The North Island 1600 in New Zealand

[Alan Doak]

Hi everyone,

Every year the NZ Distance Riders group runs the North Island 1600 (1,000 miles, or 1,609 kilometres in less than 24 hours). Riders who complete the ride often use this to qualify as a member of the Iron Butt – I did this four years ago.

This year the ride was horrendous, but still a lot of fun. Out of 33 riders who registered only 22 completed. I took 22 hours to complete the ride, and for 20 of those hours, it poured with rain. To anyone who has ridden in New Zealand you'll appreciate that the roads are narrow (by US standards) and they are windy. Great motorcycling in perfect conditions. This event was run in less than perfect conditions!

I wrote a blog post here for those that might be interested. Enjoy. http://www.thinman.co.nz/north-island-1600-the-ride/

Cheers
Alan

 

[Scott Parish]

Great write-up; thanks for sharing. I can definitely relate to the yelling in my helmet to stay awake. Definitely a challenging ride. Do they always start in the afternoon?

 

[Alan Doak]

Hi Scott - yep, they've always started at 1pm. I think the start is then so we can take advantage of the roads being less busy at night. Personally I love night riding, especially riding through dawn, but only when the weather is good!!!

 

[IBA ZX-9R]

I completed a windy SS1K/24 course ride too. It's one of the best ways to accomplish such a feat on a sportbike, because sitting in one position for hours makes it even harder if not physically impossible to accomplish. When I saw this post I was so excited! Someone else who thinks like me.

We ran into some riders one time from NZ who talked about the roads there. Just like you explained. Sounds wonderful.