Located between Helensville & Dairy Flat and on the northern edge of Riverhead Forest, Chatham Road is a undeveloped road/unmaintained dirt track which is currently gated at both ends with road closed signs, there is however plenty of room for a motorcycle to pass around the gates. At only 2km long Chatham Road is quite short but this close to Auckland it’s uncommon to get decent off road trail.
During summer Chatham Road may dry out but during winter and even well into November it is a slippery muddy bog which is only recommended for Intermediate level riders or above and ideally more than 1 rider as it’s easy to get stuck and you might have to dig the bike out. There are several parts of Chatham Road which are more deep ruts than track and how bad the ruts are will depend on whether any other vehicles have been through.
Contributed by: @xdodox, @actionman
Track type: Dirt Track
Track composition: Bumpy, Loose, Undulating
Slippery when wet?: Yes
Suitable for bikes > 650cc Intermediate
Suitable for bikes < 650cc Intermediate
River crossings? No
That looks like fun, where was it?
It was about 5km close to helensville. Chatham Rd. A typical BaseCamp marked gravel road. Nothing to worry about it. I guess i have to do it again, but without any stuck in mud. 🙂
Awesome, thanks for the gpx file, I will check it out, from your pics it looks worthy of posting up as a page.
Hey, don’t ride alone. Next time give us a shout. I also want to get stuck in the mud 🙂
I have a “hall pass” to go riding whenever I want so I’m always available.
Can you pm people on this forum?
Did this on my way to collect some parts from Repco, thought I may as well make an adventure out of it 🙂 No big ruts although muddy in a few places, was able to tractor with a bit of speed. East to West will be the way to do it if muddy as would be going down the hill instead of trying to climb it and making a mess of the road.
It’s steeper than it looks here.
Went through here on the weekend and its in great shape.
The road is much more overgrown now (can’t see the road closed sign for the mound of earth and grass on it), but in summer, it’s very rideable.
The northern end starts as gravel, and you come to that road closed section. Looks like locals have deliberately let it look wild, as once through 50m odd, its flat (and there are a few farm gates onto it). Heading south, you reach the steep section after the tree lined section, and after a bit more flat, you get into the narrow bit with another clay based climb up to the road. This is quite uneven, guessing from horses hooves etc. So a bit technical, more than a gravel road, but winter it would probably look like above, a real bog.
Chatham Rd out by Riverhead has been chewed up by the 4×4 guys.
Still passable but I wouldn’t try on a Big bike.
Bollards have been reinstalled at Eastern end and the hill directly after has had gravel laid down.
This is a fun track, a bit slippery even in a slightly moist condition for the heavy Vstrom 800DE with stock tyres 🙂
Fun Ride, got through with XT660R.
Slippery & Muddy but lucky I went from Top to bottom. Starting at Ararimu/Bald through Chatham to Peak. Would not have made it otherwise on current set up.
https://youtu.be/IsQ7n_TNSPY