The Road Trip - 2500kms/1500ml

All for a bike rally called The Brass Monkey.... (yup there's another story behind that)

Day 1
Thursday morning just after 06:30 we (mate Steve and myself) leave Auckland for the first leg of the journey, 711 or so kms, to Wellington to catch a ferry (3hr boat trip), then on to a small town called Blenheim (20min ride from Picton where the ferry stops) for the night. Check in time was 17:00 but we arrived an hour early. Weather was clear and a little cool until we got south of the Bombay Hills (50 or so kms from home) when we hit heavy fog and the temp dropped like a hot rock, lasted a couple of hours then we spent the rest of the day riding in sunny and warm conditions for a winter day.

Day 2
At around 09:00 we geared up for a cold morning like the last one but it was surprisingly warm and before long we were peeling off layers to cool dawn. This leg of the journey was somewhere around 750kms, Blemheim to Oturehua in Central Otago. One of our stops was Christchurch and had a cup of tea with my brothers partner and entertained my niece and nephew for half an hour. Just before we got there the bike started making a whole lot of weird noises, rattles and knocks. I'm still not quite sure what the all were yet as they seemed to disappear after we left there. We carried on to Timaru where we stopped and met Dave who knows a whole lot about XJ's but by the time we got there is was sounding pretty sweet. Dave offered to give the 900 a tune if we had a spare hour on the way back, at the time we didn't. So we carried on and arrived at the site at around 21:30. I was starting to feel a little weary by now as we had spent around 15 hours riding over 2 days. We setup camp, met our neighbours, had a chat over the drum fire with them and went to bed about 23:00ish.

Day 3
Got up about 08:00 and shot down to the local pub for a cooked breakfast and to collect a few supplies from the shop. Just as we were about to leave around 09:00 it started to rain. We rushed back to the site and setup some shelter around the fire before the rain really kicked in. This being the day that the rally was on there was a constant stream of bikes coming through the gate all day during the light to heavy constant rain. There would have been around 2000+ bikes there I'd say. We decided in the afternoon that if the rain continued we wouldn't make our ferry booking so I rung up and changed to the later one which gave us another 3 hours. Just after 17:00 the fired up the bonfire and the rain eased off. People stood about 10 mtrs away from the huge inferno and steamed until they were dry, which didn't take long as it was churning out a fairly decent amount of heat. The band played and the partying went for most of the night. Knowing that we had a full days ride ahead of us we slipped in to our sleeping bags around midnight and went to sleep.

Day 4
Woke up to a really good frost covering everything that was exposed. All I can say about that is I'm really gald I'm not a brass monkey!! Got ourselves a hot breakfast and hit the road, needless to say it was bloody cold riding but we only really stopped in Timaru for a couple of hours and took Dave up on his offer of a tune. Carbs were a little out of sync and the mixtures needed a tweak too. If you are ever in Timaru you have to lookup Dave Jackson and pay him a visit. Hell of a nice guy and he knows quite a bit about XJ's. Even has his own website XJ Tech Stuff I'm sure some of you have already heard of him. Left there giving her a decent handful of throttle and OMG what a difference, ran a whole lot smoother and is more responsive. By the time we reached Picton at 21:00 for the ferry ride back across the Cook Straight we were both really shattered, had a bite to eat and promptly fell asleep until we arrived in Wellington. Appearantly it was a rough crossing lol. Stayed at a friends place in Paramata which is about half an hours ride from the terminal. Got there around 01:30, to bed around 02:00 and slept heavily until Steve woke me at 08:30 this morning.

Day 5
Left Paramata at around 09:30 and walked in the door tonight at 18:15 and I'm shattered and starting to thaw out... She's been a bloody cold 2 days riding... I would have been more descriptive if I wasn't so bloody tired

Now for the bad news... Speedo on the bile is reading out and adding extra km's to it that it's not doing cause it has the wrong wheel attachment and I think it has some run bearings cause it's now got and awfully noisy bottom end.. especially when idling... :cry:


Other than that.... what a fantastic way to spend 5 days

 

sounds like it was one hell of a week. I get the same kind of weather here in South Dakota so I know what it can be like going from warm and sunny to cold and frost covered in the same day.

 

That sounds like a pretty fun trip besides all the cold weather. It's nothing like being out on the open road seeing all the sites!!

 

It was an awesome trip... Still feeling a little tired.

Worth every last second of discomfort

 

"In life the goal is not the destination but the journey". A life well spent Alive, is a life lived. Sounds like your making the most of your time.

 

Great write-up of what sounds like a fantastic road trip. I'ts bonzer to get together with that many moto mates!

Hope the engine is better off than it sounds, I'd be pulling an oil 'n filter change and praying to the XJ gods that that awful racket goes away.
My bike has been pretty good of late in healing it's self.