February End of Month Ride

 

We had a great little run for our February EoMR with Grant and Warren rolling out there Suzuki 250s for the occasion. Whilst both are performance two strokes from their day, the technology is very different, with, as you would expect, very different outcomes. Try 28 - 32 bhp versus 55 bhp let alone the improvements in chassis and running gear. Rounding out the two strokes was Stuarts 1972 Suzuki GT750 in all its ray gun glory. Roger brought out his little Moto Guzzi V 35 Imola II and Rich his trusty Vstrom and yours truely on the GSR750. A trip down to the metropolis of Shannon was agreed upon with our route having us heading out to Ashhurst for the first part and then to Aokautere, Tokomaru and down to Shannon. Grant had little trouble on his 250 keeping up with the traffic with plenty of use being made of the gearbox and the throttle. 

The Horseman's Cafe was a busy place and when we pulled up some of the Classic Club lads were leaving on there way down to Southwards Museum for the Shiny Side Up Bike Fest. Amongst the bikes were a couple of 'big block' Suzukis with a GSX1100 from the eighties and a Yoshimura GS1200SS from the early 2000's sounding very yummy with there 4 into ones. After a great feed and plenty of car and bike spotting, a westward route home was chosen via the Shannon Foxton Road and then through Rangiotu and to Palmy. 

Another great run and looking forward to our next end of month ride in March.

Two Stroke Heaven

 Sir Al and Rich have recently upped their saddle time with a trip up to Hampton Downs to to soak up some classic two stroke racing bike ambience. The occasion was the Star Insure MotoFest with its Legend Garage. Amongst the legends was our very own Alan De Lautour with his Pat Hennen Suzuki RG500 amongst a wonderful lineup of rather special strokers. From a Buckley through to a bevy Yamaha TZs and a contemporary Suter thrown in for good measure! Of course there was plenty of other interesting machinery like the occasional Britten or two and someone called Graham Crosby in there somewhere as well. The racing was also rather interesting (apparently)with some close racing all round. I will let Sir Al's photos and videos tell some of the story.