East or West?

 

With the Corona virus beaten into submission (for a while) some of the troops decided that a great way to celebrate was to head out for a spin on our bikes on every occasion we could. The mild winter was making a lot of our Sundays very convivial to heading out for a ride even if they were of a shorter duration. Foxton, Sanson, Feilding and Hunterville are favourite destinations for some of these rides, particularly if the weather is playing up in the east. If the weather is kind in the east destinations like Pahiatua, Woodville, Mangatainoka, Pongaroa and Dannevirke are favoured with a great choice of roads and eateries. 

For one of our first post lock down runs we headed off to Foxton with yours truely taking out his recently acquired purchase for the first time. It is a 2015 Suzuki GSR 750, and a step up from my rides to date. Its 'Apex Predator' styling is certainly rather different from the seventies and eighties bikes I have in my garage. The 180 section tyre on the back is a lot wider than I am used to but I am assured I will get used to it over time. 

Bruce S turned up on his 2004 GSXR 1000 which he purchased for a song. After tidying it up he has a really useable bike with more power than most people will ever need but oh so much fun when you want to experience that incredible acceleration and speed for just few seconds! It is interesting how little some of these late nineties and early 2000's bikes are going for these days. Oh for a large garage and Div one Lotto win! 

Dangerous Dave was out and about on his 1989 Moto Guzzi Le Mans. It makes a wonderful booming sound that you can hear through your helmet when you are behind him. There is also definitely something special listening to a big v twin on startup as it makes huge use of the batteries cranking amps before the boom. Rich's 650 Vstrom v twin is Suzukis successful take on the formula. He is more than happy with the bike and has done over 18K on it since purchasing it last year. 

Sir Al is the proud owner of one of Hondas take on the V twin with his Tansalp. They are held in very high regard by many who want a reliable adventure bike to cover the A and B roads that make up our extensive road network. They seem to be able to do high k's and are up to the usual highbuild quality standard Honda are famous for. 

Bruce A has had his BMW 650 for more than10 years and over 60K km's. It has seen most of country under the long white cloud, (Aotearoa) and more to come. Steering head bearings seem to have been the only real problem as well as getting it serviced by an authorised local dealer. It is incredibly frugal and as long as you aren't in to much of a hurry more than adequate for going just about anywhere on two wheels

This is going to be the first of many posts documenting and celebrating the great or small adventures of a group of like minded individuals wanting to share some time together. It will mostly be centred around motorcycles bur not restricted to them as many of us have an active interest in many other heritage based activities, hence the name of this blog site.  

The Classics Crew

P.S. Our average age may also have something to do with it as well!