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...

  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 ...