A story of Bikes, a Brewery and Australia's best Motorcycle Road

Currently we are in one of the biggest droughts in recent years, sounds great for riding motorcycles but not so much for our struggling farmers. We had a little ride organized to one of Australia best motorcycle roads, the Oxley Highway some 4 hours north of Sydney. We had 2 coming down from Brisbane, one coming up from Nowra and the rest from Sydney and Newcastle.

Day 1

So the morning of the ride what do you think happened? Yep you guessed it the largest amount of rain we've had in months poured down for 2 days in Sydney. There was talk of pulling out of the ride from the naysayers(not me, I wanted it). Some even delayed leaving until the next day(soft cocks). Their loss for not riding some great roads.

Here is the weather map once I got up in the morning. All that green rain is right over Sydney and extending 2-3 hours north. Well the good news was that it was only raining over Sydney. The bad news was it was torrential with over 100mm in some spots.

So armed with this intel I used the kids to help me do up my wet weather gear properly before heading off into the gloom and that worked quite well as hardly any water got in.

Meeting up with Dave and Stu we quickly ditched plans of riding the Putty road in the heavy rain as it would not be any fun and just a slow painful process of wet crotched misery. So we decided to take the main highway up to Maitland and try and get through the wet as quickly as we could as out the other side and on to Gloucester was all dry, and that's where the fun starts anyway. I think that's the first time in as long as I can remember wanting to take the straight highway over a twisty back road.

So we met with Jason and Troy near Hexham at the servo, but alas Troys bike was running rough so they returned home to try and fix it so we continued along in the rain until it finally broke and the sun started shining somewhere near Stroud.

Out of the rain and getting sunburnt

 The run up from Gloucester was a good one but a few bikes and cars flashed us warning of rozzers ahead. Now I'm all for the heads up about the boys in blue but not when they are like 50-60 kms up the road ffs. You got about a 10km warning area before stopping the warning flashes. Droning along at the limit for that many kms on that road is downright absurd.

We had pulled up in Walcha no more than 2 minutes before Rick and Andrew motored into view, how was the timing. They had been down the oxley today and were returning to Brisbane tomorrow, unfortunately flyboy couldn't make it with them. Something about packing his panty draw or something.

I had a nice pumpkin soup for late lunch before we hit the back roads via Kentucky on the way to Uralla and Geoff's famous culvert of 'DOOM' on our way to the Top Pub for the night.

Arriving earlyish at the top pub we noticed that the New England brewery was still open, it would be real shame to not let them take our cash. It's been closed every time we've been here so today was a good day.

We tried a sampler plate of beers, my favourite was the Hop Canon IPA, it went down well and we found this delicious local smoked BBQ beef jerky. Fabulous so we stayed until about 7pm when our table was booked for diner at the pub.

The boys that stayed behind today to miss the rain really missed out, as tomorrow's rain was actually worse than today's so we got an extra days riding in.

Stu trying some of the New Englands Breweries finest Ale

Top Pub Uralla

DAY 2

Discussions over diner the night before surrounding today's route which were we either just do the Oxley a few times and await the remaining boys from Sydney to catch up or to head up north through Ebor and do the Waterfall way as Rick and Andrew had to be home for work on Sunday. We took the long option and decided on the Waterfall way with the Queenslanders. First stop was in Armidale for a splash of fuel and then towards Ebor.

Beautiful country scenery along here but it is so dry. The drought is clearly evident everywhere you look and go up here. I've not seen so much road kill in a long time with dead roos every few hundred metres. It was the first day of spring with beautiful blue Sky's with a flowing road ahead coming into Dorrigo, there was even some late snow on the side of the road. Sorry didn't stop to take a photos, so 2 years in a row failed to photo bikes and snow.

Coming down the twisties east of Dorrigo we got caught behind a slow moving car, I pulled over to let them all go rather than let this great section of track er road go to waste.

Patience isn't my strong point

We stopped in Bellingen for a coffee but nobody seemed to be hungry after a big breakfast so we said our goodbyes to Rick and Andrew here. They continued on north to Brisbane whilst we turned south towards Wauchope.






Motoring down the freeway for 150kms on an R1 sure is a chore, these are the killer sections of any trip for me and usually my right wrist begins to ache due to lack of any movement. A cruise control would be bloody good here but alas maybe my next bike. I rode along for a while using my left hand to control the throttle, that's an awkward feeling trying to turn.






Arriving in Wauchope we fueled up and made our way to the cafe in timbertown, I forgot its name but motorcycle friendly but their service is so slow. About 1/2 hour later Doug, Craig, Troy and Jason arrived. They ordered big lunches, I still wasn't hungry and only had more coffee but regretted that about 1 hour later when the hunger pains kicked in half way along the Oxley.



We didn't stop at gingers creek today as it was getting late in the arvo so pushed on to get to Uralla, the brewery was calling again.

I must say the meals at the Top pub in Uralla are absolutely fantastic top notch pub grub. The spicy African lamb back strap was delicious as was the steak the night before. Discussions arose around adding an extra day to the trip, which to my surprise 5 out of 7 decided to do another night. That meant laps of Australia's best motorcycle road tomorrow yippee.

DAY 3

We tried a new cafe for breakfast this morning but I couldn't eat all my scrambled eggs on the sourdough toast. It wasn't quite right, the toast was too doughy in taste and texture.

We back tracked in through Kentucky and back roads down to the Oxley where we hung a right turn and continued on to Bendameer and took a right onto the New England Hwy down to Tamworth again taking a left towards Nundle. It was a cracking day for a bike ride too.

Doug must have been enjoying his new S1000R as he disappeared into the distance once we ascended the Port Stephens cutting. There was actual quite a bit of traffic out this morning including a truck on the cutting which surprised everyone due to the road being so narrow and blind along there.

We stopped again on the thunderbolts way where Craig and Jason left heading for home.

We fueled up back in Walcha before tackling the 54kms of twisty road that is the famous Oxley highway. I chased Dave down the mountain until the Mt Seaview turn off were I stopped for a break. Its hard work riding down hill fast on a sports bike, much easier on the wrists going up the hill.

So that's exactly what we did. We turned around and raced er rode carefully up the mountain and stopped in a Gingers Creek road house. I was dying to have one of their famous burgers for lunch and it didn't disappoint.

Bikes at Gingers Creek

The road house owner joked that our wife's let us out to ride for the afternoon on fathers day. When I told him we've been riding all day on a 4 day ride he almost cried.

After a fantastic lunch we got straight back into it and fanged it down the mountain for the 4th and last time. I think this is the best condition I've ever seen the Oxley Hwy in for many years. Billiard smooth, no potholes or bumps to speak of, no gravel on the corners.

We refueled again in Wauchope before droning down the freeway to our over nighter at the Coopernook hotel, another regular cheap but cheerful haunt.

We spent most of the night on the balcony with a few ales and some fireball whiskey to top it off with washed down with some pizzas.

Day 4

Today we were up early for the commute home. Being a Monday the roads were pretty much empty especially the back roads that we would be riding on. The chains were looking thirstier than we were the night before so they go a well deserved lube.

A continental breakfast was included in the cost of the hotel which is always good. We were ready to roll out at 8am, which is pretty good going seeing how late we were up.

More back roads this time out to Lansdowne and onto the road by Taree airport, where we slipped up more back roads to Wyndham and then on into Gloucester.

This wouldn't be a real bike ride if we didn't stop in at a bakery at least once on the trip. So Hebbys bakery in Gloucester was our morning tea stop of choice. The pies here are excellent by the way washed down with a cappuccino hits the spot. It's a wonder how I can still fit in these leathers.

Bakery Goodness

We then fueled up at the servo and it was here that we got a call that Doug's bike wouldn't go. Now that's strange being a brand new BMW so we headed back down to the shops. True to its word the beemer wouldn't start. Eventually it fired after the tank was opened. It must have had a fuel pressure lock in the tank or something. Very strange to say the least.

Doug and Troy headed back from Stroud via the Buckets Way and the freeway but Stu, Dave and I turned off towards the Gresford goat track via Dungog and on to Singleton where we would tackle the Putty road during a week day.

We stopped for fuel in Singleton before heading down the putty, stopping in briefly at the rest stop at the start of the 10 mile for a break and drink.

It was perfect conditions for a ride through the 10 mile today with very little traffic. 

We even managed to get home by 3pm and beat all the peak hour traffic so that was a bonus.

It was a fantastic 4 days away riding with da boys. Thanks heaps lads and can't wait for the next one in November. Right after Motogp.

Cheers

Waterfall Way Ride

"My vision was blurred badly, I couldn't see the road ahead, it was awash with a white haze. I raised a hand and wiped the back of my gloved finger across my visor to clear it. Some of the snow came off but it looked like it was also on the inside of my visor. What the hell am I doing here, this is insane!"

DAY 1

A weekend ride with the boys had been organized for a mid winter trip up the north coast and inland NSW ranges to ride some of the roads we infrequently visit. Both Rick and my brother were also going to be riding down from Brisbane to ride with us and we'd all meet somewhere in the middle.

Putty Road Rest Stop

Checking the weather for the weekend it was looking great with no rain predicted but with cool mornings it was looking like a perfect winters ride. Our route out of Sydney was up the Putty Rd to Singleton where we picked up our group captain Doug with Craig and Troy. With full tanks we made our way across from Singleton where we picked up another of Stu's mates en route to Gloucester for a spot of lunch. The roadies cafe is so slow it took an hour for coffee and cake for 8 of us and it wasn't that busy, will look elsewhere next time we are here.

Gloucester

From Gloucester we made our way up the buckets way through Wyndham and Taree and then the long boring slab work of the Pacific Highway to Macksville avoiding some of NSW finest constabulary.

Overnighting in Macksville we stayed at the Nambucca Hotel, which has pretty standard fare pub rooms for $50. Pulling up at the pub Dave was sitting out the front relaxing having a drink. We made straight for the off street parking and then inside for some refreshments. I was expecting to see Rick here but he wasn't. Interesting enough Rick was late and when we called to see where he was he had run out of fuel 20kms west of Dorrigo on his way down. Lucky he managed to hitch a ride into Dorrigo for fuel and back again. Did he cop some shit stirring when he arrived, later we moved around to the Star hotel around the corner which had fantastic meals and a band on and we over indulged ourselves until calling it a day at around midnight. Urgh this is going to hurt......

DAY 2

I was right, my head was pounding in the morning and after a hearty bacon and egg roll we were rolling out along the Highway again on our way to Dorrigo along the famous Waterfall Way. It was a barmy 16°C and I was looking forward to riding this road but was a little disappointed that there was quite a bit of slow moving traffic on the road and to be perfectly honest thought that the road was over with way too quickly. When will I ever learn not to drink so much on the first night? I blame Bushpig....and my brother.

Newell Falls - Waterfall Way

Don't get me wrong the road surface was good with 15kms of twisty mountain road. It just seemed far too short and it wasn't long before we popped out in Dorrigo. Dorrigo is a quiet little country town situated at the top of the mountain range. I'd like to come back here to do a bit more looking around one day.

Views from the Mountain

Dorrigo Hotel

Leaving Dorrigo to the west heading towards Ebor along waterfall way this road was like a big long roller coaster ride over the hills. This bit was a lot of fun and seemed to go on forever unlike the first twisty section with a bit of spirited riding along here. Lots of views of rolling hills and at one point you could see ocean and mountain ranges all in the same view. Beautiful scenery up here for sure. The higher up the ranges we climbed it started to get colder and was hovering around 10°C which was starting to get a bit cold for my liking. My feet were numb with the cold and my right hand was getting quite cold.

Lads on Waterfall Way

Ebor Turn off

We turned off and headed through Ebor and onto Armidale. The temperature didn't get above 10°C again for the rest of the day and we arrived in Uralla by 1pm. It was cold and the wind was blowing in hard from the south with up to 50kmh gusts. With weather like this is must be snowing down south to be this cold in the middle of the day. I was cold and hung over, not such a great recipe for a ride and I wasn't feeling the love. The BoM said it was 10°C but feels like 5°C with the wind chill.

Three of the guys called it then and there and stayed at the hotel for the rest of the day to get out of the cold. The others wanted to ride down to the Oxley Highway to do one of the best roads in this country. I was undecided but thought I'd ride into Walcha about 30 minutes away and then see from there what I wanted to do. It would be a 3.5hr round trip with few stops and would be getting colder by 5pm when it gets dark up here.

The ride was cold and I still wasn't feeling that spectacular. So four of us stopped in Walcha for lunch by the warm fire place to thaw out whilst Stu and the two Dave's headed down the mountain. I'm sure they will have a blast and my bro took some great footage on his gopro.

We ended up talking to a couple of bike riders at the cafe that told us about a newly tarred bit of road that runs out through Kentucky and drops you out on the New England Highway 10kms before Uralla. We gave this road a try and had to avoid two herds of stupid cattle that decided they'd like to run down the road in front of us.

Geoff also decided that his MT10 was going to be a stunt bike by jumping it out of a culvert at speed. In his defense the dip wasn't sign posted and you couldn't see it until right on top of it. Lets just say that I flew out of the seat of the R1 at about $1.30 but I don't think Geoff would be able to wear those underpants again....

We made a quick dash down to Bendameer Pub where we were able to get out of the cold for half an hour before making our way back to Uralla for the night. It was so good to get out of my leathers and into a hot shower. By then it was back to the bar around 4:30pm and the boys arrived back from the Oxley not long after. They looked a little tired and cold and in need of a beer or three.

Lads at Bendameer Pub

DAY 3

The next morning and we bid goodbye to Rick, Doug, Craig and my brother as they headed north towards warmer climates. Checking the BoM it was 3°C in Uralla and said it felt like -4.1°C. Great, just great. I put an extra t-shirt on this morning under my leathers, so I had a thermal and 2 T Shirts but in these temps I was still cold. A winter jacket might be the ticket I think, but I do so little winter riding.....

We debated going down the Oxley where it would have gotten warmer as we went down the range but mostly everyone wanted to take the fastest route down to Walcha and the thunderbolts way to Gloucester. I didn't really want to ride the Pacific Hwy after the Oxley so decided to stay with the group.

Fuel in Walcha

After fueling up in Walcha we made our way down thunderbolts way. About 15kms out it started to lightly sleet. I check the temp gauge and it had been 5 then went down to 4 then 3 and 2 before coming over a hill and I could see in the distance on the next hill rain or what looked like rain. I stopped to put on my wet weather gear  as the others continued on into the distance except Jason who stopped with me. I didn't want to be cold and wet. As I was putting them on it was starting to sleet on us. A few minutes later we were underway. The rain suit was doing a great job keeping the wind out and I felt a little warmer.

About 5 minutes down the road the sleet turned into snow. I was thinking of stopping for a photo as this was very unusual for us. Not much longer the temp had dropped to 0°C it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing hard, visibility dropped to about 100m at best and the whole road was covered with snow and our speed dropped to about 60-70kmh.
Looking left and right all I could see was white. Everything was covered except a small dam.

My vision was blurred badly, I couldn't see the road ahead, it was awash with a white haze. I raised a hand and wiped the back of my gloved finger across my visor to clear it. Some of the snow came off but it looked like it was also on the inside of my visor. What the hell am I doing here, this is insane

Snow started swirling up into my face, it was coming in through my open chin vent so I quickly closed it but not before snow had stuck to the inside of my visor. The one saving grace to this situation was that I decided to put in my pin lock visor for this trip and must say thank god as at least my visor didn't fog up at all. Not once.

Looking in my mirror all I could see was white with a single solitary black line carved through it from my rear tyre and Jason's headlight following.

I couldn't but help thinking that the Oxley Hwy now looked like a great choice but it was too late. Must just press on and hope to get out of this snow. This is fucking insane riding through the snow, WTF? I was constantly waving a finger across my visor like a windscreen wiper to remove the snow.

I couldn't see any other bike tyre marks in the snow in front which probably means the guys missed all of this snow by mear minutes. In hindsight a photo would have been great but there was no way I was stopping for one now. I just wanted to get out of there as soon as I could.

After about 15-20 minutes we finally got out of the snow and back to sweet black top tar and I couldn't have been happier, the temp came up and we got to the lookout where the guys were waiting for us. They only hit a little snow blowing in crossways that instantly melted as it hit the ground and so maintained a good pace of 100+kmh. We missed that window.

Barrington Tops Lookout

Snow over the ranges at Barrington Tops

Dropping down out of the hills we came into Gloucester for a spot of lunch, we avoided the Roadies cafe this time and had lunch elsewhere, lunch came out in 5 minutes with coffees and was fantastic I might add, we then headed back along Buckets Way to Dungog and onto Singleton. Dungog is still a cesspit of pot holes and patch work. Obviously Dungog council has no civic pride at all, the main street of town is a shit hole of epic proportions.

We also lost 2 more of the group here as they peeled off for home towards Newcastle as we then pressed on into Singleton for fuel and then the trip back down the Putty Rd and home. The trip down the Putty was good as it was almost empty today and no plod at all. Cheers boys thanks for the fun times and as always excellent to ride again with you bro, even though I ditched you on the Oxley. For me Waterfall Way is way over-rated, not long enough and too much traffic. If I was to do this ride again I'd skip Waterfall Way and just do the Oxley Highway as its a much better ride. You can read about my brothers ride down from Brisbane here.

Map Reference - missing the Bendameer loop

2014 Year in Review

Well another year has come and gone, I know I say this every year but where the heck did it go so fast? What a year of riding it has been for me personally, probably not the most riding I've ever done but some of the riding achievements for me were life long goals like riding New Zealands south island and riding on the track at one of the worlds best Motogp circuits, Phillip Island Australia.

It was a bit of a slow start to the year with a couple of short rides around local roads like Wisemans ferry and up into the Blue mountains for a bit of a look around. There are many spectacular look outs to be found in the blue mountains, but you need to look a little further for great riding.

Sandstone walls near Wisemans Ferry

3 Sisters and Jamison Valley, Blue Mountains

Then in February we achieved a life long goal of both mine and my brothers that we had talked about for years (around 18 to be precise), a riding trip around New Zealand. This was the most anticipated trip ever and something I'll never forget. This trip had everything you could possibly want in a motorcycle ride. Winding coastal roads, winding mountains road, spectacular rivers and lakes, and some of the most beautiful mountain vistas and lush forest scenery all in between. It was even better because I got to ride it with my older brother who I used to ride with all the time but in the last 10 years we have both moved long distances apart and haven't ridden together since. So it was fantastic to ride with my bro again and to share in the special place that is NZ. The best motorcycle tour ever bar none. The blog that followed took longer to put together than the actual trip so it was epic on every level. We did just over 3900kms in 10 days.

Overlooking Alexandra towards the remarkables

Near Mt Cook village with Mt Sefton in the background

Magnificent Mt Cook

Here's a short video of us riding up the legendary Arthur's Pass.







Then in April after I came back from NZ I had decided that it was time to retire my old quin leathers. They had served me well over the last 18 years even coming through a crash at Eastern Creek raceway with only minor cosmetic damage. I'd ordered a nice new set of Tiger Angel leathers straight off of their website. They have a pretty comprehensive measuring system. All arrived in time for a test ride up to the Oxley Highway, another trip I haven't done for about 6 or 7 years. The leathers were a little bit big around the chest, and I've also lost some weight since getting them so they are a little loose around the top, but otherwise are a great product.


We had the regular crew back together that we would normally do our snowy ride on and it was another overnighter staying in Walcha and riding the Oxley highway. One of NSW premier biking roads, loads and loads of tight twisty bends.

The Oxley Highway, where bikers sell their souls just to ride this road

Through winter we got several good rides in some of them being so good I couldn't tell if it was winter or if it had turned to spring. We had some nice warm winter days to blaze away at the Putty road, a favourite of mine. And my good friend Brad bought himself a brand spankin new Z1000 and came out for a ride with us. Come on mate pull your finger out and get some more rides in with us will you ya slack bastard.

The  end of winter saw me just doing some servicing of the bike, throwing in new brake pads & fluid, oil & filter and then got the rear suspension rebuilt. A couple of short rides at the start of spring showed that the rear shock seemed to be working pretty good but the downside it also showed how bad the front suspension was, so I also got that rebuilt in preparation for the coming track day at Phillip Island. A couple of more rides up into the blue mountains and we were attacked by swarms of bee's and dive bombed by kamikaze magpies. Thats spring for you.

September saw some sad news from over sea's from the blogging community when we heard that Bobscoot from Riding the Wet Coast had suddenly passed away whilst on holidays. Just about every biker on blogger knew Bob either via their blogs or by actually meeting him. Long may you ride on bobscoot.

Then in October we had a family holiday down to Victoria and along the great ocean road. This was a good trip as it had been about 15 years or so since I had been down there and I also got to meet this fantastic bloke and his lovely wife.....

Jules and Mrs T from the great blog Tarsnakes. I got to check out the mighty ZX-14 in the flesh, everything about it is impressive, and Jules had even fitted a GPS. After that we cruised leisurely along to the 12 8 Apostles.

After getting back home we had some really hot weather at the end of October and start of November which is a great start to the summer season, not so much fun riding in 33°C+ heat though.

Then in late November I ticked off another bucket list item by riding around at Phillip Island. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride the track on my slicks like I'd hoped but it was still one of the most fun things that you can do with your clothes leathers on.

I started out the year with 60,551kms on the clock and finished up with 64,411 kms, couple that with the 3900kms we did around NZ then it turns out I did a credible 7,760 kms this year. Not to shabby for me with the little sammich munchers still stealing from my new motorcycle fund.

Lets hope that 2015 brings in some new weaponry to my stable. As you would all know that one bike is never enough, I think the R1 needs to have a friend to share the garage with.

Happy new year to all my loyal readers and here's to a fantastic year of riding in 2015. See you all on the road. And stay safe all.