Hello Thursday Riders   Chapter 1 – 21st August, 2025.   The 21st August ride had been cancelled due to inclement weather. A decision was taken to transfer the ride to the Kyushu Japanese Restaurant, Neutral Bay, famous for its bento box, and hold a formal meeting to discuss important matters of policy. These notes represent Minutes of that meeting. Membership was drawn from a cross section of constitutional interests, to ensure a diversity of views.   Present: Chairman Rod (Roquet) May, representing the Bega Valley Cheese Eaters; Peter Walshaw (North Korean Hoteliers Resistance Movement); Wayne Rees (Aotearoa Advancement Society, Fielding Branch); Tony James (Teals) and Yours Truly Truly, a person known to be incapable of lying.   Welcome to Country: Sato-san visited the table and did his Welcome to Country. Tony James, as a devout Teal, was shocked by this and moved a call to order whilst he phoned Zali (MP Stegall) to determine whether a Japanese Welcome to...

  Great forecast for the 3 days. 21 riders in all. One virgin, Dave on a Multistrata. 2 newcomers to riding the Putty, Rod GS & Owen from Kiama.   Jim Cormack checked over my planning on Monday before the ride. Walcha & other Tourist bureaus were phoned to check the roads were open. What could possibly go wrong?   Putty is in good condition. I waved some faster riders thru. I activated Waze over lunch at Maccas in Singleton where Frank from Tamworth was waiting to join us. Waze said the road from Singleton to Buckets way via Dungog was closed & diverted us via New England Hway & Pacific Hway to join Bucketts Way. That’s the only road I didn’t check was open. One demerit for Tony.   38km short of Gloucester I hit a pot hole & blew the front tyre & butterflied the rim. Two demerits for Tony. Erica took me, & Austin took my bag, to Gloucester. Iron Horse Rescue was called & 2 hrs later Jim, Alan & me (on Rod’s borrowed GS) returned to...

A sunny, but brisk morning greeted four riders for the possibly pot-hole strewn ride to Wiseman’s ferry. Garry on his Spyder, and Bruce on his Shadow cruiser, were joined at the Pie by suitcase on the now classic Suzuki Gladius. After coffee at the ‘Ulysses’ table with Paulette, Edwin, Tim, Ken etc, it was back to Berowra and then straight down to the Berowra Ferry, across the water and up the hill to Wylds Rd, and the Northern Road to Wiseman’s Ferry. An uneventful, and fortunately quiet ride on a saturday morning. The original destination was the Wiseman’s Ferry Bowling Club, and after all the mucking around with the driving license electronic entrance procedure, we walked into the bistro to be told that the kitchen was undergoing renovations, and there was only pies at the bar! But a very chatty and pleasant local woman laid out all our alternative options for us?   And so it was decided to head down the hill to the Ferry Crossing cafe for hamburgers in the park, as they were re...

  10 or so riders gathered at Berowra looking for a ride whilst the rest of the mob were off gallivanting in Gloucester. One, yours truly, went to the loo and upon his return found himself elected ride leader. The destination was set on Broke (clearly no-one had looked at the ride calendar) and when challenged on where morning tea would be I blurted out Wollombi without thinking. The group rolled out a few minutes before  10am , cos we can so nur 🥳The ride up to Wollombi was brisk but uneventful after successfully navigating the booze bus set up on the outskirts of Berowra and the weather was glorious. I even remembered to slow down for the speed cameras so my portrait wasn’t blurred 🤣 Whilst sat around the benches in Slacks Park riders raised the issue of the leg to Broke being too short so I proposed extending it to Pokolbin Park. Everybody present agreed so I thought it was dusted buy a couple of riders then said they were going home via the Putty so would stop at Br...

 It was a beautiful sunny day as four of us met at the St. Ives starting point. Terry Fewell sent his apologies as he had a flat battery (so did his scooter). We headed off down Mona Vale road to the turn-off to McCarrs Creek Road. Taking this turn Bruce (our new member) thought his rough mate from Elanora might be waiting for us there but there was no sign. On we went down McCarrs Creek road to the turn-off for West Head and Akuna Bay where the Park Entry booth is. Suitcase had to fork out $12 for the pleasure of making the trip to West Head and Akuna Bay. The lookout at West Head gave us spectacular views up and down Pittwater and out to sea. Bruce, John, Suitcase and Alan - the usual suspects!! After admiring the views we jumped on our trusty steeds and headed to the Akuna Bay cafe for coffee and refreshments. Much discussion on the state of the world and the clown in the Oval Office took place in the pleasant sunshine. Then we disbursed in all directions to find our way home. V...

  Today we had ten riders ready to brave the weather on the relatively short ride. As it turned out no rain, dry roads (Mostly) and even some blue sky on the way there.     Morning tea at Mt Tomah where there is still road works. We joined the back of the cars being lead through the works and bit by bit were able to get past them.   The small amount of dirt to the lookout posed no problems for anyone, there was no wind and plenty of seating. Once there It was a pleasant and uneventful day out.    The rain held off until around Windsor.   Not much more to be said really, except, as always great company.   Andrew

  I have just had a phone call from Geoff's wife Joan to say that Geoff passed away this afternoon. He'd had a mini stroke on Wednesday and was on life support. The family decided to turn off that support today as there was no hope of recovery. There will be a private family funeral but Joan intends to have a memorial celebration in approximately three weeks when we can all celebrate/share our experiences of Geoff's fascinating and interesting life. He was an enthusiastic supporter and tireless worker for the Northern Beaches Branch of the Ulysses Club. I have many happy memories of riding to all sorts of strange places with him. He will be sorely missed. Regards Alan Bateman

  The day started quite wet - but the forecast for Wollombi and Kitchener looked dry   12 Riders gathered at Berowra - some with wet weather gear on already   I briefed the riders  - it would be morning tea at Jerry's - there we could re-assess the weather conditions and change the route, or call it a day   Before we left several riders put on wet weather gear while some others took theirs off??   As we left there was a little bit of drizzle which soon cleared to a cloudy but fine day with mostly dry roads   No incidents  - all good   Then we arrived a Jerry's, I have never seen it before but there were no other bikes there - just us   A light rain started as we had coffee or a snack   After some consultation with the finest weather minds the group had to offer, it was decided that we would head to Wisemans Ferry seeking dry roads.   Great plan - roads were dry and clear of traffic, that allowed us to could trave...