johnnyfive

And yeah as far as support vehicle goes, we were really lucky and grateful to have @Thphantum and @MaxPower tag along last year and tend to our problems. If we end up with large numbers again two vehicles might be a good idea, but if possible for simplicities sake, I think one vehicle with a few seats in it and a decent trailer should be all we need to follow along behind and pick up the pieces. You can't prevent every unexpected bike failure but not having to rely on the trailer for a ride or luggage is dope. Some level of bike prep/packing light goes a long way.

So looking at it on phone, it's possible all of day two from Waikaremoana to Gisborne (155km) has no fuel, unless there's some back country servo that's not on maps. Also on 3rd day between TeKaraka and Opotiki there is no gas either, about 115km. Will put this into main post once 100% confirmed

I'll do some sums later and holla back

Neato!

Hello and welcome. Due to popular interest in another small bike endeavour, this year we plan to not do what we've done, and do do, what we don't done. This has been on the want to do list for a little while, but thought it was a bit hard logistically to link it up with anywhere else on small bikes. After looking at things a bit closer, it seems doable while staying off a lot of the main roads. There are some sections unfamiliar to us, but if Google says you can drive there, we can drive there, there is one place Google says you can't drive there, and we're still gonna drive there. Still over 3 days this route appears shorter than previous East Cape trips at about 540km, but I believe there to be significantly more gravel so your average speed will be down a bit overall, exact route might get some fine tuning if we manage to get some recce/expert advice. Play along at home here https://goo.gl/maps/w5Z1CH4tkfX5SiyR9 ride '19 final by John Bell, on Flickr Day One. We believe day one will be the most taxing. ~200km. Starting right off the bat with ex rally stage Stanley Road. From there we head over East over an ex-rail bridge, through Awakeri and over Matahina hydro dam. Decent gravel stretch on Pokairoa Road, head past the Kopuriki store ,Galatea area, and further south to the borders of Te Urewera. Onwards onto rougher roads through Ruatahuna and finally to stay at Lake Waikaremoana Holiday Park (or nearby). 2019Day1 by John Bell, on Flickr Day Two. This is easy day, from Waikaremoana out to Gisborne. ~155km. Hopefully some opportunity to look at hydro power stuff. Back roads, maybe lunch at the Tiniroto pub and hopefully more gravel. Hopefully time for recreation on getting to Gisborne. I'm not particularly familiar with much this days ride. 2019Day2 by John Bell, on Flickr Day Three. Medium day. ~180km. We sneak out of Gisborne parallel to SH2, gravel on ex rally stage Whakarau Road in the direction of the Motu village. From Motu its familiar going on another ex rally stage to the Bay of Plenty coast. Through Opotiki, and headed back to the starting point via a few bonus squiggly gravel bits. 2019Day3 by John Bell, on Flickr Fuel is probably less available then up the cape, I reckon less people too if thats even possible. Less food opportunities also. Night one will likely be a frugal, quiet one, pretty sure theres no pub or restaurant there. Save party time for Gisborne. Theres proabably more to say, but its early days yet. There'll be a lot to discuss, but if you could keep the complete spam to a minimum for those looking for info. Holla at cha boi.

Its kinda a toss up between top speed and reliability, 65km/h is a happy speed if you can do that comfortably, but if you're pinned WOT doing 65 and under for 4+hrs, 3 days in a row, then longevity comes into question a bit. Something like your CT90 or old mate on the ruckus would do this pretty ok I'd imagine, but a peaky 2t 50 might not love you long time unless you had it super dialled in. Everyone aside from the big block boys just ends up going wide open all the time also, go as quick as you can and take more breaks. Will start a thread once I'm back from lunch maybe.

My partner just suggested some kind of variant of sausage sizzle for the name.

Oh damn, that is correct, perhaps something something cockburn something something

Jesus, Cape ride V1 had 20 pages, V2 had 85 pages, a lot of spam admittedly. Yet to come up with a name, or date, but Waikaremoana Loop in late Nov, early Dec, is what we're working with at the moment. Need someone to come up with a witty name. Only bits of road reused really are Motu Road. Looks to have a lot more gravel. Hard balls day one, shorter day two, medium day three. Brainstorm names go ride '19 proposal by John Bell, on Flickr

Optional

The day before a big ride is usually the day

Yeah gonna have a get together tomorrow night and talk turkey about how doable a different route is. Is hard to try avoid too many main roads for the 50cc boyz, and have a ride start and finish somewhere without too much doubling up.

Just failed on principal

What have you done so far? Aside from cook it?

My man