Life without the bike

[thepetrolhead91]

Well, its been a hell of a long time since I last posted. Well I am now in New Zealand so sadly had to leave my beloved NTV650 back in the UK. Its going to be upto a year before I ride her again which is sad because the roads, the scenery and the weather here in NZ is spectacular. I have a car here which is fine but when I hit those twisty B roads, I just wanna lop two wheels off the damn thing and get my knees down. Ive been here a month now, so a month without biking is leaving me feeling pretty withdrawn as I see bikes everywhere especially that lucky git down the road with the CBR1100 Super BlackBird!!! Well If I win the national lottery, or just buy a bike anyway, leaving no travelling money, I could be carving up those awesome roads haha. Please dont tempt me!!!
Wanna send a big shout out to Mark Able as its been sooooo long. Hope the training is going well mate!!! Take care fellow bikers and keep it on two wheels......

[ChrisJo]

Hi

Can't you hire one?

[wiltshire builders]

I was looking into doing a bike tour of the north island.
Hire a bike and and let me know what it's like! We could call it research.
Hope you have a good time and don't forget to check in and let us know how you're getting on.

[Bonnielass]

You posted on the wrong site if you expected any of us not to encourage you to blow all your money and get a bike, how could you not with all those lovely roads!!

[thepetrolhead91]

That is a fair point, hiring one would be a good idea. However, there are very few places to hire bikes because the biking culture out here is very different to the UK. Insurance is ridiculous and the cost of the bikes.....well dont get me started. I shall defo keep my eye open for rentals and will let everyone know how my search goes. Laters

[Morticia]

Get a bike!!! Buy it, rent it, steal it...just get a bike

[Scotty]

I went to North Island nearly four years ago for a cousin's wedding and stayed out there for a week afterwards and did some riding - aided more than a bit by staying with an ex-Phase One rider who ran a Yamaha dealership - he lent me an FZS600, a pretty forgettable bike, but the roads were fantastic. You're looking at a country the size of the UK with only 4 million inhabitants, 1/15 of the UK and the traffic density reflects this

The most amazing road I tried is known as "The Gorge", Route 2 from Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty, to Gisbourne on the East coast - no straights of more than 150m in length, and next to no traffic - I've got a map image of it somewhere at home so I'll post that up on this thread when I can find it 8-)

[Mark_Able]

Well, its been a hell of a long time since I last posted. Well I am now in New Zealand so sadly had to leave my beloved NTV650 back in the UK. Its going to be upto a year before I ride her again which is sad because the roads, the scenery and the weather here in NZ is spectacular. I have a car here which is fine but when I hit those twisty B roads, I just wanna lop two wheels off the damn thing and get my knees down. Ive been here a month now, so a month without biking is leaving me feeling pretty withdrawn as I see bikes everywhere especially that lucky git down the road with the CBR1100 Super BlackBird!!! Well If I win the national lottery, or just buy a bike anyway, leaving no travelling money, I could be carving up those awesome roads haha. Please dont tempt me!!!
Wanna send a big shout out to Mark Able as its been sooooo long. Hope the training is going well mate!!! Take care fellow bikers and keep it on two wheels......

Hey! Hey! Tom, how's it going. I was going to say you're a lucky git, but not if you haven't got a bike to play on down there. I've always wanted to go to NZ, especially with the roads down there. I've got a biking mate in NZ, but I don't know where. I do know he works at a Honda dealership, so I'll try e-mailing him and finding out where he is. Have fun mate...

[Nooj]

Has it rained on you yet? Gets a bit soggy there by all accounts.

[thepetrolhead91]

Thanks for all the replies guys, Scotty, sounds like you had an awesome time and you are right, most of the open roads, you never see any traffic. If you do find the map, it would be much appreciated. Will be a while before I do hop on a bike here though but some decent roads are always worth knowing. Haha, Mark I know, its pants out here with no bike but I have plenty of time here so can garuntee I'll be on one at some point.