Snoozin

It was super weird lining up in that reserve behind a bunch of houses then heading thru essentially a turnstile onto bicycle tracks... felt very naughty. But Dave must have some amazing connections to have pulled off the access he did. It had me wondering if there was any pushback from the community afterwards. Actually an eventful ride for me (not negatively), and some good stories from it.

From posting, still riding the bikes. It's punishing taking pictures and stuff all the time. We had a belter of a 2 day ride around Nelson several weeks back on the 690, then spent the Monday exploring Marlborough. I've been humming around a few trails on the 350 and I've got another big one on the 690 at the end of the month.

I've retired.

Looking sicko, very tempted to sell up my stash and buy some 16x8.... 7.5's are the widest I currently have and I'm not sure what a 225 would go like on them.

Keen on one with tyres tbh

Pics of C4, man I pine them and haven't yet been able to sack up, sell one of my cars and buy one.

While I haven't 'officially' finished the healing process, I'd done a few short road rides to try and get my head back in the game, and on the weekend signed up to a single day ride in the Wellington region. It was a led ride - ie no GPX file or running at our own pace, but the promise was a relatively easy ride and I thought it'd be a great idea to get back on the horse and see some stuff I wouldn't ordinarily see. First though, a road ride to Makara. 150 or so km right off the bat, a 6am departure, meeting a mate in Rongotea then another couple of dudes in Otaki. I got smoked on the twisty road section to Makara, as I'm regaining my road confidence so wasn't pushing on at all. The ride essentially took in the wind farm gravel roads on Terawhiti station, with a bunch of short sand sections, grass and rocky farm tracks. This is all private access stuff you can't normally get to. Initial sort of views after our first climb into the wind farm. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (127) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (126) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is further along, beyond the Red Rocks area I believe. Again it's still on private land. Lots of seals doing seal stuff, wondering why a bunch of weirdos on raucous machines were interrupting their morning siesta. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (104) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (106) by Richard Opie, on Flickr From here, we'd climb again, and eventually end up at the spot where the HV cable from the South Island makes landfall in the North. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (108) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (110) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is the cable patrol boat, ensuring the cable behaves itself and isn't being led astray/smoking meth/doing ram raids or anything I guess. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (111) by Richard Opie, on Flickr As an additional special little surprise, I got to see the bike that started this whole thread being used in anger by the bloke who bought it off me. Here's Guy on my old XT660R alongside the current steed, which TBH is just a modern day XT660R. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (109) by Richard Opie, on Flickr We'd then climb towards the next bay, where there was again, lots and lots of scenery but also the remnants of a coastal homestead. I thought I'd park in the living room. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (114) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Meanwhile, here's the 690 and the old bloke who owns it/makes some sort of excuse at riding it, enjoying some scenery. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (115) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (102) by Richard Opie, on Flickr The next part took us back to the gravel then up along a couple of ridge lines on grass tracks, with a rocky, rutted descent down to another bay that caught a few blokes out. Thankfully, not me for a change. You can see it in the back ground of this shot, snaking up the hill to the right of the background. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (118) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Here's me and the lads I rode with. Their bikes are pretty damn fancypants. I appear to be balding but please rest assured, it's not quite yet. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (120) by Richard Opie, on Flickr From here, it was a pretty sweet squirt out, again on some farm tracks that were rutted, but dry. It would have been chaos if it had rained and some of these guys were stuck in there on their almost-road tyres. We'd move on to Kinnoull Station, a short ride back down South Makara Road. This was fun. Relatively quick double track stuff, with about 12 or so river crossings - not massive ones, maybe half a metre deep at the most, but bloody good fun. I had a total blast wheelieing puddles, ruts, and even popping the front heading into a couple of the smaller crossings. I wish I'd taken some pics now of people attacking the rivers, but alas... I was having too much fun! This was an "in and out" track, so we had to wait at the end (beach) and allow the whole group to filter in before we could head back. 2020 KTM 690 Enduro R Phone (125) by Richard Opie, on Flickr That about calls it for that ride. We arrived for lunch about 1:30 and after a quick woolshed-cooked burger I chose to head home, rather than complete the small afternoon run. Feeling OK about it all at the mo.

We do actually have a member with a real life BTCC super tourer.... /sorry for the ACKSHUALLY moment.

I don't think it matters what it is, I'll still fall off it, struggle with the most moderate obstacle and get left behind 😅

^ Still not sure, that big spiel dates from before I crashed and encountered further struggles. I've learned this isn't a pastime for folk who suck, unfortunately.

Anyway, prior to crashing, and also prior to making the 350 look too nice to ride, I entered the "RemoteADV Adventure Breakout Rally," a 2-day situation based out of Upper Hutt promising to take in some epic scenery on the South Eastern coast of the North Island. It was called a 'breakout' rally, as the idea was to be a bit more technical than your average gravel road and metalled tracks ride. Breakouts (at least from what I have been told) generally diverge from the main route and offer a challenge section to riders on the big events like KTM Rally, AFC Rally etc etc. The organiser of this one, a great South African bloke called Wian, organises monthly rides that are a bit more "trailly" than the normal gravel rides, and this 2-dayer was his first crack at a proper, paid up, GPX mapped organised ride. Briefing took place at Panhead at Brewtown on Friday night - a wonderful spot for it to be fair. After a few intro yarns, no doubt punishing a whole bunch of people I'd never met before with my bullshit, and a few fizzies I retired to the accom, and proceeded to have a garbage sleep. Which is par for the course for me, whenever I'm in a new place. After what felt like a solid 2 to 3 hours of napping, I was up and at them on Saturday morning and rearing to hit the trails. But not before installing a strong coffee at the morning meeting spot, some type of cafe I can't even recall the name of now. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (37) by Richard Opie, on Flickr The morning's run would take us from Upper Hutt, over the Remutakas and to Martinborough. The Remutakas were interesting. I lost the group I was riding with, mainly because slow, risk averse and not really sure how an enduro front tyre would handle on tar seal. Either way I caught them on the descent as the morning traffic over to Wairarapa was strangely heavy for 8am on a Saturday! Upon arriving to Martinborough, about a million riders peeled off to get gas - Max and I had already done this and elected to press on so as to not get caught up in any queues if and when the going got a bit gnarly! The first gravel we hit was the road to White Rock. You might remember this from previous posts, such as the one page earlier here, and my solo arvo out on the 690. Instead of going all the way to White Rock though, we'd turn off at a station near Tora, and ride over some steep terrain to the coast. In some ways, I was thankful it was pretty dry. Some of this stuff would've been slippery as hell, but traction wasn't really any trouble and encountering my first bit of challenging terrain on the 350 was a revelation! This thing is like riding an MTB compared to the old DRZ, it's snappy and responsive, both engine and chassis wise. I'd recently had the suspension juiced up by Scotty at MotoSR (epic service and reasonable rates) to suit my weight and height (remember this thing was lowered when I got it) and holy hecka, you can just ride it at things and it mountain goats the fuck up them with minimal fuss. This track took us up some steep descents, to a view overlooking plenty more terrain, and of course the coast. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (39) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (41) by Richard Opie, on Flickr From here, we'd snake along a ridge - fairly rocky, cut up dirt tracks - and a fairly steep, rocky descent dropped us down to sea level pretty damn quickly. A good test of maintaining momentum to skip across rocks, and also be so gently gently on the brakes to not come a gutsa. That's for later in this story. Anyway, this track would drop us onto Tora Farm Settlement Road, exiting alongside a stream that flowed right into the ocean. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (40) by Richard Opie, on Flickr We'd ride down the road, taking in some coastal views and that wonderfully welcome fresh ocean air. Another gate and we were onto private land again, a small stretch from Tora to White Rock but not without it's surprises! 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (42) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (44) by Richard Opie, on Flickr I took my first fall here. We sort of lost the track/not really, I was following Max as I had no GPS and he decided to spice it up with a hard line through some boulders. I almost made. But stalled and just went down like a sack of spuds. The up side of this though? The first crash I'd had on my recently healed left shoulder, which I fell on. Turns out it's strong enough, and it gave me enough confidence to then push a bit harder, although in real terms still not very fast. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (46) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Just after this, a photo op at the wreck of the Magnet, a fishing vessel that ran aground in 1989 following a storm comprising of some of those nasty Southerlies that rip through the area. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (50) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (51) by Richard Opie, on Flickr From here, a quick photo of at Te Kakau point, before a rip down the beach headed for white rock. On the GPX file, the route took a turn towards the surf, to skirt the outfall of a stream that ran to the sea. A handful of riders ahead of us tried to cross a little further upstream, and we could see they were in strife. Cue one quick diversion to the harder sand, without a drop off into the stream, but perilously close to the surf, and we breezed through. A bit of throttle and plenty of wheel speed needed to get through the soft sand onto the road at White Rock, before hammer down along the coastal gravel again to Ngapotiki Station. Now, I'd done this bit before, on the DRZ, and it's so damn cool. If you get the chance to ride it, get amongst it. It's private access and the farmer is notoriously picky about what groups are allowed through. Unfortunately no real photos, as I was having fun and didn't want to stop! The route traverses farmland, before a VERY steep uphill, although with plenty of traction, to skirt a ridge them drop back down onto the coast. This is that shaly, sandy sort of stuff - the kind you have to take a few brave pills on and just keep the throttle open. Eventually, you arrive at a slip. Previously, we were able to get through this, but the terrain is now too far gone and there's a sketchy bypass track cut to run up and over. Big rocks. Like, people sized, some of them. I managed it though. The 350 is fairly easy to manhandle, and again I found the value in momentum to get up this stuff, but not without stalling it and getting stuck with the rear tyre on a slippery, having to lift it up and out and try again. At this stage I was glad we were nearer the pointy end of the group, as waiting for 50 bikes to get through would have been tedious. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (53) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This little bypass dropped onto a little camping area, from there a fairly rudimentary but flowy dirt track all the way to Cape Palliser Lighthouse. We elected to not climb the 7 billion steps up while clad in moto boots, though. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (54) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Short stretch of tarmac, and a sandy, flowing and undulating diversion (which actually ran parallel to the road, not that you'd know it) and we arrived early for lunch, with only 4 bikes at the Waimeha Camping Village lunch stop. Fresh as fuuuuuck fish and chips. Not too much mind. And a cider. Max and I hit the road again, skirting around Lake Ferry on tar seal - after a splash of gas in Pironoa. Exiting the tar seal onto Ocean Beach, we had a couple of options. Ride the sand, or the gravel road on the foreshore. We sort of mixed it up a bit, arsing around doing skiddies in the sand then popping up onto the gravel every now and then, and eventually this gravel road would meet a gate, and another private access section. Another I'd done before, too, and one that's almost as enjoyable as Ngapotiki. Terrain? Well, dirt tracks until an impassable slip, which took us down onto a relatively challenging, rocky bit of coast. This wasn't ya girly bloody sand beach. It was slippery rocks, and large ones at that. I paddled through most of it, being mindful to maintain momentum where I could, but also trying to encourage myself to keep my feet on the pegs - and failing, mostly. However, I did NOT fall off. This is progress, I reckon. Following this, was sandy foreshore tracks. It even included some weirdos on bikes (the pedal kind) battling through the sand, and a walker in the middle of the track, who wouldn't shift... and in my attempt to avoid her (which I did) I got all out of shape in very deep sand, spun the bike 90 degrees to the track and fell off. Again. Once you pop up off the beach, it's just a fucking cool farm track from here. It twists, turns, undulates and dives through deltas (dry this time of the year) as it follows the contours of the coast. I was starting to really get my head into a rhythm at this stage, and even managed to pop the front wheel up over obstacles a few times, and really push harder than I had all day. A ripper track that would lead us onto Wainuiomata Beach, and back to the Upper Hutt base. Since we'd ripped through it with a bit of pace, Max and I even managed to stop in at the Wellington Hardpark and admire some boyracer cars. They'd even organised a bike wash, thanks to Motomuck which appealed massively to my OCD sensibilities. Lush. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (55) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Naturally, Saturday night was filled with a ripper low and slow BBQ feed (organised by a South African fella, so of course the protein outnumbered the veges by a huge margin) and the obligatory adult fizzies - but not too many!!! Day 2, the Sunday, was effectively an entirely public access day, based in the Akatawera Forest, a regional park absolutely littered with trails. I got all of three photos, one as we left with an opportune political statement, one on the way at the top of the Paekakariki Hill Road, and one at Orange Hut for lunch. So here's those. 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (57) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXCF Phone (60) by Richard Opie, on Flickr And it appears the Orange Hut one isn't there. But no stress. This day consisted of a bit of a "prologue" when we arrived. A short, but sloppy forest loop designed to make people decide if they wanted to continue the rest of the day. Sort of a taster to see how hectic you wanted to get. One poor bloke twisted his knee and needed to bail out. A few of the big twins called it a day at this point as it was just a bit too tight for them. We soldiered on. I can't remember a lot of it in detail, but it's essentially a lot of old logging tracks. They range from muddy and slippery bush tracks, to exposed hard packed clay up on ridges (which I am sure is absolutely diabolical in the rain). Overall, pretty enjoyable, and some challenges. One specific part, a creek crossing then a 90 degree corner with a vertical step up, I was especially pleased to nail in one attempt. Wheelies over the drainage channels cut through forest tracks was thoroughly entertaining - the 350 makes it so simple, and the upgraded suspension (and spring to suit my bulk) meant the rear would drop into the channels and just soak it up. I did bin it relatively spectacularly, on probably one of the trickiest parts of the track. A really steep downhill run, consisting of loose, jagged rocks about the size of softballs. It was pretty key to maintain momentum, and I actually overtook a few guys who'd pulled across to the side to assess the situation, all the while keeping Max in sight (he's a weapon on a bike) and feeling pretty chuffed... until... I punched a rock, got all out of rhythm and whiskey throttled off the side of the track. I don't know how many metres down it was, but the trees arrestec my fall, and the bikes for that matter. It took 3 of us to get it out, I broke a couple of plastic bits but otherwise it was all good. A good knock to the confidence though, and if I'm honest, it really made me ride badly from hereon out, second guessing myself, not committing to obstacles hard enough - and being mentally drained, I started to feel physically tired. But I got through, at my own pace, and received a finishers sticker. Chuffed. You all know what happened next in the tale (this story enters the timeline before the two previous posts). But maybe I will be back again soon, falling off, and sucking shit at riding motorbikes.

Some more posing. White plastics (I damaged the shrouds and headlight mask on a 2-day ride I haven't even yarned about here) and a graphics scheme evoking the 1981/82 KTM 350SE enduro bike. 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-136 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-74 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-50 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-123 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-193 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-57 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-144 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-72 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Finally, I switched out the mostly broken and non-visible stock blinkers at the rear, for these little LED flushmount jobbies. Should last a bit longer and not get smoked whenever I drop the bloody thing. 2019 KTM 350 EXC-F-59 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Only a few weeks until I can ride a motorbike again. I should maybe regale you with tales of the Adv Breakout Rally I did back in Feb, before I hurt myself.

I'd commute the hell out of this bike if job made that possible! But no bueno. Right now being a poser works out ok.

Nah it's not far off the road, just off at the bridge and down the stones.

Can't ride bikes well so might as well try take a good piccie