Manx Biker

It has been a while since my last post. Lots of rides since then but most of them are recorded on my FaceBook page.

I have needed to give the DR a bit of a clean and a service and have been putting it off. Having had a 3 week holiday to Disney with the family over the Xmas/Summer break I didn’t get the opportunity to the servicing I needed. Straight back to work the day after returning to New Zealand.

So, I have bought some air filter cleaner and filter oil and just need to get on with it. More rides coming soon.

As we had just passed the shortest day of the year I decided to take the bike out for a good gravel ride to celebrate. I couldn’t have done this in the Isle of Man, the shortest day is normally very dark, gloomy and freezing cold.

Today, the weather was pleasant and the light was generally good. There was a threat of rain but the day looked like a dry one when I set out. It was a good opportunity to take my new camera out and give it a test.

I decided to do a bit of map reading and learn more about my local gravel roads. I had ridden some of these roads a month earlier with the NGARNZ but just following the pack and hadn’t really any idea where I was. So, I started off by heading south through Tuakau over the Waikato river and headed towards Port Waikato.

I had planned to go for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake at the Nikau Caves cafe. With this as a mid-point for the ride I had planned to investigate a large figure of eight that I had plotted on the map. I knew I would recognise some of these roads but not others.

At the start I headed up the Klondyke Road which was familiar. I was having a really good  time. I love the scenery around here and stopped at a few places to photograph the DR. After a good ride I arrived at the cafe and had a nice break. I can highly recommend this cafe as a place to stop off for a snack or a bite to eat.

The gravel roads were great to ride on. There were varying sizes of gravel giving a different experience, some loose and some tightly packed. The bike feels loose riding on top of the gravel and I used the day to try out some standing-up riding technique. The bike felt solid and very predictable when I stood up on the gravel. I loved this ride and I must have ridden for about 3.5 to 4 hours. On what, for me, can be a depressing day of the year I felt more alive then I had for a long time. This ride reminded me of just how much I enjoy riding.

I remembered that these are public roads and that around any corner could be another vehicle travelling towards me. I don’t like to take risks and I ensured that I kept left on every blind corner. Having said that in all of those hours of riding I think I came across about 5 other vehicles down the gravel roads.

The weather was really nice. I found it hard to believe that on the shortest day of the year sat at the cafe the sun was shining down on me and I felt hot. The mid-day temperature was fine at around 16-17C. On the way back, heading North, I could see some rain streaming down in the distance.  I rode on and headed into it and thankfully I only had to endure about 10 minutes of light rain before I came out the other side into sun again.

Towards the end of the ride I travelled through Limestone Downs and arrived at Port Waikato.

Whenever I feel a bit down I now know I have several hours of riding fun on the doorstep. I need to plan to go a bit further next time and learn some more of the roads that I find on the map.

I wonder if these gravel roads run the length of New Zealand. I would really like to be able to discover the country this way.

The RiverHead Forest ride was another outing organised by the Northern Gravel Adventure Riders Nz. RiverHead Forest is in the North-West part of Auckland and is a substantial forest used as a plantation but it is also frequented by runners, mountain bikers and horse riders. Access is by permit only and this was taken care of by the ride organisers.

As this is on the other side of Auckland from where I live (about an hour drive) I managed to put my bike in Dean and Bev’s trailer and join them for the trip up. I had to set off at about 6:30am to meet with them at their place and it was freezing. The journey was definitely a lot warmer in their car.

We arrived at Sue and Jim Denham’s place and we all rode our bikes to the local garage where we met up with the other riders. I think there were about 40 riders on this ride which was a good turn out. The sun came out and the day turned out really nice.

We entered the forest and were greeted with gravel and clay roads lined by tall trees. Every now and again we would come across an opening where the trees had been cut down. There were great views out over the whole region.

The fun part of the day were some “technical” sections where we were taken off the roads and down some either steep or muddy tracks. These were really good fun and had just the right amount of challenge to test my skills.  Having never ridden on soft mud on my heavy DR with tyres that, although knobbly, provide less grip than motocross tyres I wan’t sure how they would perform. I have many memories of losing the front end in thick mud back on the Isle of Man and didn’t want that to happen on this ride.

So, I took it easy in the deep muddy ruts and although I got out of shape quite a few times never really felt out of my depth. There was one rut I was travelling down and approaching a big branch I decided to try and swap ruts. I know that can be a challenge and it was. The front would change but the back wheel wouldn’t follow and I got spat off. No problem, just picked the bike up and carried on.

I was very impressed with some of the other riders on their big bikes tackling some of the muddy tracks. I don’t think that I would have been brave enough. I was really pleased with the DR. I don’t know what its capabilities are yet but it coped well with what I needed it to do today.

At the end of the day I was exhausted and had really enjoyed myself. This is one ride that I would like to do again.

Thanks to the club for  the videos.