Mop Head

Front tyre sits against the 2 old ones up the front left. Back end sits in the right rear corner. Tied to the hand rests with small gripper tie downs and it's solid as fuck. /when you put a 110 into it you can ride over the bridge m9. No excuses.

Just get something with a bit of grip. I'll help you out man. See you at Auckland ride? Chaly will be okay. Just don't lower the thing before then....speaking from experience.

Pink 2 man tents for sale at the warehouse for $16 each. Perfect for a dude and his gear. Meant to withstand light showers etc. Cars ‘slumber bags’ also. Act quick.

Half the parts arrived. Ride is next weekend! What are you bringing?

Probably the best mod one can do for the ride: Buy here. Full credit to @johnnyfive for the idea.

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You ideally wanna carry everything you possibly can. Fuel, backpack etc, towel, tools - everything required to fix a puncture or replace a tube on your bike and also the right stuff to get at your spark plug etc. Small tent thing if you're staying outside. Over half of us had swappa crates on the back of our bikes filled with stuff. Aim to be self sufficient. Yes the support vehicle will probably have some fuel/room for a few things but if you're at the front of the pack and run out it's a long wait. If each person has a bag for the truck then it's 14+ bags. Adds up quickly. Here's mine and @GuyWithAviators set up for last year. My rear rack bent and snapped in places by the end because of shit build quality and the weight of stuff. Lol.

Keen for entry form and twenny huck$ sent to one of ewe dudes to prove we're coming. Would pay for the beer for the bach owner in hicks bay(remember it's like $100 for a dozen corona there)/Support vehicle stuff/if shit went down having a small pile of extra cash laying around in the support vehicle wouldn't be a bad thing.

There will be a few leaving from Tauranga early. About 1.5 hours from here. People may be coming to TGA from Auckland on the Thursday evening.

We got to Whakatane early. But this year will be even earlier likely. Start point was 5 minutes outside town at a farm, parked there unloaded and left after everyone had written down next of kin, etc. @johnnyfive had a chat about the route and what to expect and went over any concerns then we left and rode for 8+ hours to Hicks Bay, stopping along the way a few times. Most of us lost reception from half way here for the next day or so. Stayed there, hooned on beach in morning and left, had a few stops along the way and ended up in gisborne in the evening. Left gisborne and stopped at Rere Falls, another place and then went over the Motu road, this took a few hours if I recall correctly. But I wasn’t too with it all broken in the support car at this point. Arrived back at the start point that evening like 5PM. So, Friday morning early departure. Like 7-8 I imagine if we’re doing earlier than last year. Riding full days, ending Sunday night at the start point like 5pm ish. Same times regardless of the direction we’d go in.

Also wactch @BLIZZO for an accurate 10 minute insight of the Motu road.

Road conditions are like this, but this also misses out the whole last half day which was deeeeep gravel. The Motu road has signs at each end advising cars not to go on it. 4WD only spec. Good time to watch this for research:

Don't think a B120 would be the end of the world. As long you're confident with it at WOT for 650km I wouldn't hesitate taking it if I owned it. Just remember there is a good chunk of gravel/dirt roads. Motu being gravel and a mountain range. The other main part is the Lighthouse road which is dusty with the occasional rock and full of horses. Just loctite your airbox on and you'll be schweeeeet.

We all did that for the first day, but after 12 hours in the saddle we found ourselves gradually accelerating and having high speed (2 digit) races sporadically through the day. My favourite one was get ahead of everyone and pull over, take some photos of the pack then get back on and pick everyone off till I was with the 110 pack again. Great times.

Like @johnnyfive said earlier in the thread you really want something that can comfortably sit on 60kph at the bare minimum. If it can do that then you’ll be happy. Something that requires you to walk beside it when it comes to hills won’t be fun anymore after the first set of hills. Last year the 50’s had to leave 10-20 minutes early from every stop and we’d all catch them after about half an hour anyway. Honda Ruckus and a slightly modified SJ50. There ended on being a group of 5-6 that could hold 80-90 comfortably. (CT’s and the like) A few at 70-80kph. Then the 50’s were tapped out at 60 ish most of the time in the back. Personally I had a blast being able to hold the higher of those speeds and play games of who can tuck the most to get an extra Km or two out of the bikes. In saying that the dudes on the 50’s still had a fuarkin’ blast.

I will was originally planning on building this for max slam daily life this year over winter. I guess tall shocks and knobblies would be just as cool. Welp, I guess I found my East Cape bike. Anyone got a 190 laying around? Edit: Those that came last year will know how useful this huuuuugggeee tank will be!

I ended up cancelling my food at trike lady town because almost 2 hours had passed and I was holding everyone up. Packed lunch first day maybe.

You ain't lyin'. + 1 for reverse but same stuff.

Tbh I’m keen for exactly the same as last time. Keen as for the rock slide. Especially if people are coming up the whole country for it, that’s a cool thing to see/do. Early starts is is a wicked idea and a few hours to pest at each place in the evenings would make things epic. More beach/dirt road adventures at hicks bay and over the in the massive dirt area where @64vauxhall and @GuyWithAviators had a massive laughing fit on the vity in the Eastcape video. We could actually go up the hill in gisborne with @Raizer. Also mainly keen for a Motu pest because last time I spent it crying in the back of a Jimny with the bags(backpack variety) of many men jarring me collarbone and a half sodden @Archetype beside me.

My old man is happy to be support vehicle driver if needed. Have a pretty big trailer too. Will probably put bikes on it to get out there regardless, so it'll be an option. He's been into bikes forever but they took a back seat while he built up his business. In the last 12 months he's got 4 old Jawas and a 2T Kawasaki Samurai. He understands it's slow going and stopping and waiting and basically being tail end charlie at 10kph for 3 days. So if no one else is keen then lemme know.

I'm probably gonna book the same place as last time for our Gisborne stop. The ol' lass at the front desk was a legend and loved the bikes. Secretly may have enjoyed sharing a unit with @Shakotom, @GuyWithAviators and @BLIZZO a little too much also. It was Waikanae Beach Motel. Bikes were safe as houses there. The Zoomer dude and the GN125/250 crew also stayed there. Bikes were kept out back behind our units out of view from the road. Keen for Chinese food again at that epic place with the Chi-Kiwi accented owner and his family and the local glass BBQ enthusiast that hung around outside. Will wait till @johnnyfive confirms route direction though or I may be riding by myself. Look at this eager beaver planning 6 months ahead. Moving house and got NZ Motorbike show in the same month. Gonna be busy.