Sunday, September 29, 2024

Overnight Adventure to Uralla

Bruce was headed to Qld on a two week ride with a mate and had invited us to ride with him for as far as we want to go. For me it was a overnighter only and the other also did their own thing.

We met at Pie in the Sky on the old pacific hwy. I arrived about 7:45 for a quick breakfast then head off. D'oh it doesn't open until 8am so we wait and are first in line. A coffee and sausage roll hit the spot before we get under way.



Leaving our breakfast spot behind we get on the old road. Its so slow now with 60kmh speed limits, we come upon a bunch of 20 push-bike riders riding uphill into a bend two abreast taking up the whole road and they are doing about 25 km/h. Talk about a rolling road block, hold everyone up why don't you. Single file so other road users can get past safely you f#cking twats.

We ride up through Kulnura where it starts sprinkling. We pull in an I put on my wet weather top as I can't see it easing up anytime soon. I also put my phone away and do away with any navigation on my screen. Last time I rode in the rain with my phone plugged in it got water in the charge port and turned off, not going to do that again.

We ride out through Jerrys Plains and back roads to Denman in light rain. From here no one knew where they were going to get to Aberdeen. So I put my phone back on and started self navigating. If your going to lead a ride at least know where you're going. There was lots of turns in the next 30 minutes and would have been totally lost without gps navigation. I think a proper GPS setup would be much better idea than trying to use the phone. In wet conditions the phone it pretty much a fail a proper bike GPS is always on and waterproof.

We stop in Gundy at the pub for lunch where we meet up with Doug. He wasn't riding today as he was living nearby in Scone and drove along with us in the ute.


I had about 4 litres of fuel left and the next place was Nundle 80kms away. I was hoping we could make it. We found out that there was fuel in Nundle so I put 2 litres in just incase. I shouldn't have worried, when I filled up in Nundle I had 3.9 litres left, Plenty. It was sprinkling most of the way so didn't stop to take any photos. We head out of Nundle north along river road past Chifley Dam. When we get to the end we head left and up the main highway to Uralla and the Top Pub. It was getting late and I didnt want to be out on dusk riding amongst skippys. It was beer o'clock. The beer and food at Uralla Top Pub was as good as ever.

Next morning after breakfast the other guys went their own way, I was last to leave not exactly sure which way I was going to go. I head down back roads to Kentucky and onto the Oxley Highway and headed across to Walcha to fuel up. From Walcha I decide I'd head back down to Nundle and see from there, either do the 20 creek crossings or head back over Crawney pass and through Timor

The weather today was much better with blue sky's, but I saw lots of large puddles along the roadside so we must have got a fair amount of rain overnight. First stop was at Chifley Dam before heading into Nundle. I decide against the 20 creek crossing solo with a lot of overnight rain and take Crawney Rd.


The Crawney rd over Crawney pass to Timor is spectacular riding, mostly gravel for about 70 kms, but easy riding gravel with one water crossing on a concrete causeway.


I stopped at the top of crawney pass for a photo before descending the other side. Lots of pools of water on the side of the road. 


I come around a corner to see an echidna walking along the road. I pull over and grab my phone to get a quick photo of this little fella before he disappears.


The road follows the Isis river for a while with spectacular scenery along the way.



After a while the road opens up with long sweeping corners and straights over the hillsides.

Not far after Gundy I come upon the Allen Bridge Rd. I found this in the Sydney Adventure bike riders forum on facebook. Its a back road into Singleton so I decide to check it out.


The first 10km was narrow tar before it turned to dirt. The road wound its way up high into prime farming land following several ridgelines with spectacular views over the surrounding countryside. One thing I wasn't expecting as I didn't look much at the route prior but there was about 20 creek crossings and they were all concrete causeways. Some of them looked mossy and slippery, half of them were empty but I didn't have any moments. Steady throttle and through to the otherside. One of them had a 90° bend in the middle of the crossing. Top ride, will do this one again.


I got into Singleton at about 3pm and fueled up and headed for the Putty rd and home. It was monday afternoon and the Putty rd was completely deserted. I think I saw 1 car on the entire length of the road so had an awesome run, but did see 2 skippys on the road that were very close so took it easy most of the way home. Another good ride.

Monday, August 12, 2024

Majors Creek Adventure Ride

Another South Coast adventure ride was on the cards. It was meant to happen a month or two earlier but half of the people came down with covid so it was cancelled. But here we are in the middle of winter ready to freeze our asses off for your entertainment.

We rode down friday arvo and stayed with our gracious hosts Brett & Marjo, naturally a few too many drinks occured. Meeting up just south of Nowra the next morning we picked up our tour guide extraordinaire Dave and the immaculate GPS of wayfinding.

Brett assured Scotty we'd start out on some easy gravel riding. Just like tar road, without the tar he said. Nek minute, we are descending a steep rutted road with a big drop off a bolder, just like a road, without the tar or the road for that matter. I wasn't too thrilled with this and thought to myself if we have to turn around and go back up I probably won't get back out again. But it was only 100m of hard stuff before going back to normal gravel road. We then stopped in Milton for the obligatory bakery stop. It wouldn't be a real bike ride without one.


Scotty decided to head down the coast and do the Araluen road. It's one I'd very much like to do and I almost went with him. I was wondering how difficult this ride might become but thought I'd stick with it and see what happens, but unlike last time I was going to bail out if the riding got too tough. I'm here for a social ride and a good time, not for a punish and hurt myself and break my bike.

We took the Clyde Ridge road up into the great dividing range, which then turned into Mares Hill Rd. There was one slippery hill climb along here that had me slipping about with a bit of trepidation, but managed to get up without incident. This then turned on to the Western Distributor. It was fairly well maintain gravel riding. I was enjoying this section. Then I saw Stewie coming back my way, I slowed then saw a side track go down into a gully then into a steep rutted hill. Dave was at the top. I took a look at it and thought, fuck that. I'll continue on the road I'm on, no need to put myself at that much risk on a 250kg adventure bike whilst they are all riding enduro bikes 100kg lighter. Stewie asked me what I thought, based off that comment I knew he didn't want to ride it either. I said I'm not riding up that and I'll continue on or turn back. Dave looked at the GPS and said the road we are on goes to the same place the other road was going to go anyway. So we continued on.

A short distance later I saw a road closed sign then Dave came riding back the other way saying the bridge is out. F*ck it, I thought now they are going to want me to ride up the difficult hill.

Brett stopped and I stopped next to him and then saw some steam followed by what looked like coolant leaking under his bike. KTM down......


It was 12:23 when I took this photo above, here in Dingo Piss Creek. Brett started striping it down to try and find the leak. I was looking on the right, Brett looked to the left. Then Stu says 'hey the coolant is leaking out the back'. WTF?

Yep the radiator sprung a leak on the back on the second row from the top. Looks like it split the core. Stewie says no problem I've got this Knead it stick. I've had it for about 20 years, now it will come in useful. Yeah about as useful as a boat anchor. It was as hard as a rock. So Dave took off for Batemans Bay to find a radiator repair kit. And we waited.........


And waited,,,,,,,,,, 

We waited some more............

Brett took Stewie's Tuareg for a bit of a spin up the road for a few minutes.


We ate some frogs and waited a bit longer. I could see the shadows getting longer and the sun getting lower. About 2 o'clock I said did anyone see this bridge out? Everyone said no it was Dave. Well we got nothing better to do, let's go take a look. I thought it strange the sign said road closed but nothing to actually block the road. So we walked down the hill the 500m or so and yep the bridge was definitely out, it was completely washed away by floods.



But as luck would have it there was a newly graded track down into each side of the river and it looked crossable. We saw bike tracks in the mud near the bottom. I would be much happier riding through the river than attempting the hill climb of doom. I moved aside some of the larger rocks on the descent into the river to make it easier. You can see the remains of the bridge in the photo on the right hand side behind the tree.


We walked back up to the bikes and did some more waiting and faffing around. Ate a few more frogs. Then we heard a bike approaching quickly. Dave was back and he wasn't mucking about. It was about 3:15pm by now. He had the required radiator JB weld mixture. Brett got straight to it. It was taking longer than anticipated to cure as it was probably only about 15°C out today.


Finally starting the bike up and adding some fluids we got underway about 3:50pm, 2 and a half hours later. Well it is an adventure ride right. So lucky that the JB weld fixed the leak.

So down we went into the river crossing. It's steeper than the photo makes it look, the photo flattens everything out. I was pretty nervous for sure, especially watching Stu struggle and nearly tip jamming his leg into the water. My turn came and the first bit was the hardest then I managed it across and up the steep incline. Wooh that was an adrenaline rush.


Everyone made it across without an incident and we kept going, this would now shorten the day considerably, especially when I thought we would have to ride back and around. That would have been a huge day ending in darkness.


There were a couple more diversions on the Western Explorer with another road closure. We followed this small one lane road along for some time before we eventually popped out in the middle of the Kings Highway. I was happy to see this as I knew we would soon be at our accomodation for the night. The sun was about to set in the next 30 minutes and we are about 30 minutes out, we arrived in Majors Creek just after sunset. Perfect as I'd seen a few roo's in the paddocks. All up only 135km for the day.


Majors Creek is 18kms south of Braidwood. She's a rustic little pub that's for sure, but the locals were friendly enough. It was going to be around -1°C overnight tonight. There were many beers partaken. The night ended in a bottle of fireball........


Sunday morning was cold and frosty, and it was also hung over, no wait..... that was me. Went out the check out the bike. The bike looked like it had been through the ringer, no wait that was me again. The bike was just a little dusty, no....... me again. The bike was fine. Shouldn't have drunk all that Fireball last night I think.


A quick stroll up the street, the pub has a rail carriage full of beds that they hire out for $500 per night. Looking through the window I'd say it way over priced. Better to camp across the street for free. We rode into Braidwood for Fuel and the bakery. I was hoping for bacon & eggs but it was a pie instead. Yeah I probably should have left and went home with Scotty.

We rode back out through Majors Creek and Wallace's Gap Rd to Captains Flat Rd. Along here somewhere Dave turned into the Tallaganda Forest. I was going ok, until he decided to turn down a side track. I looked at the erosion mounds filled with water. I could see the last one was just a bog hole, I watched Stu go through nearly coming unstuck. I don't want to ride down there. The area looks wet, could get worse. Some encouragement from Brett against my better judgement and down the hill I went into the bog hole and almost stacked it. Went along a little more climbing back up came to a wet sand pit on the trail, nearly stacked it in that that about 100m later came to the main road we were just on, FFS.

The others rode across and up some small overgrown track that looked like it hadn't had traffic in months. I'm done. Punting the Africa through bog holes isn't my idea of a good time, and with a hangover even less so. I told Brett I'd meet them in Braidwood at lunch time and I'd ride my own ride.

I quite enjoyed the main roads, through the forest. I came out in Captains Flat a little while later and went out the Queanbeyan Rd, but decided to turn around and go back. On the Captains flat road I saw snow on the side of the road, had to stop for photos or it didn't happen. 


I had to stop for a break along the roadside here. The countryside up here in the highlands is always spectacular. I always love riding through the snowy mountains area. It was a nice day for it, pity I wasn't really feeling it today. 




I stopped in Braidwood for fuel and the bakery for some lunch, but no pie. I got a salad roll. Yeah I think I'm not well. I waited awhile then decided I'd head up to Nerriga, so messaged Brett again.
I took the dirt out to Nerriga, it's a quite enjoyable ride on an empty country road. I received a message from Brett they were in Braidwood, and would meet me at Nerriga.


Pity I was full from that salad roll about an hour ago, there was a mobile italian pizza van at the Nerriga pub. That would have went nice with my beer. I'd never stopped here before and it's actually a great little pub. Very welcoming and the fire roaring inside was inviting.

That beer didn't get rid of my headache...but it sure tasted good.


The others arrived about a minute after I finished my beer so we kept on riding. The temp dropped to around 11°C. We split in our seperate directions at Nowra and Stu and I rode home via the coast in the dark. 


Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Love my RDO's

Gotta love an RDO. Gives me a chance to abandon the family and household duties so I can go for a ride and improve my mental health whilst the family sit around wondering who's going to clean up the mess they've made. Man you wouldn't believe how much of a mess 3 lazy girls can make, sorry I digress getting off topic already.

So for my RDO I had a ride set with no real plan in mind and it was just going to be Nigel no friends again today. I thought I might ride up to Wollombi for a beer at the pub. I headed out at 8:30am via Berowra Waters Ferry heading to the Old Pacific Highway. The heated grips were working a treat today, it was cold.



I pulled up at Pie in the Sky and thought that Doug was here. Same bike different rider. I'd skipped breakfast because I wanted to try a pie and coffee so came here.


mmmm pie

It was very quiet here this morning, 2 bikes and a bunch of push bike riders but it was a monday and it was bitterly cold at 8°C, I think it only warmed up to about 15°C just after lunch. I ride down the hill on the old rd with the entire road to myself. On the way to Wollombi I see the sign for Wisemans Ferry, it's about the same distance and will have less backtracking to get home later so I quickly divert and take that road instead. I feel like I need a beer at the pub for lunch.


I stopped to take a photo by the river and noticed a sign across the road that said Mill Creek campground, so I thought I'd go check it out. All the facilities looked like they were brand new. The bridge led to a 11km walking track. Not for this little black duck though.



Then it was on to the ferry for my second ferry crossing of the day. I was just in time too and I boarded just before they closed the gate.

I had a bit of a look around the park along the river front before moving on to the pub for a counterlunch and beer. I just about had the place to myself.

Monday lunch special $15 for fish and chips washed down with a pint. Happy days.




Sunday, June 9, 2024

R&G Tank Gripz

I've had a lot of trouble riding the Africa Off road standing up riding up hills trying to grip the tank with my legs. It's a slippery smooth surface and you can't grab on and just slide back. I saw on the internet somewhere someone put some pads on their tank for better grip. I thought that's exactly what I need.

I saw they had some R&G tank grips at Bikebiz and duly put in an order. They arrived after 7 days, wow 4 days for them to process the order when they were in stock and 3 days for Aus Post to actually send them. I would have picked them up, but I was going to be in the city all week for a trade show.

Installation was easy, I just had to spend an hour washing the bike first to get it clean. A little heat from a hairdryer and they went on nicely. At least they don't look out of place on the Black African. Now just need a ride to test them out.









Tuesday, June 4, 2024

ASBK Round 2 SMSP - Under lights

The second ASBK round run under lights was held at Sydney Motorsport Park in march, yes this post is a bit late. I'd applied for my media pass a bit late this year too but it still managed to come in time  the racing started on friday around noon and best bit was I had an RDO on friday so I could spend the entire day out at the track, winning. This will be a photo heavy post of race bikes. If that's not your thing scroll on by. 


First stop was to sign on at the media centre. Walking out I saw this bike on the level 1 walkway, I've never seen a bike up here before. 


We got the same track access map as last year, yeah there's less access at ASBK than on a normal St George Motorcycle round. They made the inside of turn 2 a no go zone last year, which is completely dumb. If a motorcycle crashes at turn 2 it will go to the outside, whilst we are standing about 20m on the inside. That makes no sense. 

I was a bit peeved with the no go zone over the tunnel and had to pull a MA official aside to ask the question. I had to get him to draw it on the plan as basically what they said is you can't be over the bit where the tunnel is. Well that's common sense, as thats on the outside of the fence and there's a big fall down to the road below and you can't shoot bikes there anyway. I think sometimes they overthink the safety bit. Between 3 & 4 is completely safe when on the inside of the fence and behind the concrete barrier.



I had a problem though, my 70-200mm F2.8 lense stabilisation had stopped working a while back and I haven't got it fixed yet. I noticed during the last St George night rounds I was missing shots I would normally get. I've read from other pro's that stabilisation should be switched off during panning shots. All I can say to that is, I call bullshit. The number of keepers I got now the stabilisation isn't working has dropped noticeably. That's not to say I couldn't get any good photos, I just had to take many more than I normally would and I missed a lot that I wouldn't normally miss. Yeah equipment does matter despite what everyone says. Tradies don't turn up with shit tools because they know it will take then ten times as long and the job won't turn out as good.

That said I know the track well at night and I know where I can and can't get good shots from with the reach of this lense. 

Archie McDonald#69 crests the tunnel

The night format means racing is on Friday and Saturday, not your typical 3 day Fri-Sun ASBK event. All of the free practice and qualifying sessions are done on Friday with the majority of the major classes racing on saturday. 

The friday was actually very quite, very few people at the track probably due to people having to work, but after it got dark the crowd built up considerably. Saturday was the opposite of Friday. There were thousands of people there on Saturday and again well into the night.


Friday 600 Supersport opening free practise

Glenn Allerton#14 @ Turn 1 Free practise

2023 ASBK Champion Troy Herfoss

Cru Halliday#65

Paris Hardwick#72

Harrison Voight#29

One thing I've noticed in the last 2-3 years attending these race events is how many young and upcoming really talented riders we have coming through the ranks. Senna Agius comes to mind, he is now riding in Moto2 for the Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP team. Harris Voight pictured above is now overseas in the European FIM Moto2 championship. 

Pillion Rides

Ex ASBK champ Steve Martin and Troy Corser take unsuspecting punters on pillion rides between sessions and scare the living daylights out of them for fun. I got a few shots of Steve and Troy coming out of turn 15. The bikes are fitted with a handlebar screwed into the fuel tank cap so the passenger can hold on without falling off.




Troy is renowned for his signature one leg wheelstands, but that's a bit hard to do with a passenger so he settled for length of the main straight wheelies.


SUPERBIKE MASTERS

Part of ASBK is the Superbikes Masters class, which are the superbikes from yesteryear. This consists of period 5 & 6 models spanning from 1973 to 1990, an era which produced some of the most groundbreaking 2 and 4 stroke grand prix production bikes of all time.

Alex Phillis#20

Scott Webster#76

Garry McCoy#24

2 x World Superbike Champion Troy Corser and MotoGP winner Garry McCoy both participated in this class and the racing was fantastic. Both of them had big crashes over the weekend, making me think they over ride the limits of the older machines.

    
Robert Dunston#57

Aron Bennett#3

Jack Passfield#89


Troy Corser#11

Garry McCoy#24

Michael Berti Mendez#17

Garry McCoy#24 - TZ750

Robert Young#63

Signature Corser Wheelie

Superbike Qualifying

Fridays Superbike qualifying was an hour long Q1 & Q2 combined session. Dave from Highside Photography and I decided to shoot the action from the inside of turn15 (the old turn 9). We had found some new places to shoot on the exit of the corner where the bikes wheelie up the straight. Got some good shots along here.

Josh Waters#21


Cameron Dunker#3


Josh Soderland#28 practise stoppie 


Cru Halliday#65


Josh Soderland#28 practise startie

Max Stauffer#27

Cru Halliday#65


Saturday Race Day

I thought I'd shoot the grid for the first 600 supersport and the Superbike race. It's not every day you can be on the grid with all of the riders at once. Dave from Highside Photography had never shot the grid before so I told him to come along he will love shooting the starting grid.

600 Super Sport Grid

Chris Vermeulen - MOTOGP, WSBK,WSS now MA presenter
for ASBK

I had a quick chat with Chris Vermeulen on the grid. I asked him if he missed racing. He said "being out here yeah I do miss it, but these guys are going way to fast now". He's happy to sit back and watch and comment on the racing.

Crazy Jake Farnsworth

Corey Snowsill

Corey Turner#52 - Bad bitch needs to learn how to smile

Brandon Demmery#11

Tom Toparis#7

Jonathan Nahlous#20

ASBK GRID



Josh Waters#21 - Ducati McMartin Racing

Cameron Dunker#3 - Penrite Yamaha

Anthony West#13 - Addicted to Track Yamaha - NZSBK Champion 23

Leanne Nelson#52 - The fastest woman around SMSP

Mike Jones#46 - Factory Yamaha Racing

Troy Herfoss was last to reach the grid spot and he was in a bit of a panic with his team. He was saying that the bike was cutting out and pointing at the dash saying look at that. I could see red lights blinking on there. I take it that they weren't supposed to be doing that. The team said something like there's nothing we can do with it now, just ride and see how it goes. Well it only went for a lap or 2 before he was forced to retired.

Troy Herfoss#17 - Ducati McMartin Racing

Cru Halliday#65 - Factory Yamaha Racing

Paris Hardwick#72 - BC Performance Racing



Once out on the start grid you get about 5 minutes to get as many photos as you can before everyone is called off for the race start. It's a pretty frantic 5 minutes I must say, with people scurrying all about the place, teams, media, TV and officials all vying for the same small piece of real-estate. Gotta be careful not to trip over in the maylay.


Leanne Nelson#52

 

Bryan Staring#67 lighting it up

Saturday crowds were excellent




Race 1 was a thrilling contest and the crowd was treated to some awesome close racing and there were plenty of overtakes. ASBK has never been in better shape, racing wise. Cru Halliday took out his maiden win at his home track followed by Josh Waters and Harrison Voight.

Cru Halliday#65 leads race 1

Arthur Sissis#61 hanging it out

Cameron Dunker#3

Cru Halliday takes out Superbike Race 1

On Saturdays Race Day at lunch time they open up the pit lane for spectators to walk up pit lane and meet the riders and teams, get riders autographs and see the bikes up close, which is a fantastic idea and generates a massive crowd of people coming through. This is exactly what's ASBK needs to get the fans more interested and engaged. Lots of little kids too sitting on bikes and talking to their hero's. This is a great thing for the sport.

A very Naked S1000RR pirate bike

Anthony West


Tom Toparis



Troy Herfoss#1 king of the baggers



Broc Pearson#11




Mark Chiodo#23


I'd been shooting quite a bit with David from Highside Photography in the past year, he's a great bloke easy going and a great photographer, who just upgraded from the D500 to the new Nikon Z8. I'd love to do that upgrade to mirrorless. I've compared some of the D500 to Z8 photos and there's a huge difference in quality and auto focus performance. Its day and night. 

We both decided to shoot the race 2 action from the inside of turn 15, the hairpin after Corporate Hill. It can be a bit of a trap shooting here. On the one hand you are very close to the track which is really good for close up shots, but you also kind of get stuck there and you can't cross the track until after the race so it's not easy to leave.

Just as the Superbikes came around on their sighting lap the rain started to come down. Then the race started on slick then was red flagged one lap in. It was restarted with everyone changing to wets.


Glen Allerton crashed out on lap 9 of 10



Race 2 was taken out by Waters, Pearson in 2nd and Stauffer in 3rd. It was a bit of a disappointing finish in the rain and it was now cold & wet and I didn't  want to get my gear wet so most photos were taken from the covered marshalls hut. 

Broc Pearson 2nd Race 2.

One final photo from the weekend and one of my favourites. Bryan Staring was lighting up the night sky with flames from his MotoGo Yamaha.

Bryan Staring#67



Cheers

Steve