As is the norm of late the PADPAL was to be split between 3 riders to “spread the load” but as is also becoming “normal” it didn’t quite pan out that way. 10 riders assembled at Berowra including a couple of very infrequent faces. It was suggested and seconded that a Wollombi Loop was in order and in short order we had Al#1 for the Kulnura leg, Al#2 for the Millfield leg and I volunteered for the “Long” leg back to the Pie. In the meanwhile a veritable procession of jam sandwiches was passing by the 7-11 prompting some musing about WTF was going on. Anyway, Al#1, one the the relative newbies, assured us he knew where Jerry’s was at Kulnura so we set off up the old road behind him with confidence albeit a slightly reticent start. This was due to one of our number positioning at the front but then not following the leader out so’s to not have to corner mark! All was going well right up to Mount White when Al#1 turned right into the Road Warriors Cafe followed closely by one of our ...

View from Cowra lookout Stanwell Tops   There had been lots of interest in this year’s Way Out West ride from the time of my first posting of our 3-day ride adventure. I relied on the well-used ride itinerary, 2 nights in Cowra, 1 dinner at the Imperial, 1 dinner at the Bowlo, but where do I take a bunch of well healed, smart as, I’ve been everywhere man, ride group so they will have had a good ride, good roads and visit a place of interest. The Dish – did that in 2021, The Roundhouse Turntable – did that in 2023, what’s the next place of interest – that I haven’t been to nor 80% of the fellow Tourists – Temora – Aviation Museum, sounds good and they offer, you guessed it, Seniors concession. So plan made, now just hope like hell that it isn’t fucking freezing; Riders love nothing better that complaining when you as ride leader deliver miserable conditions to ride in, one thing that reduces complaints is they will have paid for 2 nights accommodation, so they are kind’a forced to c...

 It was a beautiful sunny morning if a bit chilly. Six hardy GONBUC members (including ride leader) turned up at St. Ives ready for a days spectacular riding. The plan was to ride to the 7-Eleven Mobil Service station at Berowra to pick up Monsieur Valise aka Suitcase. When we got there, there were mucho motorcycles and it took a while to find Suitcase. After waiting for Captain Andy to finish washing and polishing his new bike  at the fuel pump we set off for the Berowra Ferry. There was no traffic on the road down to the ferry so we had an uninterrupted trip except for a small tree lying on the side of the road. We managed to avoid said tree (including MTC) and arrived at the ferry in good time to board. The trip from the Berowra ferry to Wisemans ferry went without a hitch. We stopped at the Wisemans Ferry Park Reserve and purchased coffee and other delicacies from the Kiosk for our morning tea.  Our merry band of brothers and MTC Much analysing of the previous day's w...

  After one of our riders had a “pleasant conversation” with a truck driver who wanted to demonstrate how close you can park a truck loaded with timber pallets to a motorbike in the Berowra 7-Eleven (see pic below) 10 riders tracked north to Jerry’s for morning tea. The earlier ride briefing must have been exceptionally well delivered as everyone arrived safely at Jerry’s without the traditional regroup at Galga and no corner marking along the way. This got me thinking that today’s bunch must have been in the higher I.Q. Range of riders so I negated the need for corner marking all together for the rest of the trip to Rathmines. Off down Yarramalong Valley, past the Triangle and a left turn into Hue Hue, all going well. Another left into Jillaby Road and onto Dooralong and then right into Mandalong Rd. Still no corner marking…what possibly could go wrong! Strangely the 10 strong team kept a very tight formation, turns out it was the fear of getting separated and lost in the wilderne...

Heathcote  - Robertson - Thirlmere - Third Time Lucky!   The weather was just fantastic today. 14deg when we set out from Heathcote; 9deg at Robertson and then a high of 18deg heading back into Sydney. Sunny. Crisp. And not a drop of rain. Or mist. Or fog. Just a fantastic day for a ride!   So . . . with the weather report done with, here's the ride report!   Seven of us set out from Macca's, Heathcote for what was our (my!) third attempt at this ride. That's three years of trying to get this ride done! Seven of us on BMWs (3  x GS's, 1 x XR, 1 x RT), a Yamaha and a KTM. On the two previous occasions we lost people due to poor navigation (or, more accurately, poor following of the ride leader's instructions!) or due to seriously wet weather that had us abandon the ride mid-way through.   But not this time! Today, we enjoyed success!   We started with something different today! We back-tracked 5kms back up the Highway and took Farnell Ave into the RNP, ...

Arriving just before the 9.00 departure I went to fill up. Looking through the bushes  I couldn’t see anyone else and my immediate thought was oh no, wrong day.  In the car park I found two riders, Geoff W and John W. Good start. Alan B arrived saying Andy R should be joining us, but after waiting it seemed he most likely had work calling.  Geoff the ride leader, said the plan was Pitt Town, via Pitt Town road to Wiseman’s for coffee and to meet Suitcase. I suggested the old road, Peats Ridge, Mangrove Mountain, and Spencer to Wiseman’s Ferry and on to Glenorie bakery for lunch. Geoff immediately agreed and then enthusiastically pronounced me the new ride leader.   I should have seen that one coming.  Wiseman’s Ferry road along the Hawkesbury has improved with less pot holes now after recent improvements, but gravel corners still in some parts.  Chilly riding in the shadows along the river side, so feeling encouraged when the temp rose to 12°, only to ...

  It was a very simple ride destination, a route we have done many times. In my briefest of ride briefings (less than 20 seconds) I said morning tea at Braithwaite Park and lunch on the beach at CHB, that’s it, let’s go.   The group of 24 riders were all very excited about a new destination in Braithwaite Park.   Braithwaite Park is the proper name of The Triangle (as we all call it), my trickery was to get the group focus on the ride and corner marking to the mysterious new destination, my plan worked perfectly, I copped a bit over morning tea, but I usually cop a bit anyhow.   Also, I had done the maths, we had more riders than corners, instantly I thought this is an opportunity for some free flowing riding as I wont run out of corner markers and we didn’t, it was a quick ride today. It all went well, Peter of the Braces kept everyone in check as TEC.   The return ride was also a good ride led by Peter Walshaw, back along Dog Trap road to the Old Highway, we m...

  With a lot of rain the previous few days - the sun rose to mixed conditions. The rain stopped momentarily on my ride to the meeting point at Berowra - but the the road was still very wet   As we gathered at the 7-11, then we watched 1,2 then 3 & 4 Candy cars pass us.   With one setting up about 200 meters down the road from us.   So the ride was going to be at the speed limit or slower with the wet conditions and usual debri, potholes, road works and Highway patrol cars to negotiate past.   The route to Wollombi is quite complicated - I counted a total of 2 corners to negotiate with a stop at Jerry's for morning tea.   There were 11 of us, all old faces that had done the route many times so we dispensed with corner marking.   Apart from the wet conditions - the most notable occurrence was seeing 3 Highway patrol cars at Cowan, we think discussing their lack of pay rise.   Jerry's was closed - but the ablutions block was open ...

  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...

  John Osborne is in Melbourne and asked me if I would lead this ride so that’s why I was up front. It was a beautiful late autumn day sunny with clear skies and cool. Eighteen riders fronted for this ride to Mt Sugarloaf lookout including one virgin, Tom. He is one of Rod’s rough mates from Mosman. He rides a BMW Grand “Captain” America cruiser with all the extras. He was excused from his kindergarten class today to go riding with the big boys. At 49 he lowered the average age of the group to 79.9. Frostie was there and warned us of some potholes on the Yarramalong road. He wasn’t riding with us just dropped in on his way to the mountains. I took off and within a kilometre a tyre pressure warning light appeared on my dash. My rear RDC ( Reifen Druck Control) was showing 29 psi so I stopped at Mt Colah to have a look at the back tyre. It looked just fine so I mounted my trusty steed as the mob had just caught up with me. Half an hour later the warning light had disappeared and my r...

  On a cool may morning, 13 eager riders gathered at Maccas McGraths Hill hoping for a 'good run'. All went well until we reached Grey Gums, who had promised to open for us but cancelled as all staff went to a funeral! The email requesting everyone to bring morning tea appears to be still hiding in my computer, I am sure it was not 'operator error', but then again?? Lunch was taken at Denman before we progressed to the Bylong Valley via the short cut. The correct road was selected but the road name was different  in Google and Garmin Sat. Nav. 6! After checking  that we were on the correct road with  the incorrect road name, we continued! The outbound run from Denman took in the Bylong Valley up to the Lui turnoff, where we were all treated to a dazzling display of solar power, with the sun low in the sky, then straight ahead until Mudgee with riding speed only a guess!! Dinner was at the Club Mudgee which appears to have dispensed with the old name. Day two had an 8...