Last Sunday, after spending most of the week in Masterton with my family, it was a lovely day and I felt the need for a blow-out, so I popped out to Riversdale for a coffee. Without really pushing it I got out to the beach in 28 minutes and went for a wee tiki tour / nostalgia trip to check out the old haunts. It's a very different place to where we used to holiday. I enjoyed a coffee at the shop, then realised I was supposed to be back for a family gathering in 20 minutes, so it was a fairly quick trip back, taking a bit over 25 minutes. That certainly blew the cobwebs out and I found that with the screen up, the ST feels the same at very high speed as it does at 100kph. Today was a great day too, I was supposed to go on a Ulysses ride but with the Cold Kiwi on, I didn't expect a big turn-out. I left Ngaio at around 0920 taking a casual run out to Caltex Rimutuka, where I pumped the tyres and gassed-up. Nasty and Grub were there for the TCSMR with not much of a turn-out and after popping down to Brown Owl to see off six Ulysses riders, two of us returned to Rimutex to boost the KB ride. There were six of us there and we decided to do the Gladstone Water Towers, leaving at about 1010. It was Grubs first venture out, back on the bike after his enforced layoff so we took it pretty easy, stopping briefly at the Summit before heading on to Featherstone in the rain. That soon cleared though and we were soon cutting through the wind along the Martinborough straits, having a brief pause to regroup by the town square before taking the back road past Gladstone, then looping out past the water towers and back through Stronvar. We were only sitting on 100kph which was lucky as we passed a couple of the local law enforcers monitoring the roads and eventually got back to the Gladstone Pub for lunch at 1205. It was about 14ºC, but the fire was going and the place was packed with tables reserved for guests yet to arrive so we were offered the covered pool table. Suited us and we had an enjoyable feed and chat before eventually heading back via the middle (Ponatahi) road about 1400, a fill-up in Featherstone, a good burst up the hill and I left the others at the summit to go visiting relly's. I eventually got home about 1630, 280kms for the day and the very 'cruisy' Spring ride was just what the doctored ordered.
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Old Blog?
These blogs were posted on the KiwiBiker forum but I decided it was time for a change. Archives
January 2017
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