October rolls around and so does the North Island 800 long distance ride. This year was to be an easy ride and it was as far as the route went but the weather was another story. Saturday 14th and I woke up early at 3am having set my alarm for 3:30am. This was lucky as it turned out because just… Read more »
The end of August 2022 and the rules and checkpoints for the TT2023 are now out. Quick read of the rules shows that one must do 2,000km, do it in the time prescribed, and this year have ten compulsory check points from one of themes. The themes being “The Pilot”, “The Driver”, “The Captain”, and “The Engineer” I had a… Read more »
It is time for the NI800 again and a few housekeeping bits to be done before hand. First was to update the GPS with the latest maps (big error here). I noticed on my car GPS that the speed limits no longer displayed but didn’t really need them. Got the route on the Friday night just after 7pm and entered… Read more »
This year will be my 11th run at the TT2000. I would have had the TT10 badge but failed to complete one run after dropping my Honda VFR1200 on the main street of Westport. Pulled away from the dairy and still don’t know what happened but road was wet. Cracked the panier open and broke my clutch lever on the… Read more »
Due to covid I decided to change from the Hamilton ride to the Wellington ride. Being a virtual ride I could start at any point of the ride. The Wellington one went right past my door. Also, the Hamilton one covered a lot of the ground the NI800 ride did so did not want to repeat that. Having got the… Read more »
Time again for the NI800 and with covid threatening to curtail then event the organisers made a few different routes and settled on a southern route due to Waikato being in the zone. Also threatening the curtail the ride for me was my surgeon. After my accident in January my wrist was still giving me hell and an MRI confirmed… Read more »
It is mid-August 2020 and the latest TT2000 for 2021 details are out. Again, this is in the South Island but this time the start/finish is in Oamaru. That put a bit of a kink in the plan straight away as it was obvious, I could not do my usual of sleeping on the ferry on the way over and… Read more »
Time once again for another ride. This time the Distance Riders 1KC Hamilton start. This is a 1,000km ride starting and finishing at Hamilton. This ride will most likely be the last big ride for my trusty BMW R1200RT. It has been a good machine but pushing 140,000km it is time for a new machine but more on that at… Read more »
Covid tried to put a dent in the 2020 running of the NI800 and while it may have put a damper on things the ride went ahead. This was going to another sore ride with a bad case of tennis elbow on my left arm. Luckily the BMW has a shift assist so doesn’t need the use of the clutch… Read more »
TT2000 time again and this one is in the North Island. Again, four mystery checkpoints, three of which I knew straight away having seen them all many times and in fact one I pass at least twice a day. The forth one, a church, was a little harder to find but find it I did. Planning began as soon as… Read more »