Saturday - Whitemans

A nice day and weather forecast for Sunday questionable.  I did a ride to Petone then caught up with Alan and we road up the Whitemans Valley Road, stopped for tea and scones and the back via Whitemans to home.  112Kms and home by 1600hrs in time for Jonathon's birthday party.

Not much riding

Today Sunday a ride of 65kms through to Ngaio Gorge and then around the loop.   Yesterday a ride into WMC.  It is cold and about to start raining.

The odo is just on 33600kms.  Next service at 36000kms.

Ulysses Sunday Ride

It has been  a long time since my last ride with Ulysses.   Today's ride was to be Martinborough, Water towers and then lunch at Wild Oaks in Carterton.   It didn't turn out this way.

It was a very cold 4C start.  I was well dressed with full thermals and heated vest.   I fitted the video camera to the bike in preparation for the water towers road.   I also fitted the GPS to record the track.   The GPS record was:  0909 left  home, 0937 arrived Brown Owl, 1008 left Brown Owl, 1046 Martinborough, 1105 Wild Oaks.   So our ride was along Ponatahi Road and into Carterton, without doing the Water Towers.   Riders all parked up and I decided to do the Water Towers loop to earn the coffee and food the others decided to stop for. 

At 1114 I left Wild Oaks and headed to Gladstone then the Westmere Road loop back via Masterton and SH2 to Wild Oaks.  This was a 70.9km excursion with an average speed of 87km/hr and getting me back to Wild Oaks at noon.   Coffee and scone was taken as the other riders were leaving to go home and shortly after noon the gravel road group turned up.

At 1245 I headed home and arrived at 1357hrs.   A total trip of 265km.

Now I have a lot of video to review and decide what to upload to Youtube.

Missing Post

June 3rd I did a ride with Alan to Martinborough and back. We stopped at the top of the hill and admired a Ferrari. Another nice ride.

Around the bays

Winter has certainly arrived. The temperature is just 5C but no wind or cloud; a nice day to wrap up and ride. First ride this season with the heated vest. I went to Alan's place and then we did a slow jaunt around the bays and stopped in Aro valley for a coffee.

New Speedtriple

Just for something to do this morning I went into the city. Stopped at Wellington Motorcycles and then at Motorad. Motorad had a nice demo Speed triple at the doorway and I didn't get any further as was offered a ride on it. A very nice bike and the ride brought back good memories of my last bike. They have sold a few Speed Triple R models after test rides on the standard model. It seems the R will never be offered as a test ride.

Paraparaumu

Alan called by and we did a ride up the coast for a coffee at Paraparaumu Beach. The ride home was via Paikok hill with a brief stop at the the top. Alan went home via Haywards and I took SH1. 103km ride on a nice autumn day.

ANZAC Day Ambulance Ride

Today I went on the Ulysses annual charity ride. I left home at 0930 and stopped at the Avalon Duck Pond before heading to the ride start point in Park Road Maidstone. I got there around 1000hrs and there were 10 -20 bikes. As the 1100hr departure time approached the numbers increased to around 220. I left nearer the front 20-30 bikes and when they stopped to regroup at the top of the Haywards hill I carried on to find a spot for video of the bikes. The wait was very long and a bike rider stopped and told me there had been an accident on SH2 and that was holding up most of the bikes. After the bikes had passed by I headed back and up SH2 to see what had happened. The SH at Fergusson Drive turnoff was closed both directions so I turned around and went to the ambulance station directly on SH2. The rider involved in the accident died. Reported:

A Wellington man is dead after a smash on State Highway 2 near Upper Hutt. The man crashed his motorcycle just south of Moonshine Bridge, Trentham, about 11.20am. Sergeant Brad Allen said the motorcyclist was part of a large charity event raising money for Wellington Free Ambulance. Traffic is being diverted through Upper Hutt, however the road is expected to open shortly. It appears the motorcyclist applied his brakes before coming off his bike. The motorcycle went underneath the wire railings and ended up in the northbound lane. Ambulance officers attempted CPR but were unable to revive him, Allen said. Police are still speaking to his family. The coroner has been notified. It isn't clear why he braked but a number of witnesses were giving statements to police, Allen said.

My ride was 111kms and I got home at 1300hrs.