Home › Forums › Ride Reports › The Long Way North, and other adventures
-
AuthorPosts
-
Where do I start?! Tell you what, I’ll start with the tale of the w/e before the fatefull one! An absolute cornucopia of motorcycling!!
A mate came over from the UK, he hired a 1200GS instead of a car for the duration of his trip ($250/day, not too expensive)
Sooo, I bailed out of work at midday on the friday, we'd arranged to meet here at 2.00, purely by chance he drove past as I left the bike dealers at Waimauku. We rode on up to KKK, I came within a whisker of being taken out by 'white van man' who decided to overtake the car in front, as I was overtaking him! Still got his paint on my bar end as a souvenier, think it scared Matt more than me!
Anyway, we got loaded up and left at about 4pm, and headed north to Camp One, which although it was an official DOC site in Puketi Forest, actually consisted of a riverbank and a longdrop toilet, we had the place to ourselves, had a nice little trailride up the track along the riverbank, before good sense and fading light persuaded us back to camp! Astonishing how good the GS's are, even on road tyres, would have been a different story had it been wet no doubt. Morning ablutions consisted of a skinny dip in the river. We then headed north again, on some of the best tarmac I've ever ridden, one section up and over a range of hills was the twistiest, best cambered section of road I've ever ridden, it was like Craner curves repeated for about 20k's! Don't think the bike was upright once, apart from when flicking from side to side!
We got onto 90 mile beach at the earliest opportunity, Matt was gobsmacked at the fact that it was perfectly legal to ride along the beach. He had one massive 'moment' crossing some deep, dry sand, I'd stopped on the far side to make sure he got through OK, it looked like an octopus had jumped him from behind, there were arms and legs everywhere! After that, the ride up the beach was pretty uneventful, but good fun riding through the surf etc, the sand was a lot firmer than Muriwai beach. At the extreme north end of the beach (only 68k's, so where the name 90 mile beach comes from, I don't know!) the exit to the road is along a stream bed, through the sand dunes, awesome riding, particularly on fully loaded tourers!
The stream exits out onto the gravel section of SH1 heading north to Cape Reinga, so lots of powersliding lunacy later, we got to the Cape, where we rode the bikes down the footpath to the lighthouse.
We then turned around and headed south back down the gravel tracks, I had my big moment when trying to keep ahead of Matt, I went into a set of corners way too hot, back wheel snaking from side to side under engine braking, was just about to abandon ship up the bank, when I convinced myself to put a bit of power on to steady the back, all OK then!
We made our way to the Karikari Peninsula to camp on Saturday night, nice spot, bit busier than the previous one, but we'd been a bit spoiled there! Sunday morning started with a quick dip in the Pacific, then a ride to the Bay of Islands, bit like Cornwall I thought. We then cut across towards the west coast and cut through the forest, a quick dip in the river at Twin Bridges, then on to Dargaville, then home via Wellsford etc, got here at about 6.30, having covered 1000k's in total! Definitely a trip to be repeated!
So the following weekend was going to be a bit of an anticlimax I thought, just another charity trailride on the GasGas over some averagely spectacular Kiwi scenery, home for lunch!
Clear, hot, dry day, ground dry and hard, gonna be a doddle! 4k's into the first lap, my mate had gone wrong somewhere and disappeared, so I was riding on my own, came to an easy grassy slope, as I approached I thought, 'might as well sit down for this bit, have a rest ready for the downhill section the other side', halfway up the slope, the back wheel just span up, I put my left leg out for a quick dab to get the bike upright, I think my toe touched first, foot rotated about 120 degrees anti clockwise, I heard/felt a big snap, and that was it, I was sat on the floor! Bike was about 5 metres further up the slope. Couple of guys stopped to help etc etc. Not a great deal of pain, the leg was still nicely in line, the boot was doing a great job as a splint, I resisted the temptation to take it off to have a look! Took about 2 hours to get picked up in a 4x4 to be taken to the ambulance, by this time a helicopter had turned up to collect a guy that had missed the track altogether and had dropped down into a big gully (turned out he'd ruptured his spleen!) so that meant I got a heli ride to hospital, which added to the fact that I had very little pain and lots of morphine, made for a great trip!
Couple of XRays later, diagnosis was spiral fracture of Tibia and Fibula,
after that it was all routine stuff, operation, nail down the middle of the shin bone etc etc, 6 weeks non weight bearing, then should be pretty much back to normal!
Seems there were 10 or 12 serious injuries that day, which is about 4 times the norm, blame is being put on the fact that the grass was very long, which had held onto the morning dew, and the ground underneath was bone dry, so your tyres had nothing to bite into. Oh well, we'll know next time!
Gotta go and put me leg up now, can only sit with it down for so long!hi tonys – thanks for posting the report of your ride in the far north – interesting reading – bad luck about the leg on the gasgas – good job you seem to be philosophical abt it – cheers Aslan – 1150GS – ridden cautiously off road and gravel wherever possible 😀
Great ride report Tony, sounds like you had a ball up north.
Sorry to read about your "off" on the trail ride and hope all goes well with the healing process.
Regards
JimHi Tony,
nice report, bummer about the ending. Welcome to the tib/fib stryker rod club. If you need to know anything just ask. Did ya get titanium or SS?
mybrokenleg.com has some useful info. Don't want to burst your bubble, but 6 weeks back to normal is a bit optimistic. 18 month down the track the first few steps out of bed are still painful. Let me know when you're ready for a cane, you can have mine :-).
I've read somewhere that putting your leg down on a bike like the GS is the quckest way to an inury. and I've got to agree with that. Did my knee in on the CX without coming of. Agrevated my hamstring on the GS which I had previously done in on the GS on a bit of slippery grass. So now I try to keep my legs on the pegs.
Get well soon.Alex, yes, I agree 6 weeks is a bit optimistic! Can only dream! I broke my right tib and fib about 25 years ago, much more trauma, open fracture etc, that time I was put in a full leg plaster for 9 months before they decided to put a nail in! In total I was in plaster for 11 months and off work for 13! At least this break was closed, all the metalwork was put in place within 24 hours, I’m not in plaster at all, just a ‘moon boot’ to wear when I go out, round the house and in bed I can just leave the leg fully exposed, it’s great! (relative term! not break would be better!) very little pain, just a bit uncomfortable at night on occasion. Don’t know if I got SS or Ti, didn’t even know there was the option of Ti. I’ll ask when I see the doctor again in 3 weeks, when hopefully he says I can weightbear.
Cheers
TonyFabulous story Tony, my sympathies for the dramatic ending though, not good!!
90-mile beach is a bit of a misnomer. Some think it was named due to the practise of rearing cows at the north end of the beach. There were many settlers arriving in the south engaging in the harvest of Kauri sap, liquid gold in them days. To feed these ravenous ramblers, the cows had to be walked from the top to the bottom of the beach. As we all know, cows travel 30 miles per day. The trip took 3 days. You do the math. As it happens the beach is actually about 64 miled long, so your speedo isn't far off 😀
As it happens 90-mile beach, Te Wharo-oneroa-a-Tohe, is named after Tohe, one of the descendants of the famed explorer Kupe. He came to Hokianga and later returned to Hawaiki. Many place names in the Far North record the gardens or actions of Kupe during his time there.
Here's to a speedy recovery and I hope you're up to many more adventures soon. -
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.