It's that time of year again when our May Mudgee Muster arrives where several
mate's all gather for a giant piss up....er motorcycle ride,
yeah that's it. Rather than the usual nowhere ride to Mudgee I decided to kick
it up a notch and do the mudgee adventure ride and take roads much less
travelled.
It pissed down rain here for nearly a week and I got text from Scotty saying
he's not keen on doing any dirt roads after this weather. That's fine you do
you, we got about 100mm here but you didn't bother to look at
central western NSW weather, where they get stuff all rain. Sofala/Hillend had
less than 15mm and that was a week ago. So yeah thats not going to be any
problem.
We met at maccas McGraths Hill as usual and the usual suspects started arriving.
Stu and I got going earlier than the others as we were doing the adventure
ride whilst the others were heading out to Oberon then O'Connell for lunch. It
was freezing cold this morning with 7°C displaying on the dash across the Blue
Mountains. It was so cold I couldn't make it to lithgow before my bladder was
going to explode.
Stu creating puddles
Stu and I rode through to Capertee where we fueled up as there won't be
another fuel stop until we get to Mudgee. We decided to get an early lunch
here so we could pass through Sofala and keep going. Only small towns out here
in the central tablelands.
Our route was to take the Turon Gates road through to Sofala. Then from there
head down the turondale road and take Box Ridge Road to the bottom of the
Bridle Track. We encountered four 4wds at the start but they moved
over and let us through which gave us a car free run through. There was hardly
any signs of rain out here it was dusty but there was the odd wet patch near
the river.
We stopped after the first creek crossing to take off a layer as it we were
getting warm now we were going slow. It was a cracking 13°C by now.
It wasn't far before we got to the next water crossing which was a concrete crossing and the water
level was pretty low and I ploughed through. I filmed Stuey riding through
but no shithouse moments to report.
The next crossing wasn't far we ploughed through no problems it was pretty
easy going so far.
We take a right turn just after the crossing towards Sofala and through the
farm lands. The road isn't as steep through here as before but still very
spectacular scenery.
Sofala was very quiet this morning as we passed through. We take the Hill
End road and ride through the superb tar twistys here, much better than I
remember and the surface was in fantastic condition. We then take the
Turondale Rd for about 10kms then turn onto Box Ridge road. The first 4-5kms
is tar on the steep bits then turns to dirt.
I stop to open the first gate on the road and let Stuey through. Beautiful
scenery out here.
I quickly catch up to Stuey as he has just opened another gate over the next
hill. Then he had to change gloves.
Riding Box ridge road from the farm gates seems like an endless down hill
section with sweeping corners and rolling hillsides.
Box Ridge Road
It wasn't long before we get to the bottom of the hill where the road
intersects with the Bridle Track. We take a right turn onto Bridle Track and
start the final section of our adventure ride.
The track was a bit more rocky and a lot more loose dirt on the hill sections
with a lot of loose rocks. Looks like the rain and 4wd are starting to
deteriorate the track. It was still fairly easy run along the way. Just had to
pay attention on the steep sections on Monaghans Bluff and Hawkins Hill.
Views from Monaghans Bluff
The creek crossing was pretty easy with not too much mud on either side. Not
long after starts the climb up out of the valley starting at Hawkins Hill.
The first 50m is steep then levels out to a easy graduation. I had to wait for three 4wd's coming down the hill before going up.
I got to this lookout and there were 3 dudes there on their dirt weapons. I
had a quick chat with them and they proceeded back down the hill whilst I
went up to the pub whilst slowing for another 4 or 5 4wds just before the
top.
The road at the top pops right out in Hill End only 2 streets away from the
pub where Stuey was waiting for me.
We didn't have to wait long before I heard the sound of bikes coming and the
rest of the crew started to roll up, literally 2 minutes after I pulled up. Time for a beer. At $10 a beer and 14 of us here plus a few others the publican was raking it
in.
The Mudgee Muster crew was only a couple of minutes behind us, impeccable
timing.
Plenty of autumn colours on the road out of Hill end makes for spectacular
riding through there.
The ride from Hill End to Mudgee is a great little run that only takes about
an hour. Plenty of twisty bits all tar, but there are many shadows on the
road this time of the afternoon and need to take it carefully. There's
plenty of Roo's around out here and we saw a couple standing on the
roadside.
We were staying at the Oriental Hotel again. It's a really good pub with
great food, great ambience and a great crowd of people and with a great
selection of beers on tap. It was $60 each for a shared room, nice clean
rooms beds are a bit soft. Can highly recommend the beef brisket, yum!
Next morning there was a frost so it was a tad cold. Riding out of Mudgee was
in 8-9°C temps just after 9am. My phone went flat so no more photos for today's ride. It
was a good ride back via Bylong Valley and Putty Road to home. I've posted
many photos from those rides before.
It was a wet miserable day here today and there's been a MCAS gift card sitting on my desk for 12 months looking back at me saying spend me, spend me. Thanks Bro for my birthday present.
I've not been happy with any of my riding gear for a while now. The dririder gear I have is absolute rubbish, it's the cheapest shit on the market and I vow to never buy that crap ever again.
The forma adventure boots I have would have been good except there was something in the right boot digging into my ankle on the inside and I got given the boots for free so no loss by getting rid of them. Last ride out I thought f*ck this, it's time to buy some decent gear so off to MCAS I go.
I did some online research watching multiple youtube reviews, and reading reviews and ended up looking at the Sidi crossfire, Alpinestar Tech7 and Gaerne SG12. These seemed to be the one's at the top of everyone's, best of lists.
I looked at these boots and all of them looked to tick all the boxes. Looking at prices however and I quickly decided that the Alpinestars Tech7 was the best fit for my tight arse price range. The sidi's and Gaerne's were nudging $900. Bit too much for me. I went with the Black/Gold/Gray. Yeah the white wasn't ideal but it won't be white for long.
The boots seems very stiff, but actually feel comfortable to walk in. I also note that many people say that they become squeaky after some use, like my old alpinestars road boots. Haven't tried them on the bike yet but I'm sure that they will a bit hard to feel the brake/gear levers. Time will soon tell.
I also picked up a new bike cover. The 2 other covers I have for the R1's are way too small to fit my Africa Twin, so time for an upgrade. It gets covered in dust in just 1 week after washing it so a new cover was in order.
