Richy's Mid Life Crisis, Season 2, Episode 8 "But I Digress..."

[440bbm]

i dunno wtf youre talking about image quality...  those are amazeballs. you get to some epic places and even better we get to live vicariously through your adventures. looking forward to more.

[Snoozin]

If you're viewing on a mobile they might look OK - but compared to shooting with a proper DSLR/mirrorless there's much to be desired. I'm hoping to get my hands on a smaller but high quality system specifically for these sort of outings, maybe Olympus OM-system or a smaller Sony Alpha setup.

[Snoozin]

Been very slack at the updates, and have actually been doing a bit of riding including one exceptionally good fun run down Wairarapa Coast on day one and through to Akataweras on day two.... but...

...I finally binned it on the road, on Waitangi day.

Planned a bit of a gravel loop to get to Wagnats for a swim, a handful of km out from Vinegar Hill I was negotiaing a moderate right hand bend at about 60km/h, and the road surface changed to a more recently "resurfaced" section which had been murdered by trucks, at a guess. Anyway long story short, the tar was hot, slippery, and the front went down, quick as a flash with zero warning. I ended up skidding along the road behind the 690 - remember this bit vividly - watching sparks fly off the thing and as I was sliding thinking "shit I hope the damage isn't bad." Weird how the mind works.

Anyway, stood up, noticed my right shoulder (which I'd gone down on) wasn't overly great, but picked the bike up anyway and took stock of the situation. Gear did its job, torn up but protected from any major abrasion with a little scrape on my knee and elbow all that was visible. Shoulder was dislocated, I figured that one out (I don't have great luck with shoulders, hey) but didn't feel anywhere near as bad as the left one did 7 months ago. Couldn't get it back in by myself so elected to ride home, have a shower then go to ED and get it sorted out - which they duly did.

Anyway, pants, jacket and gloves are cooked (but better than the alternative outcome), didn't hit my head which is a bonus, bike has about $400 worth of damage (all cosmetic essentially) so barring one side panel which I'm going to scratch up offroad anyway we'll be back to business as usual in a couple of weeks. The crash bars did their job perfectly, as did the Barkbusters. Other damage is the axle nut, a bent footpeg, bent brake pedal which I managed to tweak straight again - nothing bad.

Lessons learned? Probably be a bit more perceptive? I wasn't going especially fast or pushing it hard, simply had the bike in the wrong place at the wrong time. I expect it would have been 100% avoidable, and luckily no real harm occured.

[anglia4]

Glad to hear it sounds like you "got away with it".

 

[Snoozin]

Yeah definitely did, anyway things at home have shifted to "maybe you shouldn't be doing this" so perhaps a couple of cheap bikes coming up soon.

Sometimes we have to face the facts and accept we're just not any good at stuff.

[440bbm]

sadface.jpeg

[anglia4]

2 hours ago, Snoozin said:

Yeah definitely did, anyway things at home have shifted to "maybe you shouldn't be doing this" so perhaps a couple of cheap bikes coming up soon.

Sometimes we have to face the facts and accept we're just not any good at stuff.

Thats no good.

I'm in the camp of "make sure you are well insured and carry on doing what you love".

[Bearded Baldy]

Tell her you have decided to take up hunting. Makes bikes and riding gear look cheap.

Then keep the bikes anyway. In sickness and in health remember haha.

[Snoozin]

Still on the recover a but we're getting there, and still haven't managed to sell the bikes (or convince myself it's a good idea). 

The 690 is all repaired now, I even found a side panel in the Netherlands for cheap so got it across here and you'd never know I stacked it. I very rarely take pics of my own vehicles these days with the proper camera, so shot out for a quick squirt to the Manawatu riverbed near Ashhurst for some beauty pics. Not progress, or adventures or whatever I know, so flame away if need be, but it's just nice to get back on the horse so to speak.

So yeah, enjoy some photos of the bike. I had sort of intended these to be the Trademe photos but couldn't sack up and hit the GO button on the listing.

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-77 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-48 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-112 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-134 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-173 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-87 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-99 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-209 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-194 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-166 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-226 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-196 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-240 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-245 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-183 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

2020 KTM 690 Enduro R-130 by Richard Opie, on Flickr

Thanks for looking. Cool update coming on the 350 though, too. Then hopefully in a few weeks I am fit enough to have a hoon again.

[xsspeed]

damn your pics are crisp and clean

[Snoozin]

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

[anglia4]

Yeah those are epic pics of a very nice bike.

Did you have to clean it when you got to the location? 

[Snoozin]

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

[440bbm]

as the guys said above. them pics are  

I see why you say the ones from your phone suck when compared to those. but even you phone pics are amazeballs. anyways. just glad you are still keeping them for now anyways and looking forward to coming updates on the 3fiddy and the next adventure.

[Mop Head]

21 hours ago, Snoozin said:

Not progress, or adventures or whatever I know, so flame away if need be, but it's just nice to get back on the horse so to speak.

Just because the bike is capable of dope adventures doesn't mean every ride needs to be one. I see a dude commuting one of these sometimes in Tauranga. Any ride counts. You could even imitate a GS rider and do a coffee tour of town for shits and giggles. Great photos. Keep it coming!

[anglia4]

Most of my rides these days are from home to work and back. Infrequently.

I make sure I enjoy every minute of it.

[Snoozin]

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.

[felixx]

Awesome pics and a great thread

I hope you are well and the shoulder is healing well

 

I have been enjoying your adventures and hope you keep the bikes

[Snoozin]

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.

[Snoozin]

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.