Thursday morning at Maccas McGraths Hill and filling in for John R whose GS is off the road wai6ng for parts to repair a fuel line issue. Today’s ride is going to be a bit of a zig zagging kind of a ride, something different for the Thursday Riders I’m thinking. Anyhow, it’s 9.10am and the first bike rolls in and it’s Paul M on his GS. By 9.50am we have 15 riders and it’s 6me for a briefing but first we welcome two newbies, Ivor riding his KTM 390 and Peter riding his Hayabusa. The weather appeared overcast at the start, but the forecast was a rather op6mis6c one, no rain, with the sun to come out reaching temperatures of around 35 degrees mid-aQernoon. The briefing suggested a change to the normal exit from Maccas rather than traversing the turf farms we were hiSng the DriQ Way a very straight sec6on; you could be forgiven for thinking you were somewhere between Cobar and Broken Hill. As we were leaving, Andrew T on his Tenere 700 arrives just in 6me to join the ride. We now have 16 r...

9:00 am Sunday 18 February 2024 Sunday is never the best day for a ride going South but the cookie crumbled that way, so I turned up and so did six other riders!   Three of them admitted they already ridden there recently, but they had travelled inside highly-tolled tunnels!  THIS ride would be different, and there could be a test at the end, to check they had been enjoying a well-loved area - a great ride out of Sydney. We followed Ring Road 3 all the way to Blakehurst, right-turn and crossed Tom Ugly’s Bridge, then before reaching Royal National Park, stopped for coffee, lunch supplies and to re-inflate a flat front tyre (mine) – good timing. Order restored, soon joined the Main Highway, past the Tram Museum on our right, then left into Royal National Park, ( no fee if not stopping) enjoying all the “twisties “   stopping briefly for the view south (prior to overcrowded Bald Hill Lookout ), then up to the highway leading to M1 and by-passing all the small town...

I woke up this morning. I thought “that’s a good start”.   I stumbled to the window and looked out over the lake. It was overcast. It was not raining. I thought “ummmm”. I dressed, walked outside, looked at the sky and again thought “ummmm”. It was that sort of day.   There was a WhatsApp message from Rod M. You know Rod, aka “You can take the boy out of the country…” Rod. He’s riding. There was commitment in his message. I had to turn up; never mind the weather.  This was the first sensible use of our WhatsApp site I have seen.   So astride the trusty GS, I dawdled down the M1 under the dank grey skies. It was dry. It was overcast. I turned off the M1 toward Peats Ridge, so that I could ride in and out of the trees and to be out of freeway traffic. The grey skies turned to a gentle wet mist…a drizzle not dissimilar to that around a large waterfall. But you’re not really interested in all that because we’re not even on the ride yet!   At Berowra, 12 good souls t...

 Today's ride to the MMM Club at Central Mangrove was a prime example of what happens when yours truly the Ride Leader pikes out.  Muddle and indecision prevailed, and my abject apologies to those who ventured forth despite the persistent band of showers Huey had positioned above the Northern Beaches at 8am. THE RIDE LEADER ALWAYS TURNS UP. That's THE RULE. So. Wet gear on, I leave my warm dry garage at Allambie Heights and head off.  St Ives was also dreary and drizzly, so my pre-ride coffee stop with MTC and John W was occupied watching the rain falling, fielding texts and suggesting you stay at home today, and then deciding I'd do just that.  Nevertheless Suitcase had already departed sunny Cucumber and arrived at PITS warm and dry and with justification accused me of piking. And then John O texts me from warm dry Mangrove Mountain saying he was sitting at a big empty dinner table so where were we? I grovel. I examine my metaphorical navel and consider that I must...

  After a lot of hot and humid weather for much of January I was looking forward to having a ride today with lower temps and less humidity, and that’s just what we got!! The weather conditions were ideal for a ride with cloud cover keeping the temperature in the low twenties. Yay!! Maybe the forecast was why we had one of the largest number of riders, thirty plus, assemble at Berowra for the ride?     Unfortunately, the timing for my overdue tyre replacement yesterday wasn’t good given I was to lead today’s ride. So I didn’t slow the ride up, Rod very kindly agreed to lead us for the first half to give my tyres a bit of time to scuff up. It was a good run up the Old Road, down Bumble Hill and up Yarramolong Valley to The Triangle for morning tea.   Thereafter we headed up Hue Hue Rd and onto Dicksons Rd and through Mandalong. I had indicated at the briefing we would turn onto Jilliby Rd but as both roads end up at the same place it didn’t matter and we got to try a n...

  We had 15 bikes and one pillion leave from Maccas McGraths Hill  on Wednesday morning for the overnight ride to Denman. A heavy shower of rain poured down on us as we rode out of Windsor across the grasslands towards Freemans Reach. We got a bit wet but soon dried out in the 23 degrees and 98 percent humidity. The ride through to Macccas at Lithgow was pleasant if not invigorating. We went past the blue tree on the Glen Davis Road. Interesting, I’m not sure if everyone noticed the blue tree set back off the road in the paddock and in case you don’t know the significance of this tree it is part of the “Are you Ok” program that evolved from a funeral. In 2018, Jayden took his own life. The story of Jayden’s blue tree was told at his funeral, and from there his friends, family and strangers have started a social movement to raise awareness of mental health issues and to encourage people to have conversations with their loved ones in an endeavour to help others. Rylstone was a w...