KR EVENTS
OLD MATES, NEW FRIENDS
The KR350 adventure ride in Taumarunui typified what’ s great about New Zealand adventure riding.
WORDS & PHOTOS: Greg Power
Riders started arriving in Taumarunui on the Friday afternoon for the Kiwi Rider 350 Adventure Ride, with the Taumarunui Cosmopolitan Club acting as headquarters for the weekend. By Friday night the carpark was already filling with adventure bikes of every shape and size, with riders gathering for dinner, the briefing, and the usual catch-up with mates before the ride. The Friday night meal set the tone for the whole weekend. Riders had travelled from around the country, so there was plenty of standing around talking bikes, tyres, weather, road conditions, and rumours about what the route might throw at us the next day. It was a relaxed atmosphere and a good way to start the event before everybody headed off to their accommodation for the night.
Rain was already hanging around when riders started rolling back into the Cosmopolitan Club from 6.30am on Saturday. A hearty breakfast ran through until around 7.30am, with riders loading up on hash browns, eggs, baked beans, toast and coffee while signing in, catching up again, and listening to the riders’ briefing before everybody headed away around 8.00am. By then the bikes were lined up all over the place, from big BMW R1300GS adventure bikes down to little 250 trail bikes, and just about everything in between.
SMILING AT THE END OF THE DAY One of the great things about the Kiwi Rider 350 is the real mix of riders and machinery. There were plenty of newer bikes there this year, and Greg Boyd’ s Kove 450 Rally got quite
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