Southern NSW 5 day Ride 10-14th Nov 2025

 The ride last week gradually became known as the NSW & VIC alpine ride, it was a compilation of Thursday Riders committee’s favourite roads, naturally some of those are the most iconic motorcycling roads in Australia, like the Alpine Way NSW, Snowy Mountains Highway NSW, Great Alpine Road VIC. It was 4 nights/5 days. 

 

Those favourites roads, in order were:

Oberon to Crookwell. Gundagai to Tumut. Tumut to Tumbarumba. Tallangatta to Omeo (colloq’ Mitta Mitta road). Omeo to Mount Hotham (colloq Dinner Plain). Mt Hotham to Bright. Whitfield to Mansfield (colloq Tolmie road). Beechworth to Khancoban. Khancoban to Thredbo. Thredbo to Jindabyne. Jindabyne to Dalgety. Nimmitabel to Bemboka (colloq Brown Mountain). Bemboka to Candelo. Tathra to Bermagui. Batemans Bay to Braidwood (Kings Highway).

 

We had 25 riders, two were first timers on an away ride, Ken Burke and Kevin Hardy, both were older than most of us and both were on the smallest bikes, they handled to ride no problem and need to be acknowledged. The riding conditions were challenging.

 

A pre departure sneaky bike inspection was conducted by me and another, it revealed that all the bikes looked fine, particularly tyres etc. We deemed the best presented bike: Steve Sampson’s electric blue RT1250. Dave Sipple’s Toffee Apple Red Goldwing a close second. A surprise disappointment was Hollywood’s (colloq Mr Sheen) Moto Guzzi, his protest was dismissed by the committee and he finished well down the order, Royal Sydney joining fee has clearly impacted on his finances as well as his time for bike prep.

 

Naturally with 25 bikes, twenty three old blokes and two young chicks the odds of something going wrong were very high. We had two bikes roll over in dirt carparks, a worn-out rear tyre so bad the rider had to leave the ride and limp off to Albury, Geoff Briggs hair dryer didn’t work at Dinner Plain, he complained to Helmut the manager who ignored him, he then complained to me that Helmut ignored his complaint. Frosty lost his keys inside his room, the previous guest had taken the spare key, so Frosty stayed in his room looking for the key all evening whilst munching on the small biscuits that you get in hotel rooms. A prank by Richo claiming to have found Frosty’s key lured him out of his room, it was well after dinner by this time. Frosty was in room 9, Richo 6, an upside down picture of Richo’s key was enough to suck Frosty in.

 

The highlight and most memorable part of the trip was riding up to Dinner Plain (accommodation village of Mt Hotham) from Omeo, it happened to be Remembrance Day. It was already cold at Omeo, gradually the temperature dropped, by the time we got near to the top of the mountain it was minus -3 at Dinner Plain, we had already encountered freezing rain, sleet, mini hail and then snow. It couldn’t get any worse so I decided to miss the turn off to our hotel at Dinner Plain and go the extra 10 minutes to the summit, some peeled off to the hotel, 14 others followed me to the top where it was minus -5 and a full on blizzard, I know that road and its as wide as a runway, being late afternoon the snow was melting as soon as it hit the road so safe to ride on, however the trees and plants were covered in snow, as was our riding group, it looked spectacular. Something I will remember on Remembrance Day forever. A very brief stop and back down we went to our hotel at Dinner Plain. Visibility was poor, maybe 50 metres, the group followed me like ducklings and we all arrived safely.

 

4 cm fell during the storm, I was very concerned about taking the group down the mountain the next morning, I convened an impromptu committee meeting and told them my plan was to go back the way we came as it is less steep and big bends as opposed to tight twisties. Black ice in either direction was my main concern.

 

The next morning the sun was out like nothing had happened, it was minus -3 which meant black ice on the road for sure. Helmut hotel manager spooked everyone with his dire comments. I announced a plan at the ride briefing, we ride to the summit, the group waits there, I asked for a volunteer to accompany me on a recce down to the first few shaded corners, thank you Frank Henry for your support when everyone else were shitting themselves.

 

At the morning briefing 7 riders shitting themselves headed back to Omeo and wouldn’t even come up to the summit as per the plan, my thoughts were if the first few corners are X, the subsequent corners will be X -minus, gradually improving as we descend.

The remainder of our group fell for my plan and off we went.

 

Frank and I took off, there was black ice but only in patches, not across the entire road, so we were able to navigate around it, we went back and picked up the group and off we went without incident, I was very relieved when everyone arrived at Bright.

 

I would like to thank Peter of the Braces who supported our group as TEC, totally unsupported by me, just a quick “we are going this way Pete”, each morning, exchanged mobile numbers and left him to it. Also, Steve Sampson who filled in as TEC on the last day and a half.

 

Thank you to all who attended, I appreciated your kind words. Thanks Stephen Davies who made two last night speeches, about an hour apart, maybe he forgot about the first one.

 

Thank you to the guys on the ride committee who added their bit to the route, in particular Frosty.

I had a lot of fun, until next time.

 

Cheers

Rod