Gloucester Glide. Sunny day 30 degree forecast & 11 starters from McGraths hill with morning tea at Gray Gums. After half an hour my bike was behaving unpredictably in the corners. I had a flat rear tyre. Dave Sipple “topped me up” twice with is battery operated compressor to get me to Singleton. Kim continued as ride leader to Maccas at Singleton & onto Gloucester via Dungog.  I can recommend the Singleton Bike Shop on the main road. They fitted a set of Pirelli Angle GTs. When they removed the front the bearings just fell onto the ground. They couldn’t believe I got there safely.  TEC Rob held my hand over a pub lunch. Danny lost the main group at Maccas & the 3 of us had a very pleasant ride arriving in time for the cocktail hour. We stayed at the Gloucester Country Club Motel & ate at the club. The rooms & food were quite OK & very reasonably priced.  We had a meeting to plan the return ride over dinner & John Randal was elected ride...

  This was Not the Gloucester Ride, for the pussies that couldn’t put up with a strange night away with “gentlemen” at Gloucester.   We gathered, six of us, at Berowra, as scheduled. I asked Andy, who I was sure would be ride leader, if we could please go via Wollombi because it was in my interest. I was immediately catapulted into the job of ride leader, to the concern of everyone else other than Andy. Paul Margereson demanded, out of the blue, for me to describe the sea level rise in Sydney Harbour. I didn’t know. I didn’t have my trusty Dogge’s “Guide to Sea Level Rises” (Penguin, 2023) with me, although I suggested at Nuku’alofa the rise was 1.76cm and that was enough to worry us. Shortly after, Paul was washed off the Old Pacific Highway by an errant tidal wave, which goes to show….   Off we dawdled, down the Old Highway, me in the lead, the five tail-end Charlies close behind. We assiduously obeyed the speed limits, but for another road. The weather was magnificent,...

We had 20 plus riders yesterday, the destination was to my neighbours’ farm (Tarana) and then the Tarana Pub for lunch, the Bells Line of Road is now clear of road works and we had a quick run to Bowenfels for smoko before heading to the farm.   The farm was a great experience, apart from the usual cows and sheep they breed, emu, ostrich, bison, buffalo, deer, horse and miniature horse, donkey and camels, hand feeding the camels was a lot of fun, the bison were a bit grumpy. It seems the ride group enjoyed the farm. Lots of pics on our Facebook page.   The Tarana Pub was a classic small town country pub, food was good and great atmosphere, I can recommend it.   The road to Tarana has a few more potholes than usual, we found a new road back to Lithgow with no potholes which I will add to a ride plan in the future.   Thanks, Mark McMahon for TEC duties on the ride, it all went to plan.   Below is a “one man ride report” from last week, Peter Greenwood was on his m...

  As predicted, with many riders away and the weather abominable , it was a no show on Thursday .     I left Freshwater in light but constant rain , but once past the airport the roads became dry .    Arrived at Heathcote Maccas  9.40 am  , no takers by 10.15 , so as I scouted some roads down south in case I get to lead a ride that way in the future .    The road from the top of Mt Kiera to Mt Kembla was very pleasant and worth another look .    Regards  Peter Greenwood

  Today’s ride departed Berowra under clear sunny skies and “near warm” temperatures. 20 plus riders tracked north to Jerry’s for morning tea, first time I’ve pulled up there and not one other bike to be seen, the place was deserted. With a large contingent arriving in rapid succession we quickly took over the available parking slots and picnic tables for a relaxed morning tea break. Shortly thereafter a single (but colourful) Chrysler 360C quietly slid into the parking area, not a problem, then another colourful BMW 5 Series arrived and nuzzled beside the 360, both looking very dapper and just as everyone returned to the general Thursday conversation of the day we had another colourful BMW 5 Series snuggle up to the other two colourful cars. After finishing morning tea and having two male colourful cars and one female colourful car (thinking 3 is a crowd) it was deemed best to depart the venue and track back towards Yarramalong Valley towards our destination before any territorial...

  The ride today was to be led by John Randall to Tallowa Dam, well that wasn't going to happen. Tallowa Dam Road, Kangaroo Valley remains closed so John put together another ride closer to home but instead of one dam there were two, however John was notified of his hand surgery which coincided with the ride he had spent considerable time putting together. Filling in for John I was quietly confident about this ride being a good one and if it goes well it could make a good annual ride for the Ride Calendar. Looking up as I left home there was a lot of doom and gloom in the sky on this cold winter morning with low lying dark clouds above. Rod messaged me to say it was raining on the coast but he was heading off to meet up at Heathcote Maccas regardless in the knowledge that there probably won't be many on the ride today.  Evidently the rain was more out to sea but straddling the Eastern Suburbs and north to Palm Beach but for me leaving from the Hills area it...