Chasing the Sunshine

It has certainly been a very wet spring this year which has meant a lack of activity on the Sunday rides front. It got so bad a couple of weeks ago a special Sunday meeting was held at the Stage Door Cafe. This lack of DRY riding opportunities was probably one reason why last weekend we had a pretty good turnout for one of our 'non scheduled' rides. The return to 9:00 am departures might have been a plus as well with daylight saving signalling the beginning of the riding season. The forecast was for fine weather in the east so plans were made to head over the track to do the Rongomai loop. As can be seen from the photos, along with the regulars (Ian, Paul, Alan, Kim, Bruce and myself) we had Steve on his Japanese/Italian hybrid Cagiva! He is a two smoker from way back with a liking for Suzuki GT500s and muttered something about tracking one down! Our arrival at the top of the Pahiatua track saw us peering out through some drizzle to the east. After a quick reappraisal of our planned route we decided to continue on and as we reached the bottom of the track things began to clear. Mangamaire had us looking at blue sky in the distance so we continued on through a gradually warming morning. The Rongomai turnoff had us swinging through some of our favourite back roads. No traffic and a nice mix of wide open corners and well cambered tighter sections saw us arriving into the back of Pahiatua with some broad smiles. After a regroup we then headed off through some more great back roads to the Ballance Bridge Cafe. Whilst having a chat a genleman pulled up on his Honda GL500 and it transpired he was off to Feilding to have have a look at a car museum with the Masterton Ulysses group. Bruce and Alan swapped bikes with Bruce enjoying the delights of the H2 Widow Maker and Alan enjoying the beautiful growl of a well tuned and great sounding FZR1000 grunting out of the corners. The cafe chat for the two of them was Alan wondering how long hislicence would last if he owned an FZR and Bruce rather surprised at the descent handling of the H2. After some great coffees and snacks we retraced our steps back over the track and arrived back in town with plenty of the day left to do other things! A great way to start a Sunday

Suzukis' Ducatis and Daffodils

I thought I would throw up a post covering  a couple of weekends worth of wandering our lovely countryside. The meteorologists say we have had the warmest August ever, and the outings we went on definitely confirmed the statistics with the daffodils in bloom and not having to wear so many riding layers. This has provided the motivation and opportunity to get out on our motorcycles and enjoy them. As a group we have quite a mixture of bikes in our garages and our rides reflect this variety. Bruce decided to bring his Ducati SR4 Monster along for one of our rides and he let me have a ride on it. It was my first ride on a Ducati, and what an eye opener. I now have a new understanding of 'good midrange torque', and why such bikes need wide rear tires!  As for the brakes, well you need really good ones! It definitely showed how far motorcycles have come in the last thirty years. Along on the same ride was  Kim on his H2, Ian on his GSX600, Rich on his T500. I joined the lads in Ashhurst as we headed West away from the showery weather and damp roads near the ranges. As always we needed to stop for refreshments and at Bruces suggestion we ended up at the Wooolshed Cafe just south of Sanson. Very much recommended!

The second outing is from our VJMC/Blue Haze August end of month ride up the Pohangina Valley. Its been a wee while since we have been up the valley which is a favourite ride for many us in the region. It was a great run with much of the countryside waking up from its winter slumber with blooms on all the fruit trees and daffodils everywhere. Another feature of the ride was the number of Suzuki's.  Of special note was Bruces gorgeous little 1984 low milage GSXR 400. The very first of them. A lot of people forget that they preceded the 750s and are very much the first of the GSXR dynasty that is still with us today. For that reason alone it is very collectable, let alone they are wonderful little bike that is well suited to the twisty roads we have on our doorstep. Kim also dragged out the mighty RE5 from its winter slumber for its first run of the season. By all accounts it was rather reluctant to wake up and protested in its usual smokey manner, but by the end of the run was purring and enjoying the outing. Paul De Lautour brought along his GT750 and theirs nothing like seeing all that chrome and paintwork against a lush and colourful spring scene. Ian came out on his GSX600F and provided a nice contrast to the earlier Suzukis with a very strong lineage to Bruces little GSXR. Ian has just returned to motorcycling and its been great to see his 'measured confidence' grow over the last couple of months. As a group we enjoy our older bikes and ride them at an appropriate pace that often suits riders returning to motorcycling. Thats not to say we don't have an occasional 'quickening of the pace' from time to time! After all (officer) its important to blow the carbon out of a two strokes pipes to keep it in top running order! Rich brought along his ever reliable T500 and managed to find a very 'spiritual' parking spot in our last stop before heading towards home. Some one had spend time creating a mini Stonehenge that Richs side stand ended up in the middle of. This could just be chance but may explain why people why some of us feel the need to have a Suzuki T500 in our lives! We continued our ride to The Pilgrims Rest who's gates were now open. Margret greeted us in her usual jovial manner and John joined us later after completing his farm work with the deer. They are a hard case couple with hearts of gold and provided great company as we had our scones, cream, ploughman's lunch washed down with coffee and tea. The remainder of our ride back down the valley was just as enjoyable as going up and we are all looking forward to our next ride.

Just to finish off, a big congratulations to VJMC (New Zealand) who have just put up a web site for the club. Angela, Barry, Ross and Judy have been working hard on this for months. Go and have a look and keep up to date with goings on around the country and all the latest news concerning the rally in March.

http://www.vjmc.co.nz/

I see red, I see red, I see red!

Those of us of a certain level of 'maturity' remember a great kiwi band called Split Enz. One of there signature songs we new well and would sing along to with a DB draught in hand was I See Red. It was this song that came to mind when lining up for a ride last weekend we had some new bikes appear and a new face. It was great to welcome Ian Brayshaw to the fold on his lovely red Suzuki GSX600F. He is returning to motorcycling after a decade or so of mortgages, family and running a business. A familiar story to many! Bruce Sagger appeared on his latest purchase, a very bright red Honda VFR 750. These bikes are proving to be very popular amongst our members with three joining the fleet in the last six months. The third red bike was Dions recently acquired Marlboro Yamaha TZR 250 a bike he has been after for a while now.  It was a good turnout considering the dreadful weather we had the day and week before with seven of us gathering at Manawatu Motorcycles. Paul on his GT750, Kim on his H2, Alan on his trusty A7 and yours truly on the XJ. We decided on a shorter run towards some sunshine near the sea through Shannon with Foxton being our final destination. The run through to Shannon was very foggy with many thankful for wearing their polyprops and many layers under their jackets. After a brief stop at Shannon we eventually popped out into some beautiful winter sunshine just short of Foxton. We definitely lingered at the cafe next to the windmill soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the horse drawn tram clip clopping around its circuit. The ride home through Himatangi was a nice cruise in the sunshine soaking up a bit more Vitamin D.

5 Brave Souls Risk the Rain and get Sunshine

As I was unable to attend the end of month ride Sir Al has kindly provided a report.

Which way?

A stop at Turakina

Tidy original XT

RG in tourer mode

There's nothing like a J-bus

Another Suzuki triple

RZ500LC

Big bore 300 KR engine

Waiting for Kai at the Red Lion

Sunday 26th May was our VJMC / Blue Haze end of month ride. The sky looked threatening, but 5 hardy types (and me) turned out at Manawatu Motorcycles at 10am. Rich riding his faithful T500, Kim on the H2A, Paul on the J-bus, Dion on his RG, and Brian on the Yamaha XT600 trail bike. I was odd man out on the modern.

We decided to head west and Dion organised a visit to Wayne M's collection of bikes in Whanganui. A good decision as we enjoyed a pleasant day's ride under mostly blue skies. We took as many back roads as possible there and back. Wayne's collection of restored, part-restored, original, and un-restored bikes was interesting, particularly the Lucky Strike Yamaha RZ500LC, and a collection of Kawasaki KR 250 tandem twins in varying states. These very trick machines hold a special interest for Dion as he's spent many happy hours scratching around the back roads on a KR, and of course many more trying to start one! He climbed on and gave it a few kicks for old-times sake. There were KX 250 and 420 motorcrossers, and a KX being turned into a track bike. For something different a rare 3 cyl 2-stroke Suzuki car. These may have been called a Fronte (?), and have the air-cooled triple rear mounted with a fan driven off one end of the engine and shrouded to blow air over the engine. Wayne has Banshee snail chambers which will be adapted to fit the little car. Should be interesting.
We left Wayne's around 1.30 and headed to the Red Lion pub for refreshments before returning to Palmerston North. An interesting day out for all, and Wayne is keen to bring the RZ500 out on some of our rides in the future.

A Golden Summer Part 2: Wheels with Attitude Annual Show

It doesn't take to much to persuade some of us for a ride. Having heard positive comments about this show in Dannevirke over the last few years a group of us decided to go and check it. We assembled at our usual spot outside Manawatu Motorcycles and much interest was shown when Bruce Sagger turned up with his latest purchase, a Suzuki GSXR 750, the first of the slabbies. These bikes are becoming very collectible and if you are interested now is a good time to buy before they start appreciating in value. There comparative lack of chrome compared to earlier bikes can make them more of DIY proposition. However the acres of plastic on many of them has its own costs and challenges as well. Bruce was keen to see how it went as were the rest of us! Alan was on his trusty Kawasaki A7, with Dion bringing his RG400 out for a spin, Paul De Lautour on the mighty GT750, Richard on his trusty T500 and myself on the XJ750. Our trip over the Saddle road convinced us not to include this in any rides for a while with a lot roadworks underway. Once they get it sorted it will once again return to being one of our favourite stretches of road. After regrouping at the bottom of the saddle we continued on to Dannivegas along Top Grass road. A far more interesting route compared to State Highway two. The show was at the northern end of town and what we hadn't realised was it was a part of the annual A&P show. It was a very busy place and had a great carnival atmosphere to it. Well worth the $2.00 dollar entry fee. Once we managed to find a parking/display spot we quickly ditched our gear as the temperature was heading towards 30 degrees and headed out to view and soak up the surroundings. Right next door to the equestrian ring were not only the hotdog and Candy floss stands but a flea market full of vehicle related treasures. Most of the treasures were of the car variety, but the second hand book vendor had a great variety of ex public library motorcycle books. The Kawasaki book I purchased had a some excellent photos but some dubious text and Paul De Lautour managed to find some great Jag books to go with his latest heritage interest, a 1963 E type. (Might have to do a blog on it, Its a beauty!). One of the locals had an interesting selection of bikes on show that included a Honda CL175 and a CT90. As we were enjoying the sites and sounds a few other bikes joined our lineup of VJMC bikes including Roger who turned up on his Walter Wolf RG and a rather nice CBX1000. It was a great morning out and we headed into town for a drink and nibbles at an excellent cafe that had a much appreciated air conditioning unit going full bore. We then retraced our steps back along Top Grass road and home thinking that we will definitely add the show to our calender. Its on in the first weekend of February.
Another excellent reason to go for a ride!
All seems rather surreal looking back as we head towards winter and put another log on the fire!

Horsepower meets Horsepower in Foxton!

Here are a few photos from a lovely ride three of us went on last Sunday. This time of year provides some of the most pleasant motorcycling weather of the year with warm(as in not hot!) and settled weather and blue skies. The old aircooled twostrokes just love this with fewer worries around middle cylinders on triples and a nice crispness to the throttle from jetting thats just lean enough! Pauls H1a looked wonderful out in the sun and Bruce Currie on his trusty Suzuki GT750 provided  a great aural accompaniment through his expansion chambers as I followed along behind on the XJ. Bruce had made the trip up from Wellington for the ride leaving his place at 7:00 am this morning. He passed comment on digging out his thermals as he felt the approach of winter through his summer gear he had on. He certainly gets around on his GT with two trips south in the last six months to the Bert Munroe and recently to the VJMC Rally in Hamner. He has covered 20000kms on it over the last few years and is looking forward to getting his K model on the road shortly. A good reminder that these old Japanese bikes still have no trouble cutting the mustard as everyday bikes.

As the morning warmed up we headed on out and decided on a jaunt around the back of Feilding and eventually ending up in Foxton for a cuppa. Our first stop was Stanway Hall where we meet an interesting chap out for a bike ride who had a couple of 70s British 'show' bikes at home that he doesn't ride. A Trident and one of the last BSA Lightnings made. Both bikes are orignal and under 10,000 miles. Seeme to be very interested in getting an old japanese bike to ride. The more the merrier! Mout Stewart was our next stop and we made plans for a back road route down to Foxton. Went through Glenn Orua Taikorea and on towards Highway 56 and towards Himatangi. We turned off down to Wylie Road and headed towards Foxton for our cuppa. The windmill is a great spot to stop and watch the world go by. This morning the Foxton Horsedrawn Tram Society were running rides with a couple of Clydesdales pulling it along. Not something one sees everyday. Many jokes about horsepower meeting horsepower. After feeding and watering ourselves we headed home with the tripmeter ticking over 150km under the wheels as we got back home.  Who would have thought 150km return to Foxton but more importantly some more wonderful memories that remind us why we have such a passion for restoring and riding these old Japanese Bikes!