October time is TT planning time. Grabbed the information on the 18th and started working out a plan. 1st draft had Saturday doing 1450kms. That was not going to sit well (pun intended). After just finishing the NI800 ride I found the “Comfort” seat on the new BMW R1300GSA extremely uncomfortable after several hours. I have since ordered a Sargent Seat to replace it and hopefully that will do the job. I also purchased a new GoPro Hero 13 to replace my failing Hero 11. Hopefully get some footage now.
Second draft had me starting at Yaldhurst and travelling through to Hokitika where I intended to stop the night. Then restart early am Saturday travelling down to pick up the checkpoints and arriving about 5pm. Finally, there would be a 500km ride on Sunday to finish about 9am. After that up the coast to Kaikoura and stay the night there. I learned from last year and have allowed extra time for issues.
So, time to start finding some accommodation. You see plenty of places complaining about not having enough people coming through to make enough money. Well, I sent off quite a few emails asking questions as I needed a fridge/freezer for my Insulin and out of all the emails I got one reply saying that they would not be open. Time for these places to start responding to potential customers. The prices also have skyrocketed since last year. Accommodation all sorted and plan made, time to sit back and wait.
A problem rears its head
Then came the first problem. I had not ridden the bike for about four weeks and while the battery turned the bike over it would not start. Smelled flooded. Put it on the charger for 4 hours to a full charge so it can’t have been bad. After a couple of tries it fired into life. Decided a small ride to put some more charge in the battery and noticed that the automatic ride height was staying at the low setting. It is supposed to be on low below 25kph and then 40-50kph it should go to the up position. Tried again and next day it worked until I stopped and then wouldn’t work. Suggestion from dealer was to take it to the closest BMW place and reload the software. On my way to New Plymouth, it worked 3 times and didn’t between those. Dropped it off in New Plymouth and then later got a call saying it needed quite a few updates but the faults on the suspension would not clear. Thought I would leave it at that and get it looked at after the TT when I got the service done. However, the New Plymouth place made it worse. The suspension had errors and would not work at all. They said they needed to re-calibrate it but couldn’t fit me in until after the TT. Called my dealer in Tauranga and he said bring it up tomorrow and we will look at it.
I loaded the bike onto a trailer as it would most likely need to be left there. They put the bike on the computer to calibrate the suspension and showed me two other pumps from failed R1300’s on the bench so was not looking good. They needed a cable, so I left for home. BMW forgot to send the cable, so another 3 days wasted. Got a call Monday saying my rear shock seal was blown and oil pouring out. They could get it in four days or so if I paid freight, so I said yes as if I didn’t then TT was out of the question. Turns out the shock is classed as dangerous goods as it has nitrogen in it and took forever to get through customs. Finally arrived and installed all ready to pick up. Unfortunately, due to customs it was one day too late for the TT. Went up and picked it up on the Friday the TT started. What should have been a 4 ½ hour drive back took 6 hours due to roadworks stop/go. Must have been about 20 of them and average speed from Pio Pio to Waitara was 52kph.
Rebooking and Heading down
I tried to rebook the ferry and had trouble as it was booked out most days. They finally managed to find me a 2am crossing on the 2nd March. The three motels were next and they all happily changed my bookings to that week. I was much less stressed now. Many thanks to Mark W for organizing a drop-off for my Tee shirt so I could grab that.
Sunday 1st I loaded up the bike and headed down to Wellington at a leisurely pace as I could not board until 1am Monday. Travelled at a fuel sipping 85kph and getting 4.3l/100kph or 700kms for a tank. Nice weather until Wellington where it again was raining. Parked up under cover on the footpath and waited to be loaded. Again, Motorcycles load damn near last leaving us in the rain and wind with no cover.
Finally on board and in my cabin. No real sleep though as wind noise was audible and sea was causing thumping noises as it was rough.
Monday – Wet, Windy, and Snow
Arrived in Picton to clear skies but windy. By the time I got to Christchurch it was gale force winds and pouring with rain. Gutters were overflowing as I headed for Mark’s mailbox to grab my tee shirt. Started at about 11am grabbing a fuel receipt as proof and headed off for the first checkpoint in the heavy rain. The BMW wet weather gear doing a great job of keeping me dry.
First checkpoint was Hororata Memorial and grabbed the photo as quick as I could in the rain.
Next checkpoint was Jacksons in Inchbonnie once through Arthur’s pass. Here the weather changed again, and it was snowing through the pass. Once through and across though the weather broke and while still windy it was getting sunny and temps rising from 3 degrees to 20 degrees. Through the pass I stopped and turned on the GoPro. It was too wet to do so before this. Photo taken and then onto Brunner memorial.
I actually shot past this one and had to double back and grab the photo.
Woodstock was my last checkpoint for the day before going back to Hokitika and stopping at a motel.
Tuesday – Failure Day
I arrived quite early and the plan was to sleep for 7 hours and get on with the ride. Plan was killed by the family next door who let their kids run riot with banging and thumping going on for hours and hours. I think I may have got about 1 hours sleep so maybe 2 hours in the last 48 hours.
I left at 2am and my GPS would not let me load the route. It said it could not calculate it no matter what I did. I finally just selected the next checkpoint as a go to and left it at that. This was a mistake and my fat glove fingers must have selected the wrong checkpoint.
I was still very tired and as I rode, I was making mistakes and found myself on the wrong side of the road on two corners. I then thought I should have been at the checkpoint and stopped and checked and found my mistake but now was nearly an hour on the other side of the checkpoint which meant heading back to it.
At this point I decided to stop my ride due to being tired and obviously not in a good condition to ride 1268kms over 15 hours for the day. I slowed down and headed for my motel in Invercargill at a slower pace. My GPS said something about SH6 being closed and rerouted. About 5am two deer rushed out in front of me but far enough ahead to give me a fright but enough to slow down in time. 30 minutes later I spotted another on the left side of the road so watched it. Then just as I was about to pass it another darted out of the right side just as it was at about 60 degrees. It must have just missed running into me and I swear I could have reached out and smacked it on the nose.
Got to Invercargill about 11am and the motel was nice enough to let me in early. I lay on the bed listening to an audio book and the next thing I know the book had finished and was three chapters into the next book.
Wednesday
Good sleep over and left about 4am to travel to Kaikoura. Nice weather but wind still there. No real issues along the way except for road works. No pressure so took my time.
Thursday- Home
Got up 4am again and left for the ferry to depart 7:45am. It was delayed by 90 minutes otherwise again no issues. Dozed off a couple of times on the ferry.
Once home and bike unpacked, I decided to check the GPS stuff. The GPS said it could not calculate. The Tead app on my phone showed a disconnect after Glenorchy and even when I tried to insert points in the app it would not fix it.
I then deleted them all from the app and GPS and loaded the 1KC South waypoints, track and route from Basecamp to the Tead app. Again, it showed a disconnect after Stratford stop. I deleted the data from the app and hooked the GPS to the PC and sent the data directly to the GPS and imported it. Miracles, it all worked fine. There must be something in the app causing the issue as otherwise the data is all the same.
Final thoughts
I did not complete the TT but otherwise it was a good ride. Better to get home safe than try and push it to finish. The bike went extremely well after the fixing and the BMW riding gear was excellent though I was using the heated grips, heated seat and heated jacket quite a lot as the temps ranged from 3 degrees to 22 degrees but usually around 7 degrees.
GPS was a pain but I know now to ensure I check that it can route the route by trying to load it after I send it to the GPS.
Thanks to the team for making this happen and especially Mark who made sure I had my Tee shirt.