New Zealand and Australia trip.

That's fantastic! NZ is my dream next motorcycle trip. Are you renting? What will you be riding? Are you experienced with long-distance motorcycle touring (if not, I could ramble on with tips for hours).

I test rode the new BMW R1200RT, which is available for rent in NZ. It is a fantastic machine. Big, waterproof, removable luggage; heated grips; adjustable windscreen; awesome ABS brakes -- and a power to weight ratio the same as a CBR600RR. The thing cranks. It would do a throttle-only wheelies at 60mph (which got some looks!).

My R1150GS will keep up with anything in the twisties (though not on the straights) and the RT handled as well. My GS has wider bars, but the RT is 50lbs lighter and was amazingly "flickable".

<jealous>

Jim

If you aren't already familiar with it, I would strongly recommend browsing the

Adventure Rider forums

They have regional sub-forums, with one for Australia, Tasmania and NZ, IIRC.

Its a bit BMW biased, but an excellent resource to find out the best and most outrageous roads in advance (like the Nevis Valley Road). Really the forum is more about destinations than any particular brand of bike. NZ is a popular destination and there are lots of trip reports, etc. in the "Ride reports and pics, pics, pics" sub-forum.

There is also somewhat of a bias toward unimproved roads, but still a ton of stuff if you want to stay on the paved roads.

If you *did* want to check out some out-of-the way stuff, you can rent a BMW R1200GS, which is made for dirt roads (not trails) from Kea Motorcycle Rental.

<jealouser>
Jim

Hey Jim,

Don't be jealous, come with me!

I actually looked into Kea, and got some quotes. They only had the larger BMW bikes for my time needs, and the prices were a bit steep for me. $1200+ seemed excessive. I ended up renting from http://www.motorcycle-hire.co.nz/ They are renting me a recent model Bandit 600 for about 500 bucks US. Much better.

I presently ride a zx6r here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbauer/43152210/) so I'm used to the in-line four and that bike should be just fine. I just want to be on two wheels over there. Yes, I've done some long distance riding - went cross country on a VFR, and I regularly go from SF to Tahoe or Yosemite in one day.

I agree with you - the new RT (and GS) are absolutely amazing. ...I still love my Ninja.

I'll plan to check out the forums you mentioned.

- Thanx
- Jon

That's a great bike you have, and some of the best riding in the world right in your back yard. I wish I could join you, but I can't swing it. My GF and I want to move out of the tundra next May (only 5 months!), ideally to someplace beautiful in CA. I don't know if we will be able to afford CA, though. I've spent a lot of time in CA on business, but I don't even know how to go about finding some place affordable.

If poker playing continues to work out for us, we can live anywhere, but we want to be close to a city -- if not actually in a city. San Diego is an option, though both of us would prefer more north. If we were rich, we'd probably pick Marin County, but we're definitely not rich.

Avenue of the Giants is one of the best roads anywhere. Have you ever been in the Lost Coast area? There is a fantastic road that goes to the coast and winds around to Honeydew, then back out to the Avenue.

Jim

Funny. Yeah, that Lost Coast is beautiful also.

Jim, if you get to CA, let's plan to go do some great rides...

- Jon

Definitely, Jon!

My GF and I rode the western 1/2 of that Hwy 36 route last May. We got a seat made for her bike in Redding by Rick Mayer (she rode the GS once and that settled it). We took 299 W from Redding and then turned on to the county road leading to 35 around Lewiston.

We found a bunch of those pashnit.com roads by looking for the squiggly light-grey roads on our maps! Best riding ever.

A few years ago I had my seat made by Rick on the way to Alaska. A friend of mine was suddenly available for a couple of weeks to join me, so we met in Visalia, CA (a bit of a detour on the way to AK). Anyhow, we rode up through Yosemite and Sequoia. Somewhere in that area, I *think* in Mariposa County but I can remember exactly, we found a whole bunch of those 1 lane paved rural roads in the foothills. It was nuts. I have wanted to find that place again ever since, but I haven't been able to . Since then, I've started keeping records of the great riding areas I find.

Hope to see you soon in CA!

Jim

Jim, have you ever seen http://www.madmaps.com/ ?

Mostly CA based, but these maps are fantastic...

- Jon

Hi Jon,

I don't have any advice per say, but photos from Nov-Dec 2001.

Cheers

One fond memory I have of north NZ was that people drove quite insane. On a two lane road (one in each direction) with blind twisty corners on a substantial incline, there was no lack of small, high-reving, 4 cylinder cars quickly passing my rental. These people must have known the roads, but jeez, it was intense.

But, if you're on a bike, I guess you'll be doing the passing.

Cool. I've never seen these maps. Do they include all of the little one-lane county roads? I occasionally buy county maps for those roads, but mostly I just head off into the country and go by dead reckoning. The smallest, thinnest and twistiest lines are the best, as any motorcyclist knows!

I'll check out the Mad Maps. Thanks!

Jim

Mark - wow, nice pix. Thanks!

Firefox - I'm officially scared.

Jim - the cool thing about Mad Maps is that they give you loops that you can take. All the roads are personally scouted out by the people that own Mad Maps. They know what motorcyclists love - long winding low traffic-ed roads with very little cop activity. My bud and I went up to the area east of Eureka for 4 days armed with only their Northern Cal map, and we had the best 4 days of our lives. No kidding. Unbelievable roads, no cops, sweepers, tight stuff, SOME dirt (not fun for me on the Ninja - but ok with my friend who was on a BoxerCup Replica), beautiful scenery. The maps point out where all of the essentials are - brew-pubs, good restaurants, roadside attractions, etc. They also give you an overview of what to expect with each loop.

See this page to get an idea of the format of the maps and how the loops are designated. http://www.madmaps.com/trav_norcal_loop.html

Ok, enough. I don't work there, and they ain't payin me! They are well worth the 9 bucks a pop.

For New Zealand, I just ordered 2 things:

http://www.kea-motorcycles.com/pdfs/NZMCAfactsheet.pdf

and

http://www.mcycle.co.nz/

Supposed to be great companions.

Come on Jim, bust out the credit cards! Come with me! You'll make it up in your poker winnings! I'll buy the first round in Auckland!

- Jon

Woo NZ! The biggest Kauri trees are north of Auckland, and this area is very beautiful and not very densley populated. (known as 'the far north') - the roads are great for your bike - lots of twisty turns etc...

I live in Wellington which is at the bottom of the north Island, and is the Capital

Happy to answer any NZ questions for you.

[email protected]

Thanks toolman! Will let you know if I think of anything...

- Jon

Very cool.

http://www.sport-touring.net/forums/showthread.php?t=74135

- Jon

Jon- thought these links might be interesting to you, as a rider headed toward NZ.

Here's news of a new film about Herb Munro:
http://www.worldsfastestindian.com/
The movie site seems to have taken much text from this article:
http://www.biker.co.nz/Reviews.asp?id=122
IMDB says:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412080/trivia
The reviews are fantastic- I can't wait for it to open here in Feb. (you'll be able to see it before you go!)
Also:
http://www.britten.co.nz/

I gotta say I'm jealous of you and your trip.

Rob,

Thanks for the links. I saw the preview of that flick (Apple Linka) and it looks like it will be a good one.

I love that nostalgic kinda motorcycle stuff. I went to the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham a few months ago and was in heaven. Check this out: http://www.barbermuseum.org/

You guys have to stop being jealous and get on a plane! It's really not so expensive! I was lucky to be able to use FF miles to get over there (60k miles were needed), however, even if I wasn't able to do it that way, the flight is < $1000. I plan to stay in cheap motels or free rooms too. The motorcycle rental for 6 days is < $500. This isn't really so expensive and out of reach! Come with me!

- Jon

Ok, true...

- Jon

Jon made the mistake of contacting us via a kiwi biker website... so I followed him home (here). He seems such a nce guy

Seriously though, If/when you guys/gals decide to jump on a big tin bird and head down under I'm sure we can assist in a little accommodation, vehicle hire blah blah blah. I suiggest flying Air NZ, Qantas or Singapore Airlines if you can. They're head and shoulders above the rest in the comfort stakes.

I'm not a travel agent nor an MV rental outfit - I've had the priviledge of doing a reasonable amount of work related travel and I know what a pain the cost and logistics are - because everything else is great.

Soooo.... if you want any tips or pointers or info or even a bed to sleep in... let me know. I find half the cost of travel is accmmodation so it'd be nice to get rid of that as much as possible... and we all get to meet, drink and swap stories with new people (aka nutters from the other side of the Pacific...)

Try not to swamp me - I have a full time job too but I'm happy to help where I reasonably can.

Remember - we're in Summer now. Jan/Feb and early March is the most settled weather.

Aaaaa - that'll do - back to work now
MDU aka Nigel
PS - this being my first post... am I meant to be shy, subtle or misguided? I can do that if you want.

Welcome MDU! This board is a group of friends that all originally got together in support of an MP3 player that is not being made anymore called The Empeg. (see http://www.empeg.com/). We still all congregate because we love our gadget, but we've grown close as a community to discuss everything else under the sun. Welcome to the community! Look around and enjoy. I think we have some other Kiwi's on here as well!

- Jon

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonbauer/

- Jon

One more link about Herb Munro-
http://www.indianmotorbikes.com/features/munro/index.htm
An astonishing read.

The movie was excellent- well done.

Oh, and I wanna hear about Jon's trip!