Cape to Cape.

They say if there are no photos it never happened. Well it did and to my amazement (those who know my mechanical skills will really be amazed) I managed to take the back wheel off Ali's bike AND put it back on!!

A reminder for the future, have a contingency if tail end charlie gets a flat tyre!



Luckily Jose had a compressor, I had a tyre levers and a tube and Pilar had wet wipes to clean our hands!



(Not that I carried anything to pump my tube up with....)

long time since I attempted to post photos - I appreciate other folk's photos and narratives - so here goes

Friday we travelled to Young1's in the 'Naki from Wellington the long way via Taumarunui, the Forgotten World Highway, Mt Damper Falls and Kiwi Road - if I've mastered the linking correctly this shot shows a jubilant Padmei exiting the tunnel at the summit of Kiwi Road

Here's Young1 at Cape Egmont preparing for the 'off' with his 'concours' condition Katoom



Padmei and Box a' Bits - Air Head enthusiasts through and through - with their trusty steeds



Young1 and Mo - in the Motu



Padmei looking pleased as 'Punch' as he effortlessly crests a hill in the Motu



'We knocked the bugger off!' Sherpa Padmei at the East Cape Light

No we didn't ascend the steps - instead beating a retreat to the hospitality of the Te Aroroa Hunting and Fishing Club for Kai and beverages

Labour Day dawned a beautiful day at Te Araroa Camping Ground

We were on the road - Box a' Bits, Padders and Moi by 7am

Padders and I nosed into Tokomaru Bay for a 'look see' - seemed a shame to have come all this way and not 'stop to smell the roses'



Old Freezing Works at Tokomaru Bay:

Awesome photos!

Those old beamers look right at home amongst those derelict buildings

thanks Night Falcon for the kind remarks about the pics (not a patch on the likes of Barts photos) - not so sure about the old bimmers remark though - mines a fairly recent 'oil head' :eek1

Look forward to meeting you out there somewhere with the rest of your pals from the Bay - Wade, Bart et al

have heard this too,important to have same map on the computer and on the gps.What gps do you have Phil?

I have no problem navigating off my handheld-style GPS, it zooms right in when a turn is coming up, and gives you a written instruction as well. I've used it to navigate through Auckland (successfully) when I've had no idea where I was going. I don't need reading glasses though, which probably helps.

I agree that keeping maps (and the versions of the maps) consistent makes things easier - but even then, roads like the Motu can still be a challenge to get them routing correctly. For the midwinter ride I use the open GPS project maps on the computer and on the GPS, and specify which version I used, so people can make sure they are using exactly the same map set.

The best laid plans of mice and men Fortunatly I fall into both catagories
Phil rang me one night with a plan, lets ride Cape Egmont to East Cape on Labour weekend was the start of the idea
A quick wizz bang on BaseCamp got us a start distance 664 Kms being the quickest route. A big days ride :eek1 Plus getting to and from the start and finish points at the end of the day.
Lets make it a two day Adventure ride and use Monday to come home
If its going to be an adventure ride lets make it an Adventure we decided so the serious planning began until eventually we came up final with the route for the Cape to Cape Ride 951.2 kms of some of the most windy tarseal and gravel roads we could find.
We had decided right from the start to throw this ride open to all comers and made every effort to inform people of the nature of the ride. We wanted the ride to be "Big Bike friendly" and I believe we achieved this.
In the past when Phil and I have co-ordinated group rides we have found that with running the Corner Man system of navigation once you go more than 350 to 400 kms in a day with a large group you loose too much time and it makes for a long day. With this in mind we decided to make this an everyman for himself ride and to just provide a GPS file.
For reasons we have yet to fathom some riders had problems with these. Some worked fine, others led people astray. Modern technology, sheesh
At Inglewood it was fairly apparent that if Phil and myself rode off into the sunset a large part of the group were not going to get to where they were going At that point as we felt some responsibilty for the riders turning up for this event we decided to run with the corner man system from that point on.
Unfortunatly this option also removed the option for riders to opt out of the "Route proper" and take shortcuts to the final destination.
Knowing this was going to make for a long day but still trying to keep the ride enjoyable we did try to keep the ride moving as smoothly and quickly as possible, however as anyone who has ridden this system can attest, a short stop for one rider stops the entire group, helmets come off, cameras come out and half an hour dissappears from the day but enters your ride time.
I apologise if any riders felt pressured to push themselves harder than they would have liked, at no time did we want to push people into states of exhaustion and danger (or even coffee depravation).
At no stage were any riders told they were holding the group up. Both Phil and I did try and keep things moving at a reasonable pace to ensure we didnt arrive at our destination in darkness.
I for one (despite my bikes mechanical hic-cup) throughly enjoyed myself. Even with the pressure of trying to keep the ducks in a row and moving forward, the GPS problems, those damn distances between cofffees, I feel a sense of achievement with what Phil and I did. Not just with the organisation but to actually complete the ride I have every intention of repeating that ride again one day. I enjoyed the company, support and friendship of every rider who joined in the event and look forward to riding with you all again.
To assist with planning future rides some feedback on the GPS issues would be appreciated in particular
Settings?
Auto Re-route settings?
Type (make and model) of GPS?
Mapset?

I was stuffed from the start. I bought a new hiking GPS for the trip, loaded heaps of pre & post run tracks into it, & discovered at Cape Egmont I'd managed to delete the gpx file for the actual Cape to Cape run. So I'm no help at all on why these things didn't work - from my perspective it was all self inflicted.

I had a Garmin Etrex 20 hiking GPS. I think that would have worked well, but both Aslan & I were just too new to it to have it working optimally. I can't read detail on the screen when I'm riding, but it still shows arrows for direction of the ride. The major issue with the Etrex is small screen size, backlighting, & screen visibility. Backlighting can be boosted at the expense of battery life. Aslan hadn't figured out increasing map resolution, so was viewing things in a very coarse view. I've learned a heap about the Etrex, but still find it a bit frustrating.

Prior to the ride I had studied the route on Google Maps, so had a basic understanding of the route. But that didn't help when I found I didn't have the gpx file.

As a consequence I was very appreciative of the cornerman system. Yes, there were times that I wanted to stop & take photos. I could have done so more if I'd been better organised with the camera, by holding this on a lanyard. But it was buried in the top of my camelbak. Yes, in the East Coast forestry section there was one occasion where Phil pushed me onwards when I was really needing to stop. But I got my second wind, & he allowed me to follow the group, rather than just pushing from behind. People could have abandoned the route at any time - they just needed to let the tail end charlie know that was their intent.

Possibly it might not have worked as well for a much larger group. I think that with the group size we had, that the cycling of people through corners, front to back, made the ride more 'social'.

I can now totally see why some US riders are working with 2 GPS's - one for the detail of the route, the other for a wider view, so you know where you are location-wise.

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, & am really appreciative that you organised the route, & threw it out there for all-comers.

BTW, I totally made the right choice with the new MT21 front I threw on pre ride. Front end grip was great.

Hey Phil you guys did an amazing job organising this & I appreciate all the effort.
It is a learning curve with the old GPS & I think (apart from being fricking hopelessly directionally retarded) one problem I had was that there were several maps not just one route. Is that because they were too long to fit as one route or that's the way the software does it? actually I remember there was a bridge that split the road or something so you had to split the route. I also wasn't sure which map I was sposed to be on.i think having a paper map would have helped me to get a handle on which part of the country I was in.

Actually nah I could have had a seeing eye dog dragging me round on a lead & i still would have got lost - i'm the reason tour buses were invented- mind you I have been known to catch the wrong bus...

Hey Padders, There was a couple of reasons for the split routes. Yes the road under the bridge at Ora......... was one. We thought Pureora Forest may cause a problem so that was another ( we actually went over and made route sheets for it)
And then from Pureora to the night stop over was another.
A problem of making it all one is it creates to many way points for most GPS's to handle and they start to do weird shit. Like my Zumo 550 can have about 200. The zumo 660 can only have about 150 so it will do the first part of the route, and when it gets to 150 you just get a straight purple line to the finish.
I think Alistairs new Zumo 350 split the 2nd day into 2 parts.
I think the Garmin Montana can handle several thousand way points.
I have since thought a marked map is a must and maybe name the sections 1, 2 etc so it is more user friendly.
Things to sort for NEXT YEAR :eek1

A Zumo 550. I'm on my second one now. The first on had mental health issues :huh so I got another exchange reconditioned one from Garmin. A lot cheaper than a new one. I would like to have a look at a Garmin Montana. They seem to be the Mutts Nutts.
Even better, something with a huge screen like 6" so you can see a bigger overall picture. The problem I find is when you soom out so see a bigger overall picture, a lot of the detail and minor roads dissapear which is a PIA.

I thought this was pretty cool. Ipad Mini using the OZ Explorer maps. Aparently works well.

And when you’re bored with getting lost, you can play Happy Chickens (what my 2 year old calls ’Angry Birds’)

Yes montana is my goal,but even they have issues ,still I have some fund's freed up now!
Dont know if the screen will be good enough,i need glasses to read

As a little aside Talking to the gentleman who currently has my scooter at his house and apparently a group of small trail bikes (650s etc) went down the road just after Mo and I left. He thought it was the rest of our group, most likely the Northern Glamour riders I reckon as they were in the East Cape area that weekend also. Must be a good place to go riding

Sounds like you guys had a cool time. Sorry I couldn't make it.

I saw 3 bikes heading home on Monday just south of Gisborne.

Hi kiwipeet - yes, a great ride - the three bikes / riders you saw on Monday were possibly Box'a'Bits, Padmei and myself

Honey!!! Im home
Yes the Beemer has finally finished the Cape to Cape ride/holiday and has returned to the stable :dllama Might go for a ride tomorrow

Excellent Colin - just loaded mine up as I head out in the morning to the Burt Munro Challenge - beginning with the Molesworth tomorrow afternoon - cheers S