| Author | Message | ||
     Danger_dave |
Buell-a-thon! Friday afternoon I get the nod that the TT is available. So with SOME regret I returned the City X. Dayam I enjoyed the 2 weeks I had it.  It is some of the best fun I've had on a bike. Not very comfortable for a large man - but who cared! Play I did. I didn't find it as easy to stunt as the 12s - but I found myself careening down dead end streets so I could do cranked over laps of the turning circle. I was scouting the city with the same eye as a skateboarder. Something to jump - a cool ramp, anything out of the unusual to challenge gravity and make me laugh on the inside. So it was with more than usual regret I handed it back. 5 minutes later cruising down Khyber Pass Rd through Newmarket on the TT and any remorse was short lived.  It shares the same exploratory, city prowler 'bent' as the city x – but with its Scorpion Sync tyres and taller ergonomics, it's a bit more extreme. It doesn't matter that your path may be strewn with the detritus of the city. You sort of go looking for the challenge of the urban jungle. I found some great grunge places with huge tagging and urban guerrilla art as I took on the strip out back of the industrial area down to the railway tracks and about the inner city.  I used 'urban assault vehicle' as a throw away to describe my XB12X 6 months before it appeared on the TT advertising so 'Assaulting Urbainty' is a pretty fair description of what I did with the TT too.  A skate park, the inner city paths and nooks around Auckland – nothing likely to draw heat, but a bit naughty at times too. That skateboard mentality took over.   These bikes are so well suited to here. It’s about the geology. The islands lie on the edge of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates. It's a geologist’s wet dream. A rolling, undulating countryside with a profile sometimes akin to a choppy sea. Active volcanoes, a 5.5 shaker a few nights ago, and there is an enormous fault line running alongside the massive South Island Alps. Rugged terrain. Because of the high rainfall (why it’s so green) the roads tend to take a more ‘sympathetic’ line across the countryside. Roadway earthworks just wash away unless they are of massive proportions – and even then….so the roads follow the undulating contours. It’s a unique conspiracy of circumstance that’s spectacularly fertile and conducive to some of the best types of motorcycle road there is. The upshot is more corners and more twisty roads than I’m sure I will ever get sick of riding. Thousands of Kilometers of them. Auckland is set on the slopes of 7 dormant volcanoes and their undulating flows.  Subsequently there are some really steep parts of the inner city, around the back of the University and environs. One wheel or two and yehaaar on the TT.  Potential market. These lads are now saving up for one.  And that was just Friday Afternoon. Saturday came and I had an assignment for Kiwi Rider beyond Te Awamutu. "She came all the way from America Had a blind date with destiny And the sound of Te Awamutu Had a truly sacred ring" – Crowded House. I sing that in my helmet with an exaggerated Maori accent every time I drive through town now. The publisher and his posse were entered in the North King Country Motorcycle Club’s KING OF THE HILL. Promoted as the North Island’s Premier Gravel Hill Climb. It was 50km out of town and he was entered and sponsoring and I’m now the general purpose ‘stringer’ – and like I need an excuse for a ride. It was an ‘agonising’ decision on which bike to take. And OK - I admit it - the w*nk factor of turning up on an endless array of new bikes is huge, but it would be hard to suggest a better bike for the task at hand than the XB12X. So the black one got the nod.  The run South included 120km open road tour, 30km of WICKED sports bike blast, 20km of various dirt roads and navigating across sundry paddocks, fields, up steep grassy hillsides and various cross country manoeuvres as I worked the hillclimb. I started climbing on foot – but after about 2 km of what seemed like straight up – I went back and got the bike. I rode around these paddocks with the DR and up a similar hill to the one in the background.  Those things don’t attack do they? – I enquired of the cattle. (You reckon the beef around here isn’t prime?) It was quite a spectacular event.    The super quads were awesome. ZX1200, Aprilia 1000 – and the moto-X boys were impressive. The KR crew did well fighting out of the veteran’s class too.   The Boss’s überfarter and the boys on the Transalp and Dog rooter’s (DR650’s) dun us proud.    The full set of pics is here http://www.kiwirider.co.nz/hillclimb/index.html The return down the hill was a blast too. Not the sort of roads that I wanted a stop watch running on my 17” front wheel – but it was comfortable enough.    This was nice for sliding.  I ended up with a sh*tty back tyre.  The boys were camping over – but I headed back to the city and had a blast on the way back. Just loved chucking the Buell around on this stuff. What a versatile bike it is and what a great road for it.          Great bike. Great ride.  More pics here: http://www.davidcohen.co.nz/xoff And then there was Sunday. I rode the TT out to the last round of the NZ Road Racing championships and parked it prominently. Unfortunately there was a serious side-car crash just before I got there – so I had a quick lap of the pits – said a few g’days and bailed. Headed off into the Bombay hills, South of the city. Perfect scratch roads almost custom designed for this bike. Unprdeictable surfaces, occasionally rock strewn and weather damage as traps for the unwary. The TT was just a delight. Hurtling I was going to use as a descriptive – but I checked the Oxford: hurtle |_h_rtl| |_h_rdl| |_h__t(_)l| verb [ intrans. ] move at a great speed, typically in a wildly uncontrolled manner : but there was nothing uncontrolled about it – just the opposite. A very pleasant sensation. I took this pic and noticed the chicken strips.  so I went through again and tried to scrape the pegs.  They are still virgin – but the strips are better. Tough ask – look how high they are set – that helmet is quite close. Then as I was carving around the Bombay Hills   And I stumbled across a motoX meet and stopped for a look. The kind of places where Townley and Coppins started out.   and then it was back home through the twisies in the Hunua ranges and tub time.  I really enjoy these bikes. They have the characteristics I covet in road going vehicles. They are fun, they handle extraordinarily at the speeds I like to do with the keeping of my licence in mind and they just look f’n cool with genuine street cred. Cruising around the city, pedestrians (obviously riders) walked up and started talking to me about the bikes at the traffic lights. 'Coool bike'. I parked the City – X and there were young men down on their haunches respectfully examining the engineering when I returned. I found the bikes offer great versatility across the range. I’d like 3 of ‘em. What an amazing weekend. Thanks Kiwi Rider, H-D Aust and Mr Buell. It were real. (Message edited by danger_dave on March 13, 2007) | ||
| Nevrenuf |
great thread, pretty country and maybe oneday. although the hospital were my wife works is offering a cruise at the beginning of next year over there. if i knew where i was job wise i would go ahead and do that. you never know. keep up the nice work. | ||
| Danger_dave |
Thanks - just fixing a few of the links that weren't working now. I'll turn it into an article for print too. cheers dd | ||
| Road_thing |
Great pix, Dave! But a geologist's wet dream involves oil--got any oil down there? rt ps--what does a Maori accent sound like? | ||
| Danger_dave |
And natural gas. There is a degree of self sufficiency - not sure of the extent. I was quoting a geologist too. | ||
| Road_thing |
OK, great bike-riding roads, fabulous geology, oil and gas, and I understand there's sheep, too! Sounds like paradise to me... Thanks, Dave! rt | ||
| Court |
Sheep? You never mentioned sheep! | ||
| Danger_dave |
>>ps--what does a Maori accent sound like?<< 'Sweet as, Bro.' | ||
| Court |
>>>>'Sweet as, Bro.' Gads . . . I just melt when you talk Maori you big brut!  | ||
| Firemanjim |
Sweet,looks just like some of the roads right around here. Speaking of skateparks,look at this link and the 3rd video down is my son,James,at our local park. http://www.sk8parklist.com/ca_fair.html | ||
| Danger_dave |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83U_Vg1GRvA | ||
| Danger_dave |
and this one where the Tongans give it back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eGCsEQ15L4 Makes Ray Lewis and TO look a bit tame really.  (Message edited by danger_dave on March 13, 2007) | ||
| Kdan |
I love New Zealand. They have Bizarro me! http://www.danfrew.co.nz/ If you don't get that, check the name in my profile. | ||
| Danger_dave |
poop juice? |
