After no riding for the past two weekends (for various reasons), Steve and I pre-rode the Nth Island 800 on Saturday ….and that’s all I have to say about that!
I had been watching the weather all week but …and the damn forecast shifted every day, but one thing was clear, I was going to be able to test-the-wets because the day would start clagged-in, then clear from the west. We therefore decided on a late start at 0700 from Caltex Rimutaka, so I prepped the bike on Friday night, only to find that the rear tyre sensor was out of action. Drat, drat and double drat, but in the end, it turned out to be the “NEW” battery was down to 1.9V instead of the specified 3V! I pumped the tyres anyway, then left the rear slightly over-inflated after trying to use the front sensor, then went up and charged all the other batteries (Mobile Phone, Sena, Camera) and got my gear ready. In the morning I fiddled about a bit more with the tyre and in the end, measured using the old fashioned technique, with a gauge. I was a bit late leaving, but fully attired in wets, bar the over gloves, and I had even fitted the pinlock the night before, then after filling, we finally got away a little after 0720. The weather ahead was certainly looking dismal, the road was wet, but it wasn’t raining. Then by half-way up we were riding in cloud, so although it wasn’t raining, my visor was speckled with water drops and I tried adjusting the screen to clear it, but it was so fine, that wasn’t very effective, then I started having issues with the pinlock, so decided to remove it at our first scheduled stop ….then it fogged up so I had to announce to Steve that we would need to stop in Featherston for me to remove it …and he opted to put his wets on at the same time. For the rest of the day we encountered plenty of wet roads, some splatterings of rain, but not enough to warrant putting the over-gloves on and consequently, not enough to test the wets! I wore them all day though and that extra bit of thermal protection was just what the rider needed. Needless to say, Steve and I did a few km for the day, which even spilled over to offer us a bit of night riding practice, we ended up with a moving average of about 93kph, I was a tad knackered when I got home and enjoyed a jolly good coma last night. I commented to Steve somewhere along the way …wherever it was that we went …that is was hard to envisage the weather warming up much in the next four weeks, but roll on October 6 and a decent ride!
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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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August 2021
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