Redemption LJS

Route and Planning sheet posted on fb.

getting the clearance to drive/ride again last month, I’ve now completed the 2017 1KC, the 2020 1KC and the 2017 NI1600, as conditioning rides. Failing to complete the two 2017 rides, (where the clutch failed due to too much carpark slow stuff on the 1KC and not being attentive to the small stuff caused issues on the 1600) and these have been gnawing at me a bit.
 
Well, that all done now with completion of the 2017 NI1600 ride on the weekend, but, I couldn’t settle for just doing the 1600km because otherwise there are a few ‘knockers’ and those that ‘like to find fault as if there’s a reward for it’ out there and the 2017 event produced the worst weather conditions of any NZDR rides wince we started them in 2014. Well, you know how it is! They would be saying, “Yes, but you didn’t ride in 20hrs of rain like the real riders!!”, so I needed a point of difference to up the ante.
 
Now, I hate riding on wet roads on my 300+Kg ST with no traction control, so that wasn’t going to happen and to up the difficulty factor, I added Kms ….400 of them, to make the ride 2,000km in 24 hours by starting and finishing from home in Wellington and joining the route at the Kai Iwi checkpoint, then riding the route as it was set, but just doing the legs in different order.
 
Well ….It was the best of rides, it was the worst of rides….
 
I spent a bit of time on planning and setting up this ride as I’ve been a bit slack on that stuff in recent times. That included sorting a route and the order of legs (this ride had four out-and-return legs from Turangi), sorting fuel stops, establishing fast and slow target times to be able to monitor progress on the fly, getting the route into the GPS (which it wouldn’t co-operate so I had to drop the CP’s, then enter it manually), setting up the Spotwalla Tracking, getting in provisions  of water, nutbars and bananas, packing some gear in case I needed to pull, as well as the normal stuff. At first I was thinking of an 0800 start, but in the end, I decided to go, depending on when I awoke, so I printed a couple of timing sheets to put on the tank. …Oh yes, and I’d been monitoring the Rain Radar and did defer to the day of my choice!
 
As it turned out, I awoke at 0300, lay there for a bit, then thought, “Bugger it! I’m not going to get any more sleep!” so a dragged myself out of the pit, scrubbed, snacked and was ready to go at 0400, which was jolly convenient because one of the printed sheets just happened to be 0400. (NB. The bike clock is running about 10-12 mins fast and times are taken from the GPS Tracklog)
 
I should mention that I intended to apply for an IBA SaddleSore2000 status on this one, so that meant I needed to have the Spotwalla working and faff around with things like pre & post-ride fuel and receipts, etc. etc.
 
So, the ride ….5mins to J’ville, the 7mins at the pump (It seemed slower than paying across the counter), then the tedious 200km crawl up SH1 and across SH3 through Whanganui to Kai Iwi. It was dark when I left and I don’t recall when it got light but being SH1, it didn’t seem like any of it was dark. There were a couple of bursts through here, but generally a steady pace with little traffic resulted in arriving at 0610 with a Moving Avg of 103kph. Temps were generally 12º-14º, so after taking the pic and scoffing a banana, I had to relieve the pent-up tension resulting from the ‘cold-sqeeze! I say cold-squeeze, but perhaps it just an age thing, but it’s a bloody nuisance and resulted in a tardy 3min stop. Oh yes, and then there was the Spotwalla thing with the phone! I had it in the camera bag hooked up to a power pack, because if the phone isn’t on charge, it thinks it knows best and manages your Aps for you. ie it shuts them down to conserve power. Well the bloody charging cord has disconnected, so I plugged that in and stuck the combo in my jacket pocket.

Now I was on the 2017 route and the fun could begin in earnest, but my riding on this leg was very average as I struggled to find a rhythm and I put this down to telling myself, “you need as ride as fast and efficiently as possible!” Yes well ….when riding a heavy beast like an ST through curly stuff and/or fast, just isn’t efficient, so I found myself at odds with myself, because the key to efficient is getting it up to pace and holding that pace.  Therefore I was finding myself overcooking into corners, resulting in heavier braking than required, resulting in crappy lines, resulting in nasty internal memos and hitting reset ….then rinse and repeat! Eventually I woke-up and asked myself, “did I wasn’t to ride fast, or efficient” and the answer was “Yes!!” Well …at least that was enough for one of the voices to chip in, “Sort your shit out!!” and we got on with it. (between the music tracks, there are quite a few us chatting away in there). Well, the result was a tardy 97kph average for the 80Km from the outskirts of Whanganui to Raetihi, but average for the 184Km leg to Z Turangi was 104kph, despite the fog, or low cloud, or whatever it was …and it was cold ….and you know what that means!
 
So, I was stopped at the pay-at-pump pump by 0800, jiggling about as I faffed around with the transaction, filled, logged the fill, pushed the button on the Bubbler to send the Spotwalla track thingy, then danced to the dunny. Oh, the relief! Then I returned to the bike for another banana ….and a nut bar ….and a swig of water and all in all, wasted 12.5mins on the stop! Alrighty then, Ngaroma, here we come!

So, I pulled out and the scoot up the Western Lake was quite brisk, or ‘spirited’ if you prefer, then the road through the forested area by the Waipapa Dam is always a treat, and I was soon on the goat-track that threads across to Te Kuiti from there. But it’s a very nice goat-track, which has a blend of marked and unmarked (narrow lane) sections, but it generally has a good surface and one can still make good progress whilst exercising reasonable care. So in the end, the 129Km leg to the Ngaroma Hall (and that’s all there is in Ngaroma) took 1hr 15min for a 103 avg. Of course, maintaining this good average pace isn’t much good when you’re riding with a dog-with-dysentry and you have to make tardy 3min photostops! …although, to be fair, there was the drama with logging the point on the phone ….and nutritioning oneself …and hydrating!
 
The next leg was a shorty of only 53.5Km to a Farm Sign at Otohina and this now reflected the none-highway road, with an 86Kph average, but at least the stop was only a minute this time before I was on my way to the next CP at the Rangitoto Hall, only 10Km down the road at a 79 average, but the dysentry-dog turned up again as well to stretch that pause to 2mins ….and now I would enjoy a good romp to Awakino.
 
I must say that from Turangi, I had been riding back in the groove and although my pace through Nagaroma to Te Kuiti wasn’t fast, it was smooth and the Awakino Gorge was the usual real treat. So the 87Km from the Rangitoto Hall to the Awakino Pub was done at 91kph, but that included a 2min pause at the stop-go lights in the gorge. As I approached the road works at the start of the gorge, I was in a bit of day-dream and having not taken notice if the signs, I actually found myself airborne where the road dropped away at the entry to a work area. Fortunately it wasn’t gravel, but it certainly wasn’t like landing a jump on the old XL250. Then coming to the lights, I filtered to the front and when the I got the green light, I had a clear run through to the pub …..Bloody Marvelous it was! Just bloody marvelous!

Heading back through the gorge wasn’t so good as there was much more traffic heading North, so I encountered and overtook quite a few vehicles coming back, then filtered past a huge queue at the lights (which were just before the tunnel, so pretty much at the Northern end of the gorge), but I wasn’t stopped long before they changed and I was out of there.
 
This return to Turangi had me cutting through Aria to SH4 and a fuel stop at BP Taumarunui and I had done that because of all the twisty stuff on this leg, so it had me refueling short at 396Km, but then putting 98 octane in for the next fuel leg which was generally 440Km of State Highway riding. So, I pulled into Taumarunui at 1239, having done the 114Km from Awakino at 92kph and that was quite good considering the traffic through the gorge, the goat-track road through Aria, although, once again, it’s quite a good goat-track. Then once again, I had a pretty casual 9min stop, doing all the hydration and snacky stuff, texting home, Spotwallaring and so on. I was now 780Km into the ride, having been on the road for 8:36 with an Overall Avg of 91kph and I was pretty happy with that, as it was basically a sub-18Hr pace for the 1600 and I was well ahead of my targeted schedule.
 
I finished off the loop back to the Turangi hub doing the 66Km at 97, paused by the pumps for a minute45sec to do the photo/Spotty/Texty stuff, then I was off to Rotorua. Yukky SH1 traffic on roads with newly lowered limits and lots of double-yellows! I still made quite good progress though, doing the 133Km to the Skyline Centre at 91kph, taking 3mins on this occasion to document the stop. Next CP was Karapiro Mobil.

This was another short (70Km) leg through lots of traffic, but managed that at 96kph, took another 3mins on the stop, then returned the way I came before cutting down to Puketurua (out of Putaruru) for an even shorter 27Km leg, at 98kph …and another 3min stop, then finished the loop back to Turangi with a 141Km fang along Old Taupo Rd, then down via Whakamaru and the Western Lake Rd again, but managing to lift the pace to 106kph.

I was now 1219Km into the ride having been on the road for 13Hrs 29min, (90kph OA), so still on the 18Hr 1600-pace, but of course, a very relaxed 13min stopped pulled the OA back to 89, but I was still feeling very good. I seemed to make better progress back through to Taupo this time and had an easy ride over the Napier-Taupo Rd, to arrive at BP Bay View (174Km) at an avg of 100kph, but it was bare minimum, so only stopped for 2min before embarking on the Gentle Annie, back to Turangi for the last time.
 
It was around this time that I realized that I hadn’t planned this too well on the leg order, as I was now expecting quite bad sun-strike on this leg, but when I did the planning, I was expecting to ride it at night off a much later start. However, as it turned out, between clouds, trees and hillsides, I only had to lift my hand to my eyes a couple of times, so I made the 117Km to the next CP at the disused Suspension Bridge over the Rangitikei River at 93kph, took 2mins for the stop, then finished off the last 115Km back to Turangi at 100kph.

I was now sitting on 1625Km for the trip, so had completed the 1600 in 17:58 and pretty much all in daylight as it had only got dark a bit before I got back to SH1. I was feeling pretty good for having done the 1600, but I had had enough and wasn’t looking forward to the grind back down the Para’s, then home via SH1, so I took my time on a 10min stop, putting on my wets jacket (for an extra warmth layer, as it was down to 10º), and swapped the summer gloves for the full winter ones (I also carry mid-weight gloves).
 
I had two CP’s to go, with one at the Upok’ Pub (to force the ride down the Paras), then one at he Rangitikei River Bridge by Halcombe, but that one was in anticipation of needing some extra Km to bring the ride up to 2,000Km and as I seemed to be ahead on the Km, I was looking to drop that off and perhaps just extend the ride a few Km by riding to the train station when getting back into Wgtn.
 
I had about 370Km to go and departed Turangi at 2209, did the 160Km to Upukongaro at 94kph, had a 2min stop, then completed the last leg to home (via the Train Station) at 96kph (from Turangi) ….and that last leg was hard. I was pretty much on autopilot and coming down the Para’s was probably 5-10kph off the pace when going up in the morning. It was odd, because I didn’t exactly feel tired, but I was pretty shattered and I think not having done a lot of night riding didn’t help. Would it have been any different if I’d started at midnight and finished in daylight or dusk? ….I don’t know? ….But it certainly wasn’t enjoyable! I was just on a mission and had to finish, so I pushed on.

I arrived home at 0158 having done 2,006Km in 21Hrs 58min. OA of 91kph and Moving Avg of 99kph. Total stopped time of 1Hr 37min and considering the tardiness on the 17 stops, that would have added about 40+mins to the time over what I would normally do on one of these rides? I had a feed, scrubbed, felt marginally better and hit the sack!
 
I’d just hopped off the bike and staggered in, (forgetting to take an odo Pic) so in the morning, I had to retrieve all my gear, (camera, GPS, leftover supplies, etc. etc) and once I checked the Spotwalla, noted that there were sections where it had dropped out and it finished in Whanganui!!?? I’d also forgotten to get a few fuel receipts, so that finished the idea of an IBA recognition.
 
At last I could put the failure to complete in 2017 behind me. That brings the total of 1600Km rides to 15, with four of them exceeding 2,000Km. I’ve decided to not push myself and do the next ride on the programme, which was to be a 2660Km in 30Hrs, so we’ll see where I go from here??