Each November my classic Japanese bike group (cjmg.org.nz) head off for a few days of riding the old girls around our country. We are blessed with a minimal population still, which means that we can get some awesome roads and scenery pretty much to ourselves. There is an increasing scourge related to tourists driving campervans (rented motorhomes) who hail from the northern hemisphere - and tend to forget which side of the road to drive on
but apart from that, not too many dangers in our neck of the woods. We had a group of six bikes (my GT750, an RD400, 2 x CBX1000, GSX750 and a GPZ900) head off for a trip that covered some 2700 Kms over six days. We were later joined by another couple of guys from the group for the final days (RE5 and another CBX1000). The weather threw up a mixed bag but there was plenty of fine dry roads amongst it all, so no one complained.
The poor old GSX gave up the ghost after only 150Kms or so. We limped the bike into the nearest town and left the owner to be picked up by family that night. He is a real trooper who trailered the bike home then fired up his Z900 a couple of days later and rode to rejoin us, along with the RE5. You can't keep a good biker down
Our route on day one took us alongside hydro storage lakes, down empty roads with just enough twist and turn to make it fun (I saw the speedo on the old GT hit the lovely 100 MPH mark that day
) and then into a decent rain shower about 30 minutes form the day's destination - you know, just close enough to "home" that it isn't worth stopping to get the wet weather gear on. Anyhow, we all got soaked but this didn't affect anyone's spirits a bit. That night, we just turned the heating up in the motel rooms to high and woke to dry gear!
We also woke on to freakn snow (not a sign of it when we went to bed) upon the Lindis Pass - see pics below. Undaunted, we headed off for a day of sun, snow and rain. Along the way we came a cross multiple police cars screaming the other way and noticed chaps sitting in the back seats wearing black uniforms and headgear - the outfits of the Armed Offenders Squad. Apparently there was a disgruntled teenage farmer wandering around somewhere with a gun. We just figured there couldn't be many cops left in the southern part of NZ, so opened the throttles a bit further
Destination that day was Invercargill (famously described in 1965 by the Rolling Stones as the "arsehole of the world". However, it is now the celebrated home of the World's Fastest Indian and old stomping ground of a Kiwi motorcycle icon Burt Munroe. A morning visit to the local hardware store was a treat and a half. It is a fully functioning store selling anything and everything the home handyman needs but it also has the genuine machines that Burt worked on and rode in the record breaking attempts. It also has a bunch of other bikes and cars to look at once you have your fill of washers and bolts. We also spent time at the Transport World, which has over 300 vehicles under cover - the majority are trucks from all ages and parts of the world. If you get bored with that, down the road is the motorcycle museum with half a dozen Brough Superiors amongst their displays! After lunch, we headed down the south western coast of the island and had to contend with the strongest winds I have ever encountered on a bike. Mile after mile (after mile) of strong winds coming across and then in front (but never behind) the bikes. Riding whilst leaning to the left for that length of time was a new experience for this fella.
The next day we rode into Milford Sound which is a tourist mecca in this part of the world - see the first pic of the GT above. It was an hour and a quarter's ride in and then we turned around and came back out. The road was awesome, with twists turns, straights, bends and up and down parts. Enough to bring a smile to the face of any jaded biker. The weirdest things was that on the beautiful day, going to such a popular destination we basically had the road to ourselves - who says there is no God? That night we were joined by the RE5 and 900 Kwaka. The next day dawned spectacularly fine for one of the best biking routes in the South Island - over the Haast Pass and up along the West Coast. Several hours of crazy scenery and roads to simply die for. (If you come down here - do this road if possible). It took us most of the day to zip along this route with a few stops for fuel, food and ice cream. We stayed in an old pub that night that was a pure West Coast experience - full of locals who had been there all day drinking up large and were getting ready to settle in for the night. Outside was a car with it's left rear window down and the rear half of a freshly killed deer propped up and leaning into the car
Here we joined by the final CBX - dime a dozen those things! The final day was another great run along the sparsely populated West Coast roads and then up over Arthur's Pass back into our own neck of the woods.
Overall, a fantastic few days of riding along great roads. The guys were brilliant company - what better than a group of like minded blokes doing what they love best? The bikes went darn well for a fleet of aging beauties. The final death toll was: 3 x speedos, 1 x tacho, 1 x clutch cable and 1 x main stand - oh, and a sad GSX but I am told it is back up and running sweetly already
Pics to be loaded in my next post. (I'm not really trying to build suspense, I'm just significantly technologically challenged and it takes me ages to do this sort of thing
)