Labour Day Ride 2010

From Labour Day Ride 2010

From Labour Day Ride 2010

From Labour Day Ride 2010

From Labour Day Ride 2010

From Labour Day Ride 2010

The weather forecast at the begining of the week looked promising for a Labour Day ride so the email was sent out and a group of nine gathered at Manawatu Motorcycles ready for a wander around the countryside. It was good to see Terry on his Suzuki GT550 a bike he has used as his daily commute since he purchased it in 1981. It has done over 50 thousand miles and has had nothing done to the motor. Amazing. Also along for a ride was John on his immaculate Suzuki T500 in blue with only a few thousand miles on the clock. Can't wait to see some of the other bikes he has in his garage. Geoff came arrived on his immaculate little Kawasaki KR150. A great little machine that has no difficulty keeping up with the group. Sir Al brought along his Suzuki TS250 that is running extremely well after its recent rebuild. Sparkie (Kim) decided to test his rewired RZ250 that was moving but still awaiting the repair of some 'spiked' electronic parts. Dr Sprocket (Paul D) wheeled out his immaculate Kawasaki H1a, Dion on the mighty KH400, Don on his Honda MT and myself on my KH250. After some discussion a ride was decided on. The route took in the Pahiatua track and on to Rongomai via Mangamaire and back through Pahiatua and back through to Ballance and over the Saddle road to Ashurst. First stop was at the top of the track and then onto Mangamaire. The Rongomai section of the run was as always a lot of fun with a range of tight and tighter corners well suited to these bikes. You can still have a lot of fun on 40hp or less and still get time to take in the country atmosphere. Just before Pahiatua Don went onto reserve and after filling up the calculations worked out at 25mpg! The run through to Ballance was far more interesting than State Highway 2 and then it was on to the Saddle. The run up was a bit of a struggle for those of us on 250s, but the run down the other side to Ashhurst was a ball. We had decided on the Ashhurst Inn for our morning tea but it was closed so off down the road to the Ashhurst Domain Cafe for some good coffee, food and conversation.
Another great ride.
Roll on Summer!!!