Motomuck - the miracle cleaner

Riding a dirtbike is great fun but there will come a time when the bike needs to be cleaned as they tend to get a little dirty.

I don't know about you but I always struggle to get my bike as squeaky clean as it was when it came out of the box or back from the bike shop after a periodic tune up.

No matter how diligent I am I can never seem to get the bike completely clean. Not only do I manage to miss bits of mud, sand or dust entirely and those bits of grease on the swing arm where I was a bit generous with the chain oil. I just cant seem to get the plastics and the shiny bits smear free. It is little wonder that she who must be obeyed always says don't bother when I help out with cleaning duties around the house.


Now I have always been skeptical of miracle cleaners, they either don't work unless you follow extremely detailed instructions and water blast the bike clean first or they strip the bike back to bare metal and consume the plastics.

That is until I discovered Motomuck and turned this..............

the result of a fun day in the forest.......

......into something that closely resembles the trusty steed when it was brand new.

Ok so I have taken a few liberties here but needless to say I am impressed with the product.

Basically once you get home (or maybe the next morning as the bike and any muck needs to be dry) spray Motomuck all over the bike. Wait ten minutes (maybe have a beer)and then wash the bike clean.

Any muck or grease simply washes away, especially from all those hard to get to bits., the engine cases and exhaust system. Hey my bike doesn't look brand new but it isn't far off.

Motomuck has been developed and is marketed by Hiltron Security Systems. Motomuck is a non caustic, non acidic cleaner that won't damage plastics or metal. For more information and ordering information click here.

Places to Ride-The Possum Trapper Trail Ride

Greg Power has multiple New Zealand Trials and Enduro titles under his belt and through his events company Power Adventures organises anything from training sessions to most recently a three day enduro in the Maramarua forest south of Auckland. Power Adventures also runs a number of trail rides around the place.

The Possum Trapper is an annual trail ride held in the early New Year in the Maramarua Forest. The Maramarua trails are clay based. Wickedly greasy in the wet with slippery roots snaking across the tracks to tip up the unwary and incredibly dusty when it's dry.

The trails are a combination of overgrown access roads and single track through the trees linked by gravel roads in various states of repair.

Greg does his best to provide something for everyone-from the novice to the expert. One of the aims of these rides is to get people involved in riding. The last thing a novice rider wants to encounter is an almost impassible obstacle that exhausts them and puts them off riding. But there is also enough to keep the likes of me and indeed experts happy.

The only real criticism I have is  that some of the sure directional arrowing is a bit obscure. We were intent on doing the expert tracks but I'm not sure that we rode them all. A  map of the tracks and clear arrowing would be useful.



Contact
Power Adventures
Where?


View Maramarua Forest in a larger map

Places to ride-The Kawasaki Sandpit

We're quite lucky in this part of the world to have several motocross tracks available and several active clubs and charity groups who organize regular trail rides.

We are also really lucky to have the Sandpit where for $25 a throw a man can blast around to his hearts content.

The Kawasaki Sandpit is an offroad motorcycle park based in Woodhill Forest 40 minutes north west of Auckland along state highway 16 towards Hellensville.

There are some 1000 acres of sand based trails winding through the trees in the forest. The trails ranging from tight single track to full throttle return roads provide something for everyone; from the novice rider to expert.

The park also has a couple of motocross practice tracks and a trials area. The best part about the Sandpit is that even when it is pissing down it is always open. In fact the best time to ride at the park is just after heavy rain which compacts the sand and provides awesome traction.

Set in a pine plantation long dry spells increase the fire danger and at these times recreational users of the forest operate under restrictions or can be forced to close temporarily. 

Long dry periods make some of the return tracks quite fluffy and a bit of a challenge for some riders. But there are plenty of tracks to choose from.

The Park is open 5 days a week, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays when the main trails are groomed and open late on Thursdays through the summer.

Contact
The Sandpit

Where?
Woodhill Forest
Molloy Road entrance (off Rimmer Road)
SH16
Helensville

View State Highway 16 diversion in a larger map

Common misconceptions

Billions of us live in a world of instant mass communication where news and new ideas, new technologies and ideologies flow faster than could ever have been imagined just a few short years ago.

I am sure that one of the reasons the world fell into recession so quickly in the last couple of years and why we appear to be coming out of it equally rapidly compared to the Great Depression of the late 20's and 30's is the speed that the bad and now the good news has flowed around the globe. One of the other reasons is surely that global economic power is shifting from the western hemisphere to Asia. India and China in particular have emerged relatively unscathed from the recent economic meltdown caused by American Corporate greed and ignorance.

This communication revolution has good and bad points. The development of news and I use that term loosely has generated a need for instant gratification. If something happens in the world we want to know about it now. As perception is reality then those first images, those first comments and ill informed analysis are the ones that stick-even though in the longer term they are proven to be nothing but bull#$it.

Combined with the ability for all of us to transmit all that we know or imagine to be the truth at the press of a button and beam our random thoughts in living colour to the rest of the world no matter how ill informed the world is being dumbed down by a deluge of half truths, fantasy and misinformation.

Not only has the web and all its offshoots, blogs, tweets, and every organisation that has the nohow to build their own 21st century soap box made all the news that is fit to print available to all it has also made all the news that isn't fit to print available to everyone.

Traditional media organisations that have had the resources to actually investigate what is going on in the world seem to be a dieing breed. Cut off at the knees by falling advertising revenue and falling subscriptions. The web is the way of the future but the traditional print media don't seem to be able to make this work for them yet. Maybe subscriptions are the way to go. People will always pay for quality product even in a world that expects to get most things for free. But the technology to deliver the product electronically to the kitchen table doesn't exist yet.

Papers (of the news type) like books won't die completely until there is an electronic medium that is as convenient and portable as they are. Something that can deal with the rigours of spilt milk and being shoved into a pocket to be read later.

But I'm getting off the track. This blog was supposed to be about popular misconceptions and misdirections in part perpetuated by the modern media. So here we go.

NZ's ACC and motorcycle registration costs

In the last few days the ACC (New Zealand's no fault accident insurance scheme which is funded by things like vehicle registration costs) has announced an increase in registration costs for large motorcycles as the owners of big bikes are over represented in accident statistics. There can be no argument about this as it is true-just as it there can be no argument that most accidents involving motorcycles are caused by four wheeled vehicles. However, people on bicycles are equally as vulnerable and probably as equally represented in accident statistics. A broken cyclist is going to cost the same to put back together as a broken motorcyclist. The difference is motorcycle has to be registered, it's rider licensed and he pays various user charges. A push bike however is green and gets away with anything. But in a user pays world shouldn't they be paying their fair share?

Global warming

The world is warming up based on recent history. But then the world has also been through a recent cooling period. I read recently that the French Revolution was in part caused by famine that was related to a series of wet and cold winters. The world was apparently cooler in medieval times than at the height of the Roman Empire.

I believe that we should do all we can to protect our environment and reduce the impact on mother nature of our activities. We should look for cleaner greener ways of doing things but I don't believe that the activities of mankind are solely to blame for global warming. If we can't predict the weather accurately suggestions that we are the cause of global warming are supposition.

Oil is running out

Oil is the driving force of our economies. It allows people like me to live in the suburbs and drive to work, enjoy motorsport and indirectly provides me with a living. Of course oil is running out -it is a non re-new able resource. But I can't image that it will run out and be priced out of reach for most of us in my life time. (Hopefully I am not wrong). Look at a map of the world or a globe and have a think about where most of today's supplies come from and then see how big the rest of the world is. We just haven't found it all yet. I am sure that not too far down the track someone is bound to come up with some new form of energy that will make the need for oil redundant.

Electric cars, fuel economy and sustainability

I am not sure that the replacement for the internal combustion engine is going to be the hybrid or electric cars being developed today. What is sustainable about building vehicles that need batteries to run? They are more expensive to build and well we're going to need more power stations to generate the electricity to power the batteries.What are they going to run on? Then what do you do about disposing of the batteries when they are exhausted?

And as somebody pointed out to me the other day what is sustainable or green about ditching the older vehicle and buying a new fuel efficient model? Sure it might use less fuel and spit out slightly less CO2 into the air -but what about all the cost of actually producing that new vehicle in comparison to keeping the old one on the road until it is no longer economic to repair?

One for the Volunteers

The final round of the Kawasaki Sandpit 2 Man series was held in the northern end of Woodhill Forest on Sunday the 27th of September. The series was organised by the team from the Kawasaki Sandpit

Round three ran over slightly different terrain to the first two rounds. Less windy single track and more open energy sapping return roads and fire breaks and for those riders who rode the first lap and the faster second leg riders-a nice big killer bog.

The faster open tracks were for those of us that to put it mildly are age and fitness challenged; pretty tough going.

Don't get me wrong we had a bloody great day. I missed the main bog as by the time I went through on my first leg it had been taped off. I did however have my own little melt down and got well and truly stuck in a drain

It took me a good ten minutes to manhandle my bike out of this drain and I was totally rooted by the time we were both back on dry land. And no I didn't feel guilty about not helping the guy who followed me into the hole and got well and truly bogged just as I had managed to get myself out.

I am not privy to the cost of these events and whether the guys made any money out of the series. I sure as hell hope they didn't have to dig into their own pockets to make sure that the series ran smoothly.

It must have been a huge logistical exercise to put this race on let alone the entire series and the team needs to be commended for their efforts. If they made some money well good on them.

Events like this series are organised by clubs all round the country and rely on a huge pool of volunteers who freely give up their time to help out so that people like me can go out and have a good time.

The team from the Sandpit and a team of volunteers have spent most weekends for the last three or four months setting up the tracks and pruning pine trees. Then there are all those others that turn up on the day to pull bikes out of bogs and tow back the breakdowns.

And when the race is over the course arrows and bunting have to be pulled down, the dead bikes recovered and any repairs put right.

And don't forget the good guys from St Johns who look after all the broken bodies.

It doesn't matter what the sport or event is. Most of the mass participation events in this country wouldn't go ahead without the support of dedicated organizers, administrators, and general dogs bodies who freely give up their time to make these events possible.

So the next time some seemingly over officious administrator or bungling ref at your kids Saturday morning sport gets up your nose remember that without them there wouldn't be a game. Instead of giving them a hard time a thank you wouldn't go amiss.

Obama's Healthcare Plan

I have been doing a bit of reading up on Obama's Health Care reform plan for a couple of reasons. One because I have become more or less addicted to reading the Drudge report and the report is dead against any health reform. Mind you the the Drudge Report seems to be against any kind of rational reform of the status quo.

The report is an unashamed champion of the lunatic conservative fringe, no unbiased reporting here. The report contains links to vociferous articles opposed not just to Health Reform but anything Obama. Some of the video taken at the so called town hall meetings is as sickening as it is interesting. Not just because you have some fat inbred loser screaming senselessly at a politician brave enough to show up. More because the tactics of opposition are reminiscent of the sort of strong arm thuggish actions that the Mullahs in Iran use against dissent. Or 1930's Germany.

The other reason I find this whole debate so interesting is that I find it difficult to comprehend that the US doesn't have some kind of universal health care for it's population. The most powerful country in the world has a dirty little secret. Well it's not a secret and they have more than one. America cannot ensure that all of it's population has access to decent health care.

An incredible 45 million people don't have health insurance, wastage possibly accounts for up to 30% of medical costs and more interesting still that despite all the money sloshing around in the medical economy doctors are not making enough money. So even if Obama waves his magic wand and there is a new affordable health care system there might not be enough doctors to go round.

If this is the result of a capitalist approach to medical care leave me with the socialist version that I am used to.

The US system appears to be unsustainable with the costs of health care insurance rising faster than wages growth and people simply being unable to afford cover and or being bankrupted after having to fork out for a major illness or accident.

Coming from a country where health care is a basic right for all and where the state run hospitals operate in an environment that also lets people purchase private health care I find it hard to understand that millions of Americans don't have this basic right. If I fall over and break my leg or get sick all is not lost I will taken off to hospital in an ambulance and treated no questions asked. If I have had an accident I will also receive 80% of my wages through a compulsory no fault insurance program that all working people pay into.

The opposition to reform makes a lot out of Obama's plan being anti Capitalist-read anti American and just another example of socialism taking over America by stealth.

But lets face it America doesn't have an economy that runs on pure capitalist principles anyway. Big business and the right wing just use this ideal to get their own way. If America was truly capitalist there would be a couple of big car makers and a few banks that should have gone down the gurgler over the last few months.

It seems to me looking in from afar that Health Reform is crucial for the American economy and the American people. Surely it makes good business sense to make people well as soon as possible and as cheaply as possible, and run health programs to improve the health of all those people with chronic (and to some extent preventable) diseases? And do all this at the best cost?

I guess all this would make sense but the Drug and Insurance companies and the large medical suppliers are more interested in their own profits not of the health of any one or group of individuals. That is free market capitalism.

How to fix the All Blacks.

If you listen to the three wise men of NZ Rugby the national team has the right game plan but the players are not executing it correctly. Thus explained is one of the worst starts to an international calendar. 6 games and only 3 wins. Yeah right. So who's fault is that? The All Blacks are playing like the Auckland Blues played just before Henry pulled the pin on the team and toddled off to Wales in the late 90's.

A team chock full of talent but unable to turn that talent into consistent wins when it really mattered. The way that Blues team, Wales and now the All Blacks have stuttered and run out steam seems to indicate that the coaching team has run out out of ideas, or they have got stale and the players have got sick of being geed up the same way by the old headmaster and his senior teachers.

The reappointment of the current coaching panel after the last world cup failure (our worst showing ever at a World Cup) and more recently having those appointments extended to the next world cup have polarised the nation. The chasm between the rugby union and the Henry apologists and the rest of us is only going to get wider as the All Blacks' results fail to live up to the high standards we expect.

The first two round of the NPC have been attracting record numbers of live and television viewers. In total contrast to the International team the provincial teams are playing with passion and appear to have a plan of action that the players adhere. The All Blacks and the coaching team would be wise to take some lessons from the local game.

There have been a few upsets and Auckland, the team that given it's pool of potential players should be the overwhelming favorite each time it takes the filed has been tipped over twice. This isn't so suprising as the Auckland Rugby Union appears to be run by the same sort of opportunists that run the national game.

The All Blacks need to be playing with the commitment, passion and structure that the provincial teams are exercising at the moment. The players also need to be playing as often as possible, not coddled in cotton wool after each big game. We need players who are in form not players who were in some sort of form the last time they played which might have been weeks ago. Playing international rugby, well any kind of rugby is tough on the body. But then so are a lot of other sports so I don't hold with the policy of resting players. If they get injured or lose form then pick someone else.

My remedy for their current woes?

• Replace the coaching staff immediately. There are plenty of candidates out there who can take the team through to the next World Cup
• Make the players play week in week out when games available. Get them out there playing for this clubs and provincial unions wherever possible
• Make sure that the start of the provincial season does not clash with the club finals.

My tip for the NPC final. Waikato vs Hawkes Bay. Waikato to win.