 200 vertical metres to the top of the 1360 meter high “hill” it was well after dark before we had made it to the top, the ride down the other side in the dark with no lights was a task as it is very steep. We pushed on to Twizel and had to suffer through Karaoke night to get a feed, no steaks tonight just frozen hoki and chips no where else was open, it had taken us all day to go the 19km through the saddle.. Sam was looking forward to using the 4 hours that we reckoned we saved by not going around the long way.

[Gixxer peter]

Day five. Twizel to Rolleston.
After getting up early to strip the c50 carb again to shake the last of the water out of it, we headed off through the back roads (gravel) along the canal and near Mt Cook (covered in cloud damn it) the CPI suffered from the shakes and the exhaust split away from the muffler, it didn’t change the performance of the beast but nobody wanted to ride anywhere near Steve until it was fixed, a temp repair was carried out, at Tekepo we rang an afterhours number and got it welded back up. It was a pretty boring and tiring trip from there punctuated with moments of terror on the highway playing in the traffic without lights.

[KiwiPhoenix]

Fantastic report there GixxerP!!