It was a sunny (18 degrees) and funny ride today, the designated ride leader Max was nowhere to be seen, its alleged that he is somewhere in the UK. I decided to lead at the last minute to Tallowa Dam, its near Kangaroo Valley, simple! We were joined by  3 riders from St  George club, we had maybe 15 riders in total. It was all going well as we descended down Mt Kembla, only problem was I had described the route as per descending down Mt Kiera in my ride briefing, I think that’s the way it went, anyhow we lost a few riders en route to Robbo pie shop for morning tea. We all arrived, and the temperature was good for Robbo, pies and coffee…….. excellent. There was a rumour that Tallowa Dam was closed as well as a contradicting rumour that it was now open, so off we went, it was closed. Jerry from St George suggested the pub at Kangaroo Valley, this seemed like a good idea, until we discovered that we weren’t welcome as we had picnic lunches. I sent Wayne off to look for a ...

 There were four hardy members of the NBUC at St. Ives, three in tintops and one on an actual motorbike!!! The weather forecast was pretty bad. One tintop came because he had broken a fetlock, one tintop came because she was waiting for parts for her trusty stead and one tintop came because he was the ride leader and was hoping nobody would be mad enough to come on a motorbike on such a lousy day. The four hardy members had coffee and chatted happily until it was time to go home!!! Thank you Margaret (tintop 1), Geoff (tintop 2) and Peter (motorbike) for keeping me company. Cheers Alan

  Ride Report – Saturday 15 June “Chilly Willy” Ride to Samuel Gee Pies at Balaclava The forecast heavy cloud and cold air mass rolled through on Wednesday evening as Joan and I lingered in the 35 degree bliss of the Moree Artesian Bore Baths. This was our sixth and final artesian pool on our five-day “Artesian Drive” round the northern NSW artesian belt. The following (Thursday) morning was bleary and cold as we began to head homewards. As we drove along in comfort in our nice warm car I recalled that on the coming Saturday (today) I was due to ride to Balaclava. If you’re wondering, Balaclava is the little village on the run into Mittagong from the Hume Freeway, and home to the famous Samuel Gee Pies. But at around 1000m. at this time of year Mittagong can be, shall we say, brisk. Brisk I don’t mind so much; that’s the point of the “Chilly Willy” ride thing, but soaking wet and brisk I’m not really so keen on, so I wasn’t really expecting a huge roll-up at St Ives this mornin...

  Twenty one is a good number.  On reaching 21 you get the key to your home, when playing Blackjack that’s the number you want and last Thursday 21 riders relieved me of my virginity as ride leader…..no clap. On that fateful morning I arrived with my trusty ball of wool, and not so trusty GPS Mai-Lin from China.  After assembling my 21 member fan club I delivered a precise route plan.  Turn left out of the car park, go past ‘Pie in the Sky’, go down Bumble Hill, through Yarramalong Valley and stop for a smoko at the triangle.  All of that was achieved with a minimum of fuss thanks to Mark who volunteered to be Tail End Charlie. After a bit of mental calisthenics in preparation for the discussion of the wold’s problems at the final destination, should it be reached, we mounted again.  Taking the Hue Hue Road, then to “Wyee  Road, Pacific Highway, Kanangra Road and Summerland Road, voila we arrived in Summerland Point. The discussion around the tables af...

  6th June ride report. Well who would’ve thunk it! Every day this week the weather predictions for Thursday were so dire that even an unnamed wet weather rider was questioning whether it should even go ahead. With up to 50mm of rain predicted on the forecast the night before the ride I knew desperate measures were called for by the ride leader aka me. I mentally reached out to my contact “upstairs” asking if anything could be done to which the answer came “Sure, no guarantees for the entire day of course, but it’ll cost you”. How much I asked, the response “a gonad from one of your Thursday Riders Committee”! “Deal” says I without hesitation and lo and behold the morning dawned blue and dry. I should point out to our illustrious committee that this debt is payable by  midnight Sunday  so expect a collection visit 😜 In planning today’s ride I took into account the possibility of rain so looked for venue options that had shelter and were open. Amazingly there are a lot of...

Thursday Ride to Chifley Dam. This week the Thursday Riders met at Maccas McGraths Hill. It was a chilly but sunny autumn morning. There were 17 starters and no new riders to the group. It was a nice ride along Bells Line of Road however there were three lots of road works where we had to wait for a Pilot Escort to continue. To avoid some traffic lights in Lithgow where the group usually gets split up, we turned left into Eskbank Street but missed turning right into Bent Street to make our way across to the Great Western Hwy via the Lithgow Small Arms Factory and Museum, however the corner marking kept the group together so we arrived at Bowenfels Olivers and Shell Service Centre together. Morning tea was had outdoors in front of Olivers. I was happy I got a small cappuccino and the best Lamington for only five bucks at the Shell Foodery. After morning tea four riders left the group to make their way back to attend to other things. The ride from Bowenfels took us to Tarana and past the...