Friday, February 20, 2015

15 February 2015 Ride





A sunny Sunday morning and 5 keen participants were off for a relaxing ride up Pohangina Valley East and around to Apiti, then onto Kimbolton. We took our time and enjoyed the outlook. We stopped at the Kimbolton pub for lunch, lured by the "Bikers Big Burgers" sign.. Food was good but the coffee comes out of a sachet and needs to be strained through the teeth as its drunk! A beer for me next time. On the ride were Ian (GS450), Bruce S (RZ350), Rich (T500), Brian (XT600), and myself on the Kawasaki.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

7 February 2015 Saturday Ride





















7 bikes was a good turnout for a Saturday ride. The weather was fine, if a bit cool in the morning.

Was nice to have Paul and Janet come out for a ride doing something together they both enjoy. Paul on his Kawa 400 triple, Janet on her ER-6f, Bruce on his RZ350R, Alan on his BMW R100 with new cafe racer seat and fresh paint in places, Alan on his GSXR, Dave on his GSX1100, with myself on my GS450S.

We headed out Mount Stewart Halcombe Road along the back roads popping out at Turakina, then around to Fordell and along Mangahoe Road into Hunterville for Lunch. A good bunch of neat corners bought out the smiles giving us that "I'm Alive" feeling. Just a bit of loose gravel not swept up after the new road put down, kept as alert and sensible.

A good meal and chat in the sun eventually had to come to an end. The plan was to head back to Feilding and see Dion and his nephew Ryan at Manfeild. They were doing a track day, so we were able to watch them do one of their sessions.

Looked quite additive with the guys thinking about maybe entering their own bikes in the future.


Sunday, February 1, 2015

Fun in the ... rain! 1st of Feb 2015 Ride






Bruce's all day breakfast (was his breakfast, morning tea and lunch combined)



With a 50/50 chance of rain for the Palmy weather forecast the night before I thought what's the worst could happen.

So I texted the group about a Sunday ride thinking might get a couple of keen mad buggers put their hands up. Al was keen as usual, and so was Bruce S. I heard that Dion was a possible starter too, but maybe he slept in ;)

I turned up to find Stephen (sorry if not the correct spelling mate) on his beaut TX650 already there.

It's the type of bike I was keen on in my early twenties, that or the later model XS650. I couldn't find one back then at the right price, so I bought a rough but sound Yamaha XS750 Special triple shaft drive which I refreshed a bit and enjoyed riding to work at Coca-Cola and around the place. I guess I was a bit of a bogan back then, as I didn't want it obvious that it was a Jappa so debadged the engine, seat and tank of anything saying Yamaha. Plus being into hotrods, had to have flames painted on the tank :)

Anyway, back to today, next to turn up was Al on his Aprilia and then Bruce S on his TZR 250. I was on my GS450S. With a quick chat and a look at the dark clouds all round, we thought the ranges would be in full flood so thought heading North can't be any worse so decided on a trip to Hunterville.

With the rain starting to come down, we headed out Rangitikei Line and then the turn off to Bunnythorpe, Colyton through the backend of Fielding onto Makino Road and then along the great State Highway 54.

The light showers came and went without notice as it was warm enough and quite enjoyable getting out in the country. Some nice corners later and a short ride South on State Highway 1 had us parked up outside the usual cafe in Hunterville for something hot.

Three of us had decided to park our bikes under the shop eaves so after several good showers we came out to dry seats. Not that it mattered much as we were all a bit damp already and with the rain still falling we headed off again along Rangatira Road.

My brand new rear tyre held to the road very well, and real glad I had replaced the bald tyre on Thursday as that would have been interesting with the wet roads.

With a stop at Bulls petrol station and us all dripping wet, but big smiles all round reminded us that we don't only need to wait for dry days to get out. We thought a good idea would be to bring the rainsuits next time :)

Looking for the bigger puddles to zoom through all the way home to Palmy was like being a kid again. We split up once getting to town to head for home. No doubt everyone keen to remove the wet gear, and for me a nice warm shower and some dry clothes.

What a great day, keen to do it all again.

Here's a couple of old photos I dug up today of my XS750. The photo of me was by selftimer and I was waiting for it to take the photo, and was just about to get off bike thinking it hadn't worked, when I heard the click. Hence the frustrated look. Didn't have digital cameras back in the day to double check how it came out :)


This was taken at a later date as I had the mufflers cut down.