On Tuesday I took my car up the coast to Kapiti Honda to have it serviced and a WOF. Rather than come home again on the train and make a return journey, I strapped the Yuba onto the back of the car. Two tricks I learned – one take the battery off – the bike is heavy enough to lift without that brick attached! Two, turn the front wheel until it is facing backwards, this shortens the bike by a few inches.<\/p>\n
So at 8:00 a.m. on a crisp June morning, I set off for a bike ride along the new cycle tracks along side the Kapiti expressway, which goes from Poplar rd in Raumati, to Peka Peka in the north, about 20km each way. At 8 a.m. in the winter, the sun is directly in your eyes virtually the whole way to Peka Peka, maybe I will start a little later next time.Still, most of the time I was watching the scenery and the wildlife – so many Pukekos and Paradise ducks in the wetlands, flood ponds and storm water treatment areas along side the track.<\/p>\n
There were quite a few early risers out and about, but the most pleasant thing I saw was the number of secondary school kids riding to school using the new tracks. There were dozens of them, most appeared to be going to Kapiti College I think. What a great thing if a major road development encourages kids to ride bikes to school.<\/p>\n
The other nice thing I noticed immediately is how little the noise of the traffic intrudes while you are riding, yes it is there, but it seems to just disappear as you ride.<\/p>\n
Harrison’s garden centre has a cafe, so at 9:00 I dropped in for a coffee and a cheese scone, then set off back, and when I got back to Paraparaumu I kept going to the other end of the track, then headed down into Ruamati and along to Raumati Beach, then back into Kapiti Honda. The car wasn’t ready, so I did another couple of loops around the area. Total kms about 47, battery showing 3 bars out of 5, but was dropping to 2 bars under load. Probably could have got 60kms if I had carried on. Great range for a small battery and a big bike!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Tuesday I took my car up the coast to Kapiti Honda to have it serviced and a WOF. Rather than come home again on the train and make a return journey, I strapped the Yuba onto the back of …<\/p>\n