Two weeks to go until the big event and once again, I hadn’t planned anything, but decided another night ride would be nice, and knowing the prick that designs the routes for these rides quite well and having a good idea of the route, I figured I really needed some tight technical night riding practice, but I didn’t want to go too far to get it because the tyres are getting down with the front on 17,000km which is a record for me as I’m usually lucky to get 12-14,000! …so I stayed local and decided to do all the Wellington curly roads in one hit ….except for the Akatarawa Road, …because I hate that road!
With no real prep required, I got home, had a feed, got changed and hit the road. I still had half a tank from last week so didn’t need fuel and headed straight for Karori, the Makara Hill and Ohariu Valley. It must be a year or two since I’ve been through there and it was quite nice. I was soon in Johnsonville, took the motorway North and cut-off at Pope Rd to cut across to Pauatahanui and the Paukak’ Hill Road …another road that seems ages since I last did it (at least a year or two) and more sweet riding with the only marginal area being by Pauatahanui, where it was slick-as and I was glad it wasn’t wet. I galloped through there, hung a u-e at SH1, then galloped back and continued onto the Haywards Hill road, but took Moonshine Hill Road from there. Moonshine is a diabolical single lane road, but being night time, one can take a bit more freedom to extend the pace a bit. I did manage to find some pine needles and crap though, which did result in a twitch or two, but it was a much nicer ride in the night than in the day. I emerged by the Moonshine Bridge on SH2, then took Whakatiki St and Ward Streets to get across to Whitemans Valley. Jim lives on Ward Street and I did consider popping in, but the cars were there and the lights off …I guess that’s because Jim’s beard is very silvery, so he must be quite old and therefore supped his hot chocolate and retired for the night …even if it was only just after 2100!! …On the other hand he was probably drinking at the Miro Cinema? Whiteman’s Valley is more narrow lanes but once again, the road surface is in good condition so good progress was made back to Silverstream before taking the tedious Eastern Hutt Rd and Cambridge Tce to Whaiwhetu to get on the Wainuiomata Hill, then have a good romp out to the beach and back …another road less travelled in recent times! This road is a bit wider with sweepy corners and although it has an 80kph limit, one can make quite good progress across the 15’ish km each way and from there I went home. The ride ended up about 210km over 3 hours at an average of about 68kph, which was quite good considering the nature of the roads. It was a good night for riding and that will probably be it for me until the event. I’ll book the bike in next week for tyres and the usual pre-1000 miler super-WoF. Bring it on!!
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This blog is pretty much just about motorcycling ...but every now and then I might rant or dribble on about other things. Categories
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