Put this in your diary for every last Sunday of the month – this is the sort of venue which people of all ages can enjoy – trains, boats, cars and planes and horses and food. Three of us departed St Ives with a plan –  1. Ride the Comenarra Parkway from end-to-end  soaking up the autumn colours. 2. Wind down into Tree Tops Adventure Park just past Koala Park – a beautiful native forest with plant nursery and café and toilets and lovely walking paths.. 3. THEN head out to the Model Park at Luddenham, avoiding Motorways. Well – that worked pretty well, and we were greeted by Flappn Jack Warner on his 3-wheeler – hadn’t ridden for a few weeks – his steed, in protest, almost didn’t start!! Did I say it was a perfect autumn day. PerfectO. Where to go first? Always a decision – wouldn’t want to miss maybe some spills on the dirt-track, or some magnificent tumble turns up at the flight – hill. Food was the winner – a volunteer-run canteen with lower than Woolworths prices, all ...

  Wouldn’t ya just know it, we get beautiful riding weather and it’s ANZAC Day Double Demerits. Still 7 riders turned up to make the best of a bad job. 5 were well known to the group, one (Elliot) was newish and the last (Bonny) had been itching to get on a Thursday Ride for over 2 years and a public holiday on a Thursday was the perfect opportunity.   The route for today’s PADPAL was driven by the need to get off the main roads as soon as possible and to avoid any back roads that actually led anywhere the hordes of “long weekenders” might want to go. Judging by the constant stream of biker groups heading north through Berowra we weren’t going to be alone on these roads either. The other comments worth repeating was made by everyone upon arriving at the 7-11 being firstly “ I wish the traffic was like this every day” and secondly “good luck with getting anyone to lead today”! So the group decision was taken to share the lead and to largely retrace the steps of last weeks PADPA...

  Hello Thursday Riders, Breaking news, very first net zero ride achieved on the North Coast Ride, April 2024. We had a broad spectrum of riders, pillions and non-specifics (they/them/their) on the ride, 8 all identifying as females (1 riding, 5 pillions, 1 DIDO, and Audrey the black Griffon who identifies as a Princess) and 14 riders. Once we assembled on the McGraths Hill summit which happens to be in the car park of Maccas, I did the roll call, I knew that once we picked up Stephen Davies and Frank Henry en route we would tick all the boxes on Thursday Riders Diversity Target 2025, well ahead of our target date of 2025, I was a little overcome in achieving this milestone. Part of Thursday Riders E.S.G. policy encompasses “diversity and inclusion”, I have been positively engaged in a counselling course specifically focused on D&I to address my “subconscious bias” and to strive for best practice ESG scores. The North Coast ride was an opportunity to put into practice my “new s...

  3 riders gathered at Berowra on an overcast deary day The roads were wet and the clouds ominous Paul donned his wets and led to Jerry's for Morning Tea I put on my thermal layer as it was cold, as Rob took the lead is to Millfield via Wollombi   Lunch at the Central and I led us home, via  Freemans waterhole, Hue Hue, to Yarramalong , up Bumble hill and the old road to The Pie. Great ride, yes I know we do this ride regularly, but great roads and the destination is really unimportant, when you are riding, the road in front of you is the only thing that matters Shared, lead, TEC and pack duties Enjoyable day I did 352k, those that stayed home, missed a good days riding Peter (Tracer) Take Care Peter

9 riders arrived at Maccas Heathcote by  9:30 ,  more than I had expected  National Park closed at Heathcote station entrance, so that ruled out that route, Headed off to go along the beaches via Lawrence Hargraves drive, Stanwell Tops and over the Sea Bridge, very scenic, but a slow ride, still very impressive scenery.  Headed up Mt Keira, dappled sunlight into the bends and gravel made it interesting, planned to also go up Mt Kembla, but missed the turn, so onto the M1 to the Jamberoo exit, TEC Peter followed the wrong bikes and rang to say he would catch up at Morning tea, which was at the Ken Irvine Oval in Jamberoo, Nice oval/park great toilets, quite and peaceful. Finally Peter arrived as we were contemplating leaving. One rider left after morning tea , down to 8 Ride leading is a lot more difficult than just enjoying the ride, one eye on the other riders, one on the road and where we were going. Just using headset with Andy for the 2 nd  time, great will ...

  What a forecast! Would anyone turn up? After a very slow trip to McGraths Hill TJ and I arrived to see some anxious riders waiting for their leader, and from their greeting I deduced that they weren’t expecting me to turn up. After a hurried briefing and a sensibly quick change into wets 8 of us headed off with TJ at the tail. It didn’t start raining until almost Mt Tomah, then a steady drizzle almost all the way to our planned morning tea stop at Oliver’s South Bowenfels. We only had 1 mutiny along the way but picked up one at Kurmond Rd so still 8 riders. By now we weren’t just wet, we were cold and wet. TEC stopped into the Lithgow shops for some extra layers. Then the big debate over morning tea, to abandon or to modify. One decided to abandon and returned the way we came. Now we were 7. Oberon was ditched in favour of a shorter ride via Hampton. Riding down Hampton Rd became interesting as a pea souper of a fog descended giving extremely poor visibility. We turned left into ...