Today’s ride to St Albans was scheduled to be led by Mitch (Hollywood) Chapman, but he’d forgotten it was his wife’s birthday!! I drew the short straw so quickly mapped out a route that was well known to most of us and required little corner marking. About 20 riders turned up at Berowra for a ride and we were blessed with lovely weather. At last, some sunshine!! Rod (not May) very kindly had volunteered to go TEC, so off we headed up the Old Road, only to get as far as Brooklyn before being slowed by a small (x8 pax) group of vintage bikes travelling at vintage speeds… ie SLOW!! I took the executive decision to wait it out behind them to Calga as I thought getting 20 faster bikes past 8 slow bikes fraught with hazard. Anyway once we got to Calga the road opened up and we managed to leave them behind   Morning tea was at The Hub at Mangrove Mountain bathed in glorious sunshine. Then on to Wisemans, the asphalt team took the two ferries to get to St Albans whereas the dirty bo...

  Today’s ride to Currarong. I didn’t expect anyone to turn up due to the forecast, it was a bit misty at departure so we all agreed to head straight to the Robertson Pie Shop as it was looking bleak along the coast. The ride to Robbo was brisk and dry up the mountain. Pies were hot and weather mild. Post pies it still looked dodgy along the coast so we scratched Currarong and went for a skid around the southern highlands. All good all the way home, never trust a forecaster.   Cheers Rod

Venue: Kemp’s Creek Sporting and Bowling Club, Elizabeth Drive, Kemps Creek. Branches attending: Eastern Creek, St. George, Northern Beaches, Wollondilly, Nepean and Hills District. There was no set agenda. Tim Shelton reiterated the reason for the meeting was to develop ideas to increase the membership of the Ulysses Club. Each attendee introduced themselves and spoke of ideas their branch had to encourage membership: (1) More combined branch rides as they were seen as being very successful. More than seventy riders to the last ride to Grey Gums Café. St. George branch are going to organise the next combined branch ride to Woronora Dam, date to be decided. (2) Create a combined ride calendar Facebook page where the Ride Co-ordinators from each branch can add their rides. It would have ‘public’ access but only the ride co-ordinators would have admin rights. (3) Combined branch overnighter to Mudgee on June long week-end. Nepean branch to organise. (4) There is still a strong p...

 Due to a delay in getting the recce done, we had two trips to Finchley Lookout this week. After a couple of days of showers G&J drove up in the Rav4 on Friday to check the roads, and accordingly revised the route for the Saturday - avoiding the badly pot-holed Murrays Run.  Just a small band of four keen dirt road riders started off from St Ives at 8am Saturday. Very light traffic and a sunny and cool run over Galston Gorge to the Glenorie Bakery for a coffee stop. Then down along to Wisemans Ferry, crossed over and turned left onto the Settlers Road. Only about 8kms of wet, shady, slippery dirt was enough of a thrill for MTC who then headed to Wisemans via Webbs Creek and then back through Galston. Three kept on, and the next 35kms of dirt was smooth and dry and pretty good up along the St Albans Common and up the Mogo hill to Bucketty where we joined the tar towards Wollombi for a bit before another left turn onto Yango Creek Road.  Up and over to Wollombi Creek an...

  The first detail to report was that we didn’t go to Taralga!! It’s a 3 hour plus ride to Taralga from McGraths Hill with a long motorway ride home, so I took an Executive decision and decided we’d go somewhere else, Oberon being the choice. Thursday dawned overcast with a forecast of showers for most of the day, nonetheless 13 riders gathered at Maccas McGraths Hill on 13 th April, so my thinking was that luck would probably be against us. In fact, it was quite the opposite, the only rain (light showers) I got all day was after arvo tea at Bilpin for about 10 minutes, so sometimes luck can be on your side!!   Anyways, after the briefing we headed out through the grass farms and out over the mountains via Bells Line, a pretty good run with only a couple of caravans to pass, and morning tea was at the South Bowenfels Shell servo. Rod suggested a different route from there to Oberon, via Tarana, O’Connell and Mayfield Rd, and led us into Oberon. I suspect the road name had some...

 A fine and sunny day with a just touch of autumn cool. Seven UNB riders assembled at St Ives for chat and coffee. Welcome back to Jim D and Mark K, both of whom we haven't seen for a good while. Also arrived MTC, John W, John O, Bonny and yours truly. Departed 9.05am via Galston Gorge to Round Corner, then Annangrove Rd. to a stop at World Burger at Vineyard. More coffees, peel a layer off, top up the tank. On again at 10.30 for a short leg to Gov. Macquarie Park at Windsor to meet with the assembled group of around 60 or 70 bikes and riders from the Sydney Basin Ulysses Branches.  This is the third Combined Multi-Branch ride organised by the group, and numbers are swelling, with more riders coming from the Central Coast down the Putty Road today to meet with us at Grey Gums Cafe.  Welcome and ride info given by Eastern Creek Branch Pres.Tim Shelton, then off we went up the Putty Road. Bikes in front and behind as far as you could see, very nice, all well behaved and kee...

    What a fantastic day to go for a ride! Sunshine, no rain, temps perfect for riding and a great destination, not too close but not too far. This was obviously the consensus as 24 riders turned up at Berowra ready to go plus one who was a wee bit tardy – even MTC was early for the briefing. The destination as scheduled was Poppet Head Park, Kitchener. An interesting place with all the appropriate services for us older folk, a bit of an outlook over the dam and a display of the history on an interpretative plaque. One virgin, Peter, who claimed not to be, was given the appropriate recognition because I hadn’t seen him on a ride before. The briefing over, we set off at a good pace for our morning tea stop at Jerrys Café Kulnura. After a short regroup at Calga we headed on to one of our favourite stops where we met Mr and Mrs Plod quietly having their morning tea as well. They assured us that they weren’t planning to follow us to the next rendezvous point at Wollombi, so we fel...

  The original plan was to go to the Gardens of Stone but due to slips, the road is closed until further notice. The alternative destination chosen was to Glen Alice in the Capertee Valley. 11 Riders set out but only 10 made it to the start as one rider missed the turnoff for McGrath and ended up at Wentworth Falls! Another rider left us after smoko in Lithgow leaving 10 riders to head to Glen Alice which is 77 kms of great roads from Lithgow. Our lunch destination was at 'From the Paddock' , a farm market and cafe located on a farm in Glen Alice. They kindly allowed us to consume our own food at their tables, despite us only buying a few coffees. As some rider put on the rain gear at Lithgow, we naturally did not get any rain. The weather went from 22 degrees and cloudy in Lithgow to 29 degrees and sunny in Glen Alice. We dodged the rain all day and arrived home dry after another great day of riding. Thanks to our TEC Mark, nobody got lost. Peter Walshaw

 Eight brave souls congregated at St. Ives on a warm Saturday morning. Our fearless leader Geoff "Staysharp" Wiltshire was laid low by the dreaded lurgy so I became the default leader. Luckily Geoff had provided me with all the info I needed for the ride so it was just a matter of following his instructions. We were to meet Russ Pennell at the BP in Kurmond on Bells Line of Road. John Warner offered to be TEC on his Can-Am although he warned me he was having a slight problem with it where it restricted him to 100 kph. That was no problem as I didn't intend to go faster than that with my eleven points. We headed off slightly late along Mona Vale road to the M2, then on to the Abbott Road exit and  Old Windsor Road to Windsor, Turf Farms and Kurmond. Russ wasn't there at the BP so I wondered if he'd given up on us as we were a bit late. No problems as he turned up a couple of minutes later. We headed off straight away via Bell, Darling Causeway and right on to Hartl...

  The forecast for today’s ride was into the high 30’s ‘Out West’ so we always knew that it would be a hot one!  And the forecast proved to be spot on.   It was a balmy 25 by the time ‘side stands up’ came around  at 10.00am  at Heathcote Maccas.  It was a day destined to go smoothly with Laurent S rolling in a full 10 mins before our planned departure, that being 9 mins 50 secs earlier than his usual arrival time.  Laurent joined the already assembled crew of four (Peter W, Jim C, Dave S and myself as Ride Leader).   During the ride briefing, I dutifully announced that I was a ‘Virgin’ Ride Leader (this being my first time out front) which led to them all giving me the welcoming ‘virgin clap’, which seems to be a particularly unfortunate thing to give any poor virgin.  They all laughed and promised to treat me gently and with respect, even the day after!  And to their word, they did.  Some even sent flowers!   With a group of ...

  GONBUG Ride Report: Saturday 11 March 2023 All the Way Way to Woy Woy Fish n Chips then Pottering Along to Patonga . With no “victims” waiting at St Ives, and knowing that Suitcase would meet me at Pie in The Sky (PITS) at Cowan, I left just after 9 am, and all two of us twisted along the Old Road (not too many hoons), turned off at the Gosford exit, twisted downhill towards Gosford, then right turn along Brisbane Waters Drive, stopping at a fancy Yacht Club (future coffee stop?) then gooned past SPIKE MILLIGAN Pedestrian Bridge, and stopped in Woy Woy for FISH n CHIPS, complete with seagulls and pelicans, and excellent Op Shop (purchased 4 bright socks) then finally escaped through Umina Shopping Centre and turned onto Ettalong Drive then Patonga Drive past the turnoff to   Pearl Beach and down to Patonga – almost no traffic. Easy bike parking, plenty of customers at the Pub/Fish Shop. (Luckily we had already eaten). So, dessert (choc paddle pops) across at the Ferry ...

  RIDE REPORT ORANGE OVERNIGHTER Maccas McGraths Hill was the place to be  on Wednesday morning  as 24 riders gathered for  a 9.30am  departure to cross The Great Dividing Range to escape the heat in Sydney for the cooler Central tablelands of New South Wales. As it turned out the weather was ideal for motorcycling. Coming into Lithgow I received a phone call from TEC Peter Whiteside to say he was on the side of the road with John Randall at Mount Wilson with a GS that had sprung a leak in the fuel line and were waiting on BMW Roadside Assistance. In the meantime, our group continued onto Oliver’s at Bowenfels for morning tea. Before leaving for Newbridge we had to deploy our backup TEC, Peter Walshaw. The corner marking actually started from Lithgow and as Peter Walshaw pointed out to me that perhaps in the future we designate two TEC’s because in the case of the first TEC getting delayed with a breakdown it could happen that you could have a string of corner m...

  Yesterday’s ride report to Kiama. This was to be my first ride for 2023. I leapt out of bed earlier than usual  (more like a slow roll to the edge of the bed enabling my legs the use of gravity to travel to the floor) as I needed to check the battery / tyres etc. Duly went through my morning rituals. I won’t go into the details but suffice to say being mustard gassed may have been a more pleasant experience!  The weather looked good and BOM indicated no rain. Pulled on my riding jeans and waddled off to brekkie. It then proceeded to piss down with rain so waddled back upstairs cursing BOM and put my other riding pants on. Normally, I meet up with my riding mate Dangerous Davis but he decided not to go south of the border rather he would join the PADPAL bunch and then go and mow his lawns at his Wangi Wangi ranch. So much for mates! Arriving at Heathcote I find I am the only one there. I am starting to get a complex and wonder whether everyone is gunna do the PADPAL. Is...

Even though the Thursday Riders plan to ride to Kiama down south this week, I broke the rules and suggested we head off in the same direction, just a few days beforehand Never On Sunday is the usual rule for Royal National Park riding, but the rough plan was to avoid the “Royal” until the return journey – and that worked., at least for this little black duck. As usual, I insisted we take the scenic route via Cahill Expressway across the Harbour Bridge and across Botany Bay, past Miranda Fair, for coffee and art-stop at Hazlehurst Gallery – the Art Express portraits  by high school students from many diverse schools were stunning,  made the coffee taste extra smooth. Took the Motorway south, with easy traffic down Mt Keira, by-passing Seacliff Bridge, Wollongong and Albion Park -  fairly scenic,  just watch out for Speed Controls and Learner Drivers, and enjoy the rich farmland vistas and simply look out for the twisty off- lane to Bombo, under a rail bridge and over ...

  Broke via the Putty Ride Report It started with a phone call but this time even I have to admit Alan’s excuse was pretty good i.e. there’s a tree fallen on my house and it’s blocking my driveway. So suddenly I was leading the ride with less than 24 hours to prepare! Step 1 was to check the route given the appalling weather over the previous 24 hours. So I checked with Grey Gums but they didn’t know about the road but did know that their “facilities” would be offline on the morning of the ride “if the plumber made it through”. Mmmmm that could be problematic, did they have any suggestions and just like that I had the number of the Halfway Roadhouse which is a 10mins ride further up the Putty from Windsor. So a call to Dave (owner) resulted in a change of ride plan with morning tea at the Halfway Roadhouse. Step 2 was to check the return route and all looked AOK and PITS was open. Step 3 (which didn’t happen) should’ve been to check my route to Windsor. If I had got to that I would...

 Mad dogs, a Czech and an Irishman turned up at St. Ives on a scorching hot Saturday. Everybody else wimped out!!!  With no more riders appearing we set off at a leisurely pace into the furnace via Mona Vale Road, M2, M7 and Great Western Highway arriving at Sydney Motorsports Park at around 10am. As there were no signs indicating there was an event on at the park we rode right past the entrance and only realising we had missed it when Bondi appeared on the horizon!!! When we eventually found the right entrance we parked our trusty steeds and proceeded to get into our "cool" gear of shorts and sandals. The temperature was around 35C but we were ready for it with bottles of water, sunscreen and appropriate head gear.  The things you see when you haven't got a gun!!! We wandered past the various pits taking the odd photo:   RC30!!!! All you knowledgeable bikers can work out what they are ... apart from all being Hondas. There was a gold coin donation for entry. Not man...

  Ride report Sugarloaf Mountain On a great morning with a promise of 30+Celsius, 20ish riders gathered at Berowra and Michael, the son of Marty Ambrosious was welcomed, to a short ride with the group and one newby  was given 'the clap'. The route to Sugarloaf mountain was via. Kulnura, Yarramalong, Dooralong, Cooranbong, , Brunkerville and Mulbring. Several riders seemed so impressed with 'Jerrys' at Kulnura, they did not seem to want to leave!! As usual, the run down Bumble Hill raised  enthusiasm but the ride started 'thinning out' to the point where, when I arrived at Mulbring, we had run out of 'corner markers' so the last corner marker and myself had a break for a few minutes until Dave Sipple plus friend arrived but he did nor recognise me so flew straight past!  All was good and Andy and myself reached Sugarloaf which has attained a height of 412 metres and of course you are all aware that the name is derived from Brazil where sugar for export wa...

  This was my first time as ride leader on a Thursday Riders scheduled ride and turning up at Maccas McGraths Hill just before   9.00 am , I expected to perhaps be the only person crazy enough to want to ride over the mountains with the dodgy weather forecast and colourful rain radar. Good news, Ian Frost from the Central Coast was already there having had a quick run down the M1.   Over the course of the next 50 minutes we had a total of 17 riders (including 2 virgins from the Hills Ulysses - Quentin and Ivor) join the group, all eager to see how the day might play out. The weather was actually extremely kind with perhaps only a few mm falling over us for the duration.   At 10.00 we all headed off via the Grasslands, then Bells Line of Road, arriving at the Bilpin rest area opposite the Public School for morning tea. We then continued on Bells Line of Road, past the weigh station and on to Lithgow for a regroup coming into town. Right onto the Great Western Highway ...

Six riders and two-and-a-half*-in-a-tin-top started out from St Ives on Sunday 5th at around 9.15am. Another fine sunny day with just a hint of autumn and some possible afternoon showers forecast. Coffee and chat at a very busy PITS, and here we collected Erica and Mr Suitcase. Discussions on ride route determined that Suitcase should lead, and so we departed via Old Highway, Peats Ridge, Bumble Hill, and a comfort stop at the Triangle. Then up Hue Hue Road to Wyee, across Rutleys Rd and up the Old Pacific Highway through Swansea to Belmont. The 16 Foot Skiff Club was busy but we managed to snare a nice table by the windows and enjoyed our lunch and dissertations. Departed the Club around 1.45pm and retraced our route back to Doyalson then mostly eased out onto the Expressway. A brisk ride ensued with a following breeze back to the Brooklyn Bridge where I waved ta-ta and opted for the Old Road and a more leisurely pace. Home by 4pm with big clouds building in the south-west, but no sho...

My mother had a pillion on a Harley when she was 17. Went to the Dam up in the Watagan Range, got home with virtue intact but decided she would not be able to trust herself on a Harley Ride again. Met my dad years later & had 2 babies during WW2? Maybe thought her clock was ticking too fast! Fast forward to Sandra, another WW2 child who pillioned at 14 & wanted to relive that for 80th birthday. Her kids found GONBUC & Alan B's details to arrange fantasy ride on a suitable carriage such as behind Spyder Man. Arrangement involved donation to UCARF only. Too many laws around taking paying passengers for me. A little help needed to throw the leg on & off to Estuary for coffee. Perfect spot at Brooklyn overlooking Hawkesbury River. Onwards to Terrigal Skillion via Old Hwy, another dreaded double demerits weekend, lunch with views of The Haven. Very humid day so straight back on Freeway. Excellent days riding with appreciative company. If you have friends needing to “thro...