Wallerawang Ride 9th February 2023

-

 This was my first time as ride leader on a Thursday Riders scheduled ride and turning up at Maccas McGraths Hill just before 9.00 am, I expected to perhaps be the only person crazy enough to want to ride over the mountains with the dodgy weather forecast and colourful rain radar. Good news, Ian Frost from the Central Coast was already there having had a quick run down the M1.

 

Over the course of the next 50 minutes we had a total of 17 riders (including 2 virgins from the Hills Ulysses - Quentin and Ivor) join the group, all eager to see how the day might play out. The weather was actually extremely kind with perhaps only a few mm falling over us for the duration.

 

At 10.00 we all headed off via the Grasslands, then Bells Line of Road, arriving at the Bilpin rest area opposite the Public School for morning tea. We then continued on Bells Line of Road, past the weigh station and on to Lithgow for a regroup coming into town. Right onto the Great Western Highway for around 5ks and took the exit ramp to Castlereagh Hwy and a left just 5 minutes later at Main Street to ride through Wallerawang township, over the rail bridge and onto PJ Hall Park adjacent to Lake Wallace. I had planned to lead a scenic ride around lake edge but decided with the damp gravel road it might be best to make it entirely voluntary. Well Peter W and about 5 others took on that challenge without incident, giving it an “easy“ rating.

 

Most of us returned via the Bells Line of Road and had a quick rest stop at the Bilpin Fruit Bowl. The worst of the rain (for me) was at 3.45pm just 10 minutes before arriving back home in The Hills.

 

To summarise, it was an enjoyable ride day and the weather far far kinder than all expectations. Thank you Peter Walshaw for being TEC.

 

Cheers, Glenn Diehm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bathurst Ride 13th Mar 2025

-
Image
  The ride this week was to Mount Panorama, Bathurst. It was amazing after all the inclement weather over the past week, rain, storms and cyclones that we were blessed with a nice day. The Good Lord must have been looking over us all because it was a perfect day for a long ride. Well, my bike says 372 kms round trip arriving home before   5 o’clock .   We had 15 bikes leave Maccas at McGraths Hill at the earlier starting time of  9.30am .  Except for a short stop for roadworks and a slow moving little white Kia that kept flashing its brake lights at every shadow it was a good run along the Bells Line of Road with the temperature at 22 degrees at Bilpin.  After morning tea at the Service Centre at Bowenfels Kim and Peter left to return home because of other commitments but we picked up two more riders Rob and Andy who were caught up in heavy traffic and missed the earlier start meeting point.  It was  12.45pm  by the time we arrived at the top...
Read more

Ulysses Motorcycle Social Club

-
Image
  Welcome to the Northern Beaches Branch of Ulysses. To contact the group and subscribe or unsubscribe to our newsletter please use the Contact Form available under the pull down menu. To comment on items you will need to be signed in using a google or gmail account. You can add our ride calendar into your calendar by subscribing to it from your calendar app
Read more

Bulga Ride 19th June 2025

-
  Thursday 19th June, my turn as ride leader   Destination - Bulga - via the Putty Rd    The morning was pretty cold - 7 to 8 degrees on my bikes temperature display, some dew on the grass alongside the road edge, but Dry road, sun trying to appear, and no wind.   We had a starting crew of 14 riders at Macca's Mcgraths Hill, no virgins, a couple of riders from the Hills group. For the ride we had 3 riders on Kawasaki 1000, watch out BMW riders.   The Bulga ride is head north, stopping at Greygums for smoko, then onto Bulga. Minor road works near the end of the twist bits - repairing road subsidence It was a good fast ride - nil corner making and TEC nearly always in sight.   At Bulga, we lunched in the parked, servo closed no fuel, later we were joined by 3 riders who had started from Berowra, they arrived as we left, one of those riders was Danny - there to celebrate his 28th birthday - but as Ste...
Read more

Frazer Beach Ride 8th December 2022

-
Image
  Thank you to the weather gods for a near perfect summer riding day. Not too hot, no rain and a breeze to keep us comfortable in all the gear.   We had two new Dave’s riding with us today so they were given an obligatory dose of the clap. One on a VStrom and the other on a Harley but sadly only one made it to morning tea. We also lost the dromosagnosian Danny at the same time 🙁   So here’s the thing, apparently the new corner marking system, whilst very effective, needs a couple more tweaks to go with the TEC not waiting for latecomers to refuel.   The Leader has an obligation to pick a spot for the corner marker that is safe, gives enough warning to the ride group AND    is very visible. The Marker has an obligation to mark the corner as and where requested, with indicator and arm signals to the ride group and not randomly decide to turn into the corner, stop in the shade where they are hard to see, side on so ...
Read more

Dungog Loop Ride 17th November 2022

-
  It was a beautiful sunny if cool day for a ride to Dungog. I picked up my trusty GS from Procycles, Hornsby after they had replaced my front and rear wheels following an incident with a giant pothole on the Hume Highway south of Seymour on 13th October. I haven’t ridden since then so I was itching to go. The only problem with the bike was the left turn indicator didn’t work so I would have to revert to the old hand signals. There were sixteen other riders at the Seven-Eleven Berowra also itching to go including a virgin, Jeremy, on a hotted up Royal Enfield. He proudly told us that he drags it and did the quarter mile in 13.7 seconds hitting a speed of 101 mph. So I told him he might JUST be able to keep up with us. The route I planned was Old road to Calga then continue on same road to Somersby where we would take the M1 to the Wyong exit. After that it was The Triangle, Hue Hue road, Wyee road, Freemans Drive to Freemans Water Hole for morning tea. We set off on...
Read more