First decent ride

Sunday 9th November 2008.
Well it was time to take it on a bit an an adventure ride.
I decided that I would go for a spin via Lake Waikaremoana to Wairoa (on the east cape of the North Island).
Apparently there is about 100km of gravel roads on this trip and I had never travelled the road.
I bought a little 2 litre jerry can "just in case". ($3.60)
I also bought 4 litres of oil ($50) and drained the oil at Dave's. He was slightly bemused at the measly 400ml that drained out of the XT. Obviously I had been running it quite low on oil. There is no oil level light or level checking window as it runs a dry sump with the oil reservoir in the frame up by the steering head. There is a dipstick for this reservoir. There is also no oil pressure light which seems bizarre.

Anyway I filled it up with about 1700 mls of new oil. Fuchs Silkolene 4T semi synthetic.
At approx midday I set off thinking it would be about a 7 hour return trip.

Went over the 95km of gravel to Lake Waikaremoana. Everyone needs to travel this road. It is magical. Quite mature native bush. Very remote. The Lake is a supremely top spot for a camping holiday. Tents and camping gear loaded into kayaks would be the go I reckon.

I stopped at the local camping ground and found myself chatting to Hakan Claesson of "Enduro Touring NZ" (http://www.biketoursnz.com/). He was leading a chartered adventure ride with about 6 other guys from Estonia all aboard ' 08 Suzuki DR650's owned by Hakan.

Hakan used to use XT600's and 400's and couldn't resist finding out how my XT400 was performing. We had an interesting chat and he gave me his card. I am in the process of acquiring a few bits off him for my XT:
Washable air filter. The existing standard cardboard air filter just clogs up too easy.

New set of sprockets and chain.

Spare front brake and clutch levers.

Spare rear brake and gear change levers.

Hakan told me about an XT that he used in his business that lasted 170,000km and all he did to it was replace tyres, brake pads, sprocket/chain, oil etc. He ended up giving it to a friend of his who I think was equally impressed with its robustness. Hmm,.. maybe these XT's are actually quite reliable ol' beasts.

Hakan also had a selection of adventure tyres in his support wagon. He suggested that the Bridgestone Trail Wing 302 was pretty good on the gravel. It certainly looked the business to my uneducated eyes.

Then on to Wairoa and a $10 chinese buffet.

Then back to Frasertown and over the inland road toward Gisborne.

Stopped at Tiniroto Pub to get the gear lever welded up. The gear lever broke about 3 kms before the pub.

The locals were just great. I had a beer and chatted to the barman and his wife while Steve went home to do the welding - Lion Brown - Sheesh!

Left the pub approx. 7:30pm and headed inland into the total and utter whopps. About 150km of gravel (see map attached) from Pehiri to

Tahunga to

Rere to

Wharekopae to

Te Wera and Koranga to

Matawai Pub.
At 9:45 pm it was pitch black and The Matawai Pub was shut, (and for sale) but they had an eftpos operated petrol pump. Whew!!
Then it was just a 230km cruise home on beautiful sealed roads in the cold and dark.

One of my best days ever.

I got home twelve and a half hours later: 00:30 the next morning.