On Saturday morning I got a phone call from Colin F who asked me if I was keen for a little ride over in Hawkes Bay on Sunday.  I'm not good at coming up with excuses on the spot so ended up saying the first thing that came to mind...yes...

Come Sunday, me, the Tenere and her bald rear tyre fuelled up in town and rode around to meet Colin where he was busy adjusting his chain (what's that") on his shiny new Africa Twin.  After a bit of ogling at bikes we got organised and Colin led the way out of town and up over the track.

We made our way over to Pahiatua and then turned towards Mangatainoka but rather than terrorise the good people of Mangatainoka, we turned off to take a series of skinny (all sealed) back roads through to Oringi where we hooked a right on SH2 and followed this to Dannevirke.
In Dannevirke, we turned onto the Weber road and took this as far as Mangahei Road.  This led us on a great little cruise through some familiar countryside.  Meanie, Monie, Rodney and I rode this in November as part of the C1K.  The difference this time was dry roads so we could enjoy the scenery more without having to worry too much about the slippery road surface.

Sunshine
Drizzly...A little further up the road we got off the C1K route and hit our first bit of gravel.  Colin got away on me a little here as there was a bit of gravel on the road and my rear was giving me a little bit of trouble in the slower stuff - locking up a little easily an...