Its the Sound Stupid!

Why is it we devote large proportion of time and expense to old pieces of metal and plastic that should have long ago been recycled into cellphones, flowerpots and garden ornaments? We tell our significant others about there investment value and how we are making a significant contribution to the heritage of our country. Whilst this is all very true maybe there is a more basic reason. It makes us feel human!
As parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties we take great pleasure in seeing little people experiencing new things in the world. The first ice cream, touching snow for the first time and watching the little persons head follow that two wheeled machine that just went past. As we get older some say we gradually revert back to being a child (Some more rapidly than others. As can be seen on the video!) and we start to treasure those memories from the past. Rekindling those memories is best experienced through our senses and whilst putting the video together for this post it was sound of an H2 on song that put a smile on my dial! The sound of a Kawasaki triple is so very unique. Watching and hearing Sir Al punting one of these through our countryside and hearing two of them together as he followed Paul D on his reminds us of why we love these old machines. It is these visceral experiences that we get from restoring and then riding them that makes us fell human. If it also means reverting back to our younger selves so be it!
Enough ruminations, the sound thing was definitely a nice way to frame the ride we had in late January with an assortment of bikes out for a spin. We certainly encourage and enjoy a 'broad church' on our rides and great to have a variety of 'sounds' along. Alan and Bruce came up from the Horowhenua on two very different types of machinery. Alan on his lovely cafed R100 that just burbles along whilst Bruce was on his frantic sounding CBR600. Paul turned up on his bright white Guzzi that loops along with that lovely tappety sound unique to them. Terrys GL700 was another take on the across the frame v configuration with that same Guzzi sound minus the tappets and a little more subdued in the exhaust note. The V theme was continued with Bruce Andrews VF750. It is a unique sound that many of us heard for the first time in the early eighties and has become an integral part of our motorcycling experience ever since. The XJ750 is very much an underrated motorcycle and often called in a derogatory manner a UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle). Most bikes UJMs ended up with four into ones so the fact that it still has standard pipes gives it that nice muted four cylinder sound typical of this genre of bikes. Ians very busy GS450 rounds out the four strokes with its chromed cam caps and rustling top end pumping out that very revvy twin cylinder bark through its cycleworks two into one.
Our trip around the Apiti loop certainly mixed together this cacophony of sounds as we made our way through the countryside. With stops along the way at Cheltenham  Hill, Kimbolton and Totara Reserve we finally 'orchestrated' (yes I know, very corny) our way into the Fusion Cafe in Ashhurst.
What did we take away from our time on the road? The sights, the smells and yes those wonderful sounds still ringing in our ears and that wonderful feeling to be alive and feel human!

PS. No apologies for the extended play video. Its not for now, but when we are all older and retro retro and have plenty of time to remember our Golden Summers together on the road!

Enjoy,
Gary

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/

Aprilia RS250. The Last of the Blue Haze Sports Bikes

The weather at this time of the year is a bit hit and miss if you are after appropriate riding conditions. For our July ride we struck a relatively warm and sunny day and we were also fortunate to have along for the run a couple of new people on their modern bikes. Kenny turned up on his very green BMW and John brought along his Aprilia RS250. This had the likes of Dion swooning all over it as he knows all to well that it was the last of the two stroke sports bikes. John has had it for half a year and he has been thoroughly enjoying it. It truly is a work of art and one that some people might like as a centrepiece in the living room! Also along for the ride was Rich on the mighty T500, Kim on his H2, Brian on his Yamaha XT600, Ian on his GSX 600, Paul was taking his H1b out for a spin, as was Dion on his KH400 and yours truly on the XJ. A wander up to Hunterville was the chosen destination and as we exited the city via Railway Road the haze at the city limits was probably mistaken for the passing of a steam train. We then proceeded through Feilding and headed up Makino road to our first stop at the top of Cheltenham hill. After videoing the departure I had to really give the old Yamaha a bit of a work out to catch up with the crew and we eventually arrived at our destination and decided to visit the local Motorcycle museum located in what used to be a bank. There was an interesting variety of machines to look over whilst waiting for our cuppa. Our return journey home was via the back roads that run parallel to State highway one. I decided to have my first play with the Gopro the family gave me for my birthday and I am looking forward to having a bit of fun with it on our rides. As can be seen from he video the roads we prefer to take are the back roads, and the more corners the better. After rejoining the main drag we ended up bidding farewell to the Feilding lads at Halcombe and headed towards our final stop at Mount Stewart. With a quick debrief from our ride we headed home with a wonderful dose of the sights, sounds and sensations unique to motorcycling.
Roll on spring for more of the same!

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.

A Golden Summer Part 3. Out with Classics and Apiti Loop

With the shortest day a month away and the forecast showing snow in the mountains it is probably a nice time to cast ones mind back to the summer just gone. It was a cracker for us motorcyclists, but the same warm (hot really) conditions were not good for the farmers in the form of a drought. The photos above are from a couple of runs some of us did in February around the region. The first run was out with the Manawatu Classic Motorcycle Club where we went the 'back way' to Totara Reserve via Pohangina township. The short gravel section was very dusty as you would expect with the dry weather, but definitely a pleasant run with feeding and watering at the Ashhurst Inn topping off a great morning out. Our second run was one of our favourite loops through Apiti and Kimbolton. We were joined by Ross Charlton and his English friend (sorry, I have forgotten your name)from Wellington on their moderns. After a quick run over the Pahiatua track and Saddle Road had Bruce heading back home due to other commitments and the rest of us meeting the lads at Ashhurst for the run up to Apiti. As always, a great run with with the usual caution around loose gravel, and in no time we were ensconced at Hansens in Kimbolton enjoying coffee and cake.