Ambo & Coin Toss Rides

We had two rides this week, which was a bit fortuitous because when I went to fill this morning. I noted the last fill was on 31/03/13....at 0444....that's am... in the morning ….and would have been the dawn ride! Sheesh, lucky the gas hadn't gone off in the tank after such a long break between rides!!

Anyway, ANZAC day was the annual Free Ambulance Charity Ride...which isn't really a ride because it didn't require a fill of the tank, but I did get the bike out, got it wet and we gave $2K to the Wgtn Free Ambulance Service. That was good from the 170'ish of the biking community that turned up, but a drop in the ocean considering that new ambulances are needed.

I rode out to Maidstone Park so that I could ride back into town as TEC and I would have to say that it must have been a historic event as, from the Haywards lights, I found myself following Gat, who was struggling to keep up with the main bunch....so perhaps a new Tui Billboard is in order, “Gat's turned a new leaf, I nominate Gat for Ride Leader!”

Today was another Coin Toss ride. I say another but it was actually 2-3 years since the last one. It was a nice day (sunny and 21° as I ventured out along the Hutt Rd) so I expected a good turnout, but there were only 9 of us to depart (including Warwick as leader with his broken thumb and in his MX5).

The first toss was, 'heads - Ride' or 'Tails - Bugger the ride, let's go Go Karting', and it fell Tails, but I hadn't booked Go Karting so we had to go for the ride. The second toss was 'The' Hill or the Paekak' hill...but it was too nice a day and I wanted some pix on the hill so we forewent that one, I left a minute or two before the others as we headed for a toss in Featherstone.

I got my pix then assumed TEC position, rolled into Featherston where the option was SH2 or Western Lake and it fell to take the lake to the next decision point at the Kahutara / Lake Ferry Rd junction. That one flipped to Martinborough where we paused for a coffee stop at 1130, then tossed for Middle (Ponatahi) Rd or Tablelands for Gladstone and Tablelands was the winner.

We enjoyed a pleasant meal and chat outside between 1256 and 1352, before heading for home and I was in a bit of a fangable mood so I took off the Uly vest, turned up the sounds and hit the road at my usual sedate pace. I averaged 90kph to Featherston, then 95 on the early part of the hill, but unfortunately, the traffic and wind transpired against me and I only averaged 70kph over the hill in the end, finally arriving home at 1504.

It was a rather pleasant day with the temp above 20° for most of the day and I managed 255Km at an economy of 17.9Km/Ltr and the bike now has 30,926 Km on it.