Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Duc, a Wing and an Eagle

It's been a very slow start to the riding year for me, so much so that on Sunday, I finally got out for the first ride of the year. Its also been summer here and its now just ticked over into Autumn, there seems to have been always something to get in the way of getting out for a ride whether it be work, rain , 40°C heat or just family stuff getting in the way, so it was fantastic to get the bike out for a ride. By the end of today's ride one of us wouldn't make it to our destination and another had ended up ploughing off the road.

Checking the tyre pressures that morning at the servo and the front was down to 25 psi and rear was on 30 psi, yep it has been awhile hasn't it and filling up since the last ride I put in 15.48 litres for 298km's. Not bad that's 5L/100km and on a sportsbike too!

So today's plan was to do a full day's ride into the hills stopping off at Taralga pub for lunch. Geoff picked me up on his way through and then we picked up Wayne in the Blue mountains on the way out to Oberon. Wayne mentioned that his ducati was running very roughly. We didn't realise it at the time until we pulled into the servo at Oberon 120km later and he put in 13L. Wow that's over 10L/100km. He wasn't joking when he said it wouldn't pull out of a corner or couldn't overtake. So Wayne decided to pull the pin as riding an ill performing machine was no fun at all, it was just plain scary. I think it's time for a new bike Wayne.

The first stop we pulled over to take in some of the scenery just south of Black Springs. The pine forests here had been cut down as far as the eye could see. If the greenies in the city could see this they'd be up in arms writing folk songs on their acoustic guitars! As we stopped here we saw a couple of gold wings and Harley's and a concourse pass by enjoying the day.



The ride through the hills here was fantastic although it can get a little rough in places. The best thing about this road is that it's in the middle of nowhere, it starts nowhere and really ends nowhere but has loads of bends and hills. Some of my regular readers might remember me talking about this road last year and about the notorious bend over the crest of the hill that quickly turns and drops away to the right going from wide double lane to narrow single lane. Looks like it caught out one of the gold wing riders that had passed us earlier when we stopped to take some pics. He went straight off the road and went down in the gully. He had broken mirrors, scratched up fairing and damaged crash bars. Not too bad all things considered.

I took some video of the trip today with the gopro. Here is a snippet of the road where it descends down the gorge and across the Abercrombie river. It starts just before the gorge you can see the Blue gold wing at 0:37 and other bikes and it ends with Geoff rooster tailing it at the bottom of the gorge in the dirt.



We arrived in Taralga just on lunch time. There were a couple of other bikes at the pub having some lunch as well. The bar staff here were great fun and very welcoming, asking all sorts of questions about my gopro and the ride. They do a very nice lunch here too. A little later the group of guys with the gold wings pulled in so we had a chat to them to see if all was ok. The rider said he was fine just a little sore around the ribs.

Taralga Hotel

It's all vegan.......cept for the chicken

Bikes at the pub


After a beaut lunch it was time to head back up the same road on the way home. I decided to put the gopro in picture mode every 5 seconds and see what it came out with. As it turns out I got some nice shots and something a little unexpected.

Damn is this thing on...I think it is!


Touring by R1


Bridge on the Abercrombie River

I thought I'd pull up at the bend to have a look and see if there was a gold wing mirror laying about. Looks like they must have taken it with them but I found some other interesting things, like a bike mirror and some other plastic bits and pieces. Looks like this bend has claimed a few scalps in its time.

Did I lose this?
Geoff stops to inspect the bit and pieces
It's time to keep on moving so its back to the bike for the trip back to Oberon.
Is this one mine?
One last look back at that bend, they have put up 45kmh signs on the bend since I last rode down here. It was scary coming into this last year at speed with no warning. It's something you'll never forget that's for sure.

On the way back I saw a couple of eagles flying low over the road, and I saw Geoff looking up at one of them. He had a large wing span with white and brown feathers. Now the picture below I don't remember seeing this until I looked through the pictures later to make this post. What does everyone else think the object above Geoff's head is? It looks like an eagle carrying a rabbit or something to me. You will have to zoom in to see it well.


We pulled into the servo in Oberon for one last fuel up before the trip back across the Blue Mountains. I noticed the price of petrol here was the highest I've seen anywhere. OUCH!



Another fantastic day out on the bike. Lets hope that the next trip is sooner rather than later.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Grey Gums Cafe - Motorcycle Friendly Business's

I thought I'd make a series of posts starting with this one about motorcycle friendly places. It can be difficult sometimes as a motorcyclist getting poor treatment or service from some business people just for the fact you ride a motorcycle. Now there are a lot of great people out there that will go out of their way to welcome us motorcyclists and they appreciate the business we give them. So this is the whole purpose of this post to recognise some of these places that give us great service.

The Grey Gums Cafe is one of those great little places. It is located on the Putty Road half way between Singleton and Windsor. You can't miss it really as its in the middle of no where. It is a great place to stop and relax during a ride. The owner Kim is a very friendly lady and has had a hell of a time with all the government bureauacy that singleton council has put her through just to stay open which you can read here, it was good to see that an Aussie motorcycle forum netrider started the ball rolling in helping in the fight against singleton council and their ridiculous claims to which local radio personalities finally helped in taking up the fight on her behalf. They ended up with over 14,000 signatures on their petition of which one of them was mine. In this day and age you would have thought council would be behind the idea of a place like this where you can rest, revive survive etc as it's a long drive/ride from anywhere to here.


They have plenty of tables to sit down and eat/drink at and there is usually other bikers here to shoot the breeze with. I've said it before and I'll say it again the burgers here are fantastic. The good food, great location and friendly atmosphere tops it off really.


Motorcycle only parking

Out the front is motorcycle only parking on a nice concrete plinth where on any sunday there can be dozens of bikes parked here. They even have free soap & water and chux wipes so we can clean our visors. Now that is biker friendly.

Free visor cleaner
They have a large car park out the side and have clean toilets and even free camping for the first 48 hours I believe all in this little country oasis of sorts. You can view their website here. http://www.greygumcafe.com.au/index.html

All in all a great place to stop for a bite to eat, and relax when out on a ride all in a friendly atmosphere. Oh and by the way I have no affiliation with the owners or staff of this place.