throughtheeyesofarider

The Coromandel Loop is one of New Zealand’s most well known riding routes, From 25km/h corner uphill and downhill descents to peaceful long sweeping corners this road has it all. The scenery is something to behold as large trees and cliffs creep over the road and hang there watching you ride.

As well as being one of the most favourite roads, it is also one with a very large casualty rate which is rather unfortunate as the police patrol the loop rather well though on our trip we only saw a couple of police cars which was nice.

Because I have lost my license for 3 months, I was on the back of a friends bike, the bike was a streetfighter GSXR1000 K7. It was lucky that I trusted him completely because it is a fast bike and on those corners you really need to know how to ride so that you don’t lock up and fixate on a bank or cliff and ride into it. We also had a large pack rack on the back so the front end was really light, which made for interesting times as we passed cars or going up the hill to the lookout as any time it was given some gas, the front end would lift up and make for a very unstable bike.

He was rather disappointed that throughout the whole ride he never managed to make my heartbeat rise and I was some how calm the whole ride, even though we nearly hit a dog, mattress and a large caravan that came around a corner.

The road is in surprisingly good condition  for a New Zealand road and there was minimal gravel on the road either which made for a nice trip. We had a friend on a VTR1000 who for most of the ride was following us and for the rest of it led us through.

It was a beautiful day for the most part but half way around it started to really rain down on us, which was funny to watch as our friend had his back wheel step out at one point which would give you a bit of a clenching moment. We also had intercoms so that the rider and I could chat away about the road and anything else that kept us amused, whilst the rain was coming down it was so hard on our helmets that we could hear the rain in each others visor through the speakers which was a little odd.

The Coro is an amazing road, there are a lot of tight, tight corners through there and they never seem to end, and being on the back of a monster of a bike, made things a lot more fun than sitting on a little 250cc trying to keep momentum going up the hill.

After the uphill slalom we reached the lookout and sped past as the spectators that had come to take pictures from the top heard our bikes roaring up the hill turned around and started taking photos of us. 

The downhill slalom was even more interesting and amazing, tight 25km/h  corners at some speed far above that with nothing to hold on to at the back, I had some how managed to use my calf muscles to hold my in place but after awhile they began to hurt something chronic and so did my backside after sitting on a small seat for however many hours I was on it for. We stopped for a quick smoko and to stretch our legs and soggy leathers and then made our way to Thames to stay the night before the Paeroa Battle of the Streets races where we were marshalling.

The views were breathtaking and I wanted to do it again and again it was that much fun! If you have ever ridden this road please leave a comment below on how you found it and if you have never ridden this road, do it, you will not regret it.

Matt