What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. Our end-of-month ride for February saw an action-packed day with three ‘activities’ on offer. Our 9:30 role call saw an eclectic gathering of bikes andriders raring to get things underway. Amongst the classics on the day was Warren T’s latest addition to his collection, a Suzuki T10 from the early 60s that was in excellent condition. Nice to see Paul Q’s restoration on his Suzuki GSXR 1100. What a superb job he has done. PC had his Suzuki GT 550L out and about again after some serious fettling. Bruce rode his Suzuki GT750L up from Welly and it it looked its chromey sparkle best and was running well as Bruce has been clocking up a few Kay’s on the old girl recently. Sir Al’s Kawasaki 750 H2 looked very comfortable alongside its two-stroke chrome mate from the seventies. Warren M had his ever-reliable and very original Yamaha XJ900 out for a spin and rounding out the classics was Roger on his 500 Guzzi. The classics were well supported with a number of moderns coming along to share the sights, sounds, and smells of the sixties, seventies, eighties, and now well into the nineties!
First up was our ride out around the Manawatu following one of our well-worn paths out the back of Feilding via Colyton to a stop at Stanway Hall. Warren took a shortcut into Feilding as the wind strengthened and started to seriously challenge the T10s cruising speed. The rest of us continued on to Stanway Hall and after a brief stop and chat, we headed on into Feilding via Halcombe to support the first Bikes and Burgers event held there. The old Write Price Supermarket car park was chocka with bikes and bikers. This is such a great event as it brings together a diverse range of bikes and riders. It is this sort of informal fraternity on this scale that bodes well for the future of motorcycling. It was here that we met up with Wayne and Lloyd from Whanganui, who were to guide us on the last part of our ‘run’ for the day, which was to be the long way to Paloma Gardens.
After the prize-giving and farewells were said, we slotted in behind Wayne on his RZV500R? and Lloyd on his Yamaha SZR 660 as tail-end Charlie. After making our way to Marton and a gas stop, we headed out to Makuhou Rd, which was the start of a great ‘B’ road ride that took us through some excellent motorcycle-friendly roads that had us heading to Whanganui the ‘long way’. It was interesting to see the aftereffects of the recent flooding in the area with debris still on the road and damaged trees. Waterways like the Turakina River showed the height of the floodwaters many metres above a now babbling brook (well, almost!). The Turakina Valley Road had us connecting up to Mangatipona and Kauangaroa roads and then on through to Paloma Gardens.
What a wonderful surprise that was. Amongst a rural garden setting, it must be one of the most eclectic motorcycle collections in the country. The ten-dollar fee, inclusive of a cuppa, had us spending a couple of hours amongst some wonderful bikes and great company. Clive was a great host, and it was nice to see the bike that greeted us going into the exhibition was a Kawasaki H1C 500. They really do capture the spirit of the seventies and fitted right in with our Blue haze T-shirts!
It is definitely a return-visit place so one can take in even more of this wonderful collection. It was interesting to see Sir Al gushing over the classic Mercedes in the carpark. A wannabe gangster in our midst?
A big thank you to Lloyd, Wayne, and Clive for our time at Paloma and the ride over. The ride back home was via the quick way along State Highway 3 into a very strong Easterly wind. Great for the air-cooled stroker’s engine temperature-wise but not so much fuel consumption. A great day out and about and definitely one for the ‘On any Sunday’ memory folder.
