Canscoot Show Weekend ride 2024
Another enjoyable scooter trip, around some awesome scenery in the South Island and a good catch up with other scooter enthusiasts.
The plan was to meet the Canscoot mob and stay overnight in Twizel. Trojan, my trusty blue PX, was up for the job and a 900km round trip was underway.
On the Friday the weather looked a bit dodgy for the weekend and heading off on a 3-day scooter mission might not have been the best move. However, suck it up buttercup and on with the wet weather gear. To be fair it didn’t get wet until Gore and near Roxburgh so I can’t complain too loudly.
I caught up with Phillip for breakfast in Alexandra, fueled up in Cromwell and then headed up the Lindis Pass.
Lindis Pass
The pass lies between the valleys of the Lindis and Ahuriri Rivers.
State Highway 8 transverses the pass on its route from the Waitaki Basin to Central Otago. The pass is the highest point on the South Island’s state highway network, and the second highest point on the New Zealand state highway network, after the Desert Road (SH 1) in the Central North Island.
The traffic was busy with the usual idiots passing on double yellow lines and trying to get past the scooter. The climb up there is hard work for a small capacity 2 stroke engine and a few sections were done in 3rd gear. Fresh rain had made the surface a bit slippery and also made for some “twitchy” moments as the 10″ tyres.
The Boots and Jandals pub in Omarama have a great lunch menu and then it’s only 40mins up the road to Twizel.
Twizel
Twizel is the largest town in the Mackenzie District, in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. The town was founded in 1968 to house construction workers on the Upper Waitaki Hydroelectric Scheme. Today, Twizel is a service and tourist town for visitors to the area. It has a resident population of 1,890 (June 2024); during the summer, holidaymakers nearly triple the town’s population.
A few of us had booked accommodation at the High-Country Lodge, Motels & Backpackers. It was easy to find and well placed to walk to the local bars and restaurants. A great meal and some scooter banter were had by all, that evening. The local business community even put on an excellent fireworks display for us.
Dunedin
Heading south to Omarama and then down past more of the lakes district to Kurow and on to Oamaru was a great ride. No wind and warm conditions made for fast riding.
By the time I got to Waitati, at the start of the motorway and headed up to the Killmog, the weather had turned wet, windy and dark. The bike had been running very well up till that point and then with the uphill sections, it started to miss every so often. It’s a bit grim when you are on your own, it’s raining, and you may have an engine starting to fail with more big hills to come. I was pretty sure the stator was on its way out as the missing only happened in top gear while under load. Bizarrely it ran just fine in 3rd gear, so it was quite a slow trip into Dunedin.
After an awesome night in Dunedin, it was time to head home. The bike ran fine all the way along the motorway south up until Waihola, where it started to miss again. I stopped and increased the mixture by 1/4 turn and changed the spark plug. Sadly, this didn’t make much difference, but I got to Balclutha OK and stopped to check a few more things. Normally I turn off at Balclutha and go to Owaka and down through the Catlins to get home, however breaking down on that road wasn’t something I wanted to do.
Fixed ?
I got to Clinton before the missing started again so stopped there. The 3 wires from the stator to the CDI looked fine but on closer inspection one of the female spade type terminals wasn’t quite contacting properly. This was an easy fix, but you don’t know if that’s the cure or not, however I got to Mataura with no more issues and then on home to Invervegas.
Another enjoyable trip to catch up with scooter mates and family – done.
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Canscoot Show Weekend ride 2024