Friday, October 31, 2014

Barry Sheene Trans-Tasman Challenge 2014


















This year Bruce A and Bruce S, Kim, Dion, Dave, Rich, and I made the trip to Hampton Downs for the classic racing. We stayed at Ngaruawahia again and in contrast to last year enjoyed a picture perfect day for the ride up.  We travelled via the Parapara road to National Park and Taumaranui, stopping at Horopito (Smash Palace) on the way. If you’ve never stopped to check this out it’s worth a look. From Taumaranui it was on to Te Kuiti and Otorohanga, then the back road to Ngaruawahia and the Arrow Lodge Motel. Across the road from the motel is the RSA where we enjoyed a beer and a meal each night.
A pleasant day was spent at the track on Sunday with good racing, open pits, and a lot of interesting machinery in the bike park. In fact the bike park was a major area of interest for most of those attending judging by the number of people wandering around and photographing the bikes throughout the day. A most enjoyable evening was spent over a few snorts and a meal at the RSA.
Monday morning greeted us with dark skies and it wasn’t long before the rain started. At times it became torrential. We stopped at Angel Louise cafĂ© in Raetihi for a late lunch (good food and service) and then back down the Parapara to Wanganui and then home.
Our bikes for the trip – VFR750F (Bruce A), RG400 (Kim), GSX1100 (Dave), NS400R (Dion), H2 (Alan), and Aprilia V4 (Bruce S). Rich was 4-wheel mounted, and DRY! No real problems with the bikes which was great considering their age and riding all day in the rain on the way home.

Hope to do it again next year.
PS. Brett just sent a link through with Andrew Stroud riding his mates GSX Macintosh last weekend. Enjoy

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