but the rain cut the day short. Instead, I just rode up to Russell via Russell Road, which was actually a brilliant start to the Saturday ride. Russell Road is one of my favourites. It’ s scenic, winding, and just rough enough to make for a great motorcycle playground. I wanted to have a coffee in Russell, but on an off-season Saturday, it proved to be more difficult than the energy I was willing to invest into it. I left coffee-less and headed back to the campsite along the coastline via Manawaora and Rawhiti Roads. These are perfect roads to chase some bends if you aren’ t a fan of unsealed roads. I arrived back at my camp during golden hour. After a sumptuous dinner, I put myself away in the sleeping bag, ready for Sunday’ s ride. Sunday started early, so I had my breakfast and broke camp. I wanted to head back to Auckland via the East Coast, but I was chasing Russell Road back to SH1 so enthusiastically that I ended up missing both Webb and Pigs Head Road. I ended up in Whangarei. I’ d been thinking all day on Saturday about whether the suspension was harsher than the
Suzuki DL650 I used to own. From the distance of a couple of years, I couldn’ t really tell. In a bid to somehow measure it, I bought four crystal glasses in Whangarei and shoved them in my bag to see how many would make it back to Auckland. Due to the extremely strong westerly wind, I gave the exposed SH16 and Kaipara Hills Road a miss. Rather, I dashed back on SH1 to Kaipara Flats Road and took the more sheltered roads sitting behind and around the Puhoi hills to get back to Albany.
THE SKINNY The Suzuki V-Strom 250SX proved to be excellent for the kind of riding I do. Once I got used to more frequent gear changes and higher revs needed on the 250 than I’ m familiar with on my KLR, it did everything I could ask of it. It’ s zippy on sealed roads, fun on gravel, and can certainly handle some light trail riding- even when loaded up with some gear. I can say the 250SX lives up to the reputation its bigger brother 650 has forged. By the way, all four crystal glasses made it back to Auckland unharmed- so the suspension isn’ t too harsh.
KIWI RIDER 29