Well it's taken until today (thurs) for me to be able to sit without a little discomfort.
That last hour in to Wellington on Sunday arvo was the most painful I've ever done
but I suppose after 3400 km in 4 days on the KTM 640 Vibramatic it's understandable. [Edit: And now I've been at the puter for an hour tonight, I've got a sore butt again... Jurassic Butt aka Megasaurus!]
We had it pretty easy this year. For the main event I never put on my over-gloves, nor my final thermal layer: inner gloves, inner socks, legs and top. Bugger all straight roads, bugger all traffic, bugger all nasty weather. Although the fog over every climb at night (and notably the Paihiatua Track) made things interesting. The frequent damp roads kept you on the ball, especially at night, but rain itself was infrequent. Lotsa misty stuff that raised the humidity enough to fog my closed visor, but popping it open cleared it.
I've done a handful of GCs on the 640 previously, but the addition of the 900km pushed things over the limit, as far as my arse is concerned. Plus the run to Wellywood is a bit too straight for comfort even via Vinegar Hill. Having said that, I've not done much road riding in the last couple of years, and very little this last 12 months. Most of my riding time has been off-road, and that's only been about 1 day per month.
I've spent the last month steadily converting the 640 back to road trim.
An awesome ride, as usual.
Some numbers for you, these are for the 3550 km trip ex-Nelson, not including 650 km of practice runs:
- Fuel: $367, avg 4.7 L/100km = max 542 km/tank
- Tyres: $111, 30% of a set
- Chains/sprockets: $85, 30% of a set
- Oil/Filters: $67, 70% of a service
All this adds up to about $17.80 / 100km in expenses, and another service will be due before the Dusty Butt 1000 in January.
Bring it on...
Originally Posted by Woodman
Definitely worth the trip norf. Still don't know if the Chatto Creek 1000 would be as good, and it's nearly twice as far away from Nelson. The route was across the Taupo-Napier Rd, anticlockwise around East Cape, Eketahuna via some back roads, Vinegar Hill, Fields Track, Rangipo. Unsurprisingly the very rough East Cape unsettled quite a few bikes (riders), including some adventure bikes, but the 640 took it all in it's stride, never lost its composure once. There was at least one KLR on the run, too.
But I'm not sure I can blame the bike as I have done bugger-all road riding in the last couple of years. I did as many kays in a week as I did in the previous 2.5 years...
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. I may have to borrow that steering damper & get it working Nordie.
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