South Island Passes Ride 2008

[Zukin]

Hi PeteJ, me and at least one another Jafa (gingabiker) will be shooting down possibly on the saturday 9th. Good point on the booking idea, may pay catching a morning ferry on the sunday 10th?

later,

Whoo hoo new bike aye

I am still a very definite starter for this trip
We might be able to hook up and ride some gravel roads to Welly
Then maybe stay in Masterton (free accommodation) and head over on the 10th and catch the ferry then and make our way to CHCH

Cheers Scott

[windboy]

Whoo hoo new bike aye

I am still a very definite starter for this trip
We might be able to hook up and ride some gravel roads to Welly
Then maybe stay in Masterton (free accommodation) and head over on the 10th and catch the ferry then and make our way to CHCH

Cheers Scott

yeah man, nice and agricultural...! loving it so far.

re gravel to wellywood, sounds great depending of how much time we get... South island is the priority for me anyway, trips in the North island I can do any other time...?

[PeteJ]

Whoo hoo new bike aye

I am still a very definite starter for this trip
We might be able to hook up and ride some gravel roads to Welly
Then maybe stay in Masterton (free accommodation) and head over on the 10th and catch the ferry then and make our way to CHCH

Cheers Scott

Mmmmm, at the risk of making it all complicated, yes, we could do the NI west coast gravels down to say Marokopa, then across the central high country and decide how to go to Masterton depending on the weather. Sounds like a plan to me, but it makes a resonably big day to start 9 days' worth with.

Cheers

[tri boy]

Lanky Trumpy rider carefully lifts his head above the cyber trench to gauge reaction, and a possible team up with wild colonial Jafas.

[Crisis management]

Your head may be out of the trench Brent but has the fog lifted yet?

I "might" be able to make this ride now.........working hard on the High Commander to gain approval!

[Zukin]

Your head may be out of the trench Brent but has the fog lifted yet?

I "might" be able to make this ride now.........working hard on the High Commander to gain approval!

On ya, that man deserves a beer

[young1]

I am still interested in this ride, especially as I don't need to get approval from anyone now!!

[windboy]

Your head may be out of the trench Brent but has the fog lifted yet?

I "might" be able to make this ride now.........working hard on the High Commander to gain approval!

awesome news crisis...!

what's "the drongo" though?

[zeRax]

im also keen~
will read thread again more thorough when i have time ! looks like good numbers huh

[Crisis management]

awesome news crisis...!

what's "the drongo" though?

The Drongo........ a very long time ago there existed Team Drongo racing, a bunch of spotty neddies with huge opinions of their skills and abilities (unfortunately not matched with reality), anyway, during one of my brief sojourns on the gravel near Riverhead, I was reminded of the aforementioned lack of skills and "drongo racing" came to mind (yet again).
With all the respect an honest tradesman has for his tools, I immediately blamed the bike and thereby christened it Drongo (at least the DR has the right first couple of letters).
So, in short, the Drongo is the bike!

[Ruralman]

im also keen~
will read thread again more thorough when i have time ! looks like good numbers huh

What bike were you thinking of going on? At the risk of being labeled a kill joy,if its the 250 on your profile then you might struggle a bit on the big highway sections (which make up around 1800km of the trip).

[windboy]

The Drongo........

Copy that! thanks for the brief lesson of biking history crisis...

Got out today to the old kicking puhoi gravels, couple of hundred ks; was awesome on the dakar with a brand new tkc 80 on the front. So far I think the extra $$$ for the tyre is almost justified, still need to give them a good scrub to try them harder on the seal.

May have another go tomorrow morning with gingarider, txt me if you're interested...

[zeRax]

yea well, i guess it depends how fast u wanna travel, id love to go at blistering speeds but the xr250 would only get 120kmph steady :P

[Jantar]

There is no reason why a 250 wouldn't make it, but there are a few things that you do need to keep in mind.

Last year, we started most days at between 8:00 and 9:00 am and travelled at only slightly above the legal speed limit. But we maintained that 100 - 110 kmh irrespective of how steep the hills were. On the gravel sections we generally rode fairly hard also. Each evening we would get to our destination between 7:00 and 8:00 pm, so they were long hard days. A 250 that is capable of cruising at the legal speed limit will be able to manage that part quite OK.

The real issue with smaller bikes is the fuel range when pushing at these speeds. There are 3 sections with at least 180 km between fuel stops, and one section with almost 240 kms between fuel stops. Most 250s will struggle to maintain both speed and economy on these long gravel sections.

[NordieBoy]

yea well, i guess it depends how fast u wanna travel, id love to go at blistering speeds but the xr250 would only get 120kmph steady :P

I've got a large Acerbis XR600 tank that should fit the XR250 (fits my XR350 rolling chassis) and get about 5000km (no idea on it's size actually) if you need to borrow it