2 day pass

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kiwi60
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2 day pass

Post by kiwi60 »

Having recieved a 2 day pass from the one I refer to as HER, Duke22 and I headed off just after 7.15 am on Boxing Day towards Wanganui to watch the Cemertary Circuit Racing.

Dukes recent aquisition, a Triumph 1050 Speed Triple, looked and sounded awesome, and over the next 6 hours we wound our way throught some spectacular scenery, including a sun soaked ride through National Park to the sleepy little town of Wanganui, which gets turned into an insane street race once a year.

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Sorry about the lack of race photo's - I just can't seem to get good action shots on an iphone.

To be honest, the racing wasn't worth the effort getting there this time, over the 3 or 4 hours we were there we only saw 3 or 4 races due to too many crashes, clean ups restarts etc.

The most interesting crash happened before we arrived, one of the methanol burning side cars hit the hay bales, and spilt fuel set them on fire.
Think about this a minute, it's a sunny day, methanol burns with no visible flame, how do you know whats on fire - well, they could only tell the hay bales were on fire when they suddenly turned black and fell apart, and then the flames appeared!!!
Enter the fire service, tear all the bales apart in the area, soak them all, clean up and start racing again an hour later, just another normal days racing at Wanganui.

To tell the truth, watching the racing wasn't the reasoning for getting away, it's the end of what's been a hard year and a de-stress valve was needed, and the ride certainly accomplished that.

We left before the racing finished and headed over to Palmerston North for the night.

The next day we headed up some glorious back roads to Taihape, then took a detour over the Gentle Annie (at least we think that was the roads name, doesn't really matter as it turned out to be one of the best roads either of us have ridden in a long time, great variety of corners, almost no traffic, and stunning scenery) and on to Napier, the art deco capital of the world, for lunch.

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After that it was through to Taupo, and then push on back to Auckland.

It's always interesting doing a long trip (1260 km's in 2 days), as my riding posture is great when I start, and as the day goes on I turn into the motorcycling equivient of Jabba the Hutt as the miles roll on and I slowely sink down into a small round pile of flesh...ah well, we can't all be Rossi eh.

It was a brilliant couple of days break, good riding, good company, raesonable food and no tickets (that I know of).

Now, to clean the bike - that could take a while as all reasonable sized bugs had been informed that I was out and the set their radars accordingly :roll:
Last edited by kiwi60 on Tue Dec 27, 2011 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“I venture not to cross that finish line in a neat, tidy well ordered bundle, but to slide across it sideways in a shower of spark’s, leaking oil, hissing steam shouting ..Geronimo !!!!! “

2005 SV996R SOLD
1988 FZR750/1040 race bike SOLD
1988 FZR750/1000 - the next project CHANGING THE LOOK AGAIN, BUT STILL ON THE ROAD
Now he's got a KAWASAKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nope - Sold that one too
Dang - he’s got a Triumph now :o

JasonL
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Post by JasonL »

God I love motorbikes.

I'd been right off road bikes for a while, too many people cleaned up on them, but of late I've had a hankering to get back out in the countryside on them, its what I did before anything else. There's just nothing like it.
Kiwi are you coming to the Island Classic?

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kiwi60
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Post by kiwi60 »

Kiwi are you coming to the Island Classic?
Not this time Jason, but i've been talking to he guy whose racing the FZR and it looks like we'll be over in 2013 for PI and EC.

Duke22 will be over in January with his FZR for PI, so keep a look out for the red one (the bike, not the rider) :)
“I venture not to cross that finish line in a neat, tidy well ordered bundle, but to slide across it sideways in a shower of spark’s, leaking oil, hissing steam shouting ..Geronimo !!!!! “

2005 SV996R SOLD
1988 FZR750/1040 race bike SOLD
1988 FZR750/1000 - the next project CHANGING THE LOOK AGAIN, BUT STILL ON THE ROAD
Now he's got a KAWASAKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nope - Sold that one too
Dang - he’s got a Triumph now :o

Mike_SS
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Post by Mike_SS »

Nice story kiwi :)
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Big Jon
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Post by Big Jon »

Great story! but what do you mean "long trip"? 1200k? That's should be a warm up! ;)

spook
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Post by spook »

Thanks kiwi... I now feel like I've been on a nice relaxing motorcycling holiday :)

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kiwi60
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Post by kiwi60 »

Great story! but what do you mean "long trip"? 1200k? That's should be a warm up!
True Jon, but in New Zealand you start hitting salt water after you've ridden too much further ;)
“I venture not to cross that finish line in a neat, tidy well ordered bundle, but to slide across it sideways in a shower of spark’s, leaking oil, hissing steam shouting ..Geronimo !!!!! “

2005 SV996R SOLD
1988 FZR750/1040 race bike SOLD
1988 FZR750/1000 - the next project CHANGING THE LOOK AGAIN, BUT STILL ON THE ROAD
Now he's got a KAWASAKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nope - Sold that one too
Dang - he’s got a Triumph now :o

Big Jon
Help!!! I need a LIFE!!!
Posts: 847
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:09 pm
Location: Edmonton Alberta Canada

Post by Big Jon »

True enough, I could hit salt water in about 12-1400kms, or 5-6000 if done right. Hell I've done 2400 and never left the province (or even used 2 whole days!). But that's easy when there aren't any deflections in direction, aka, the roads are straight here.

ThomVis
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Post by ThomVis »

4 km before I start my swim to the UK, 230 km max before I need my passport. Road trip? At 1200 km I need to speak Spanish, Italian or something Eastern European, and a supersport bike is probably not the best choice if you look at the quality of the roads there.....
Intelligence is alcohol soluble.

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