Wisemans - Putty Ride

After returning from MotoGP two weeks ago, geez has it been that long already and I haven't even put up a post about it yet. Yes I've been slack for sure but I have been rather busy with family, work and photo editing.

I had a few days off after the GP and rang Geoff to see if he wanted to get out for a mid week ride. It didn't take much convincing and Mark came along for the ride too. We hadn't ridden with him for about 4 or 5 years I think.

The general plan was a trip up to Wisemans Ferry, crossing the Hawkesbury River on said Ferry and then around to Spencer and Wollombi.

I dropped around to Geoff's around 9ish and Mark showed up on his new MT-09. I'm quite fond of the MT-09 after the NZ trip 2 years ago, I think it would make a great bike after its suspension get a touch up. We headed out some bake roads around Maralaya and up to the Ferry our first stop point. We were first in line to get on.

Rolling onto the Ferry we were first on board and there were only 2 or 3 cars making for a spacious trip across.

Mark was for hanging for a smoke and we pulled over so he could do that whilst we had did what grown men do in the bush. It was quite hazy out riding today as there was smoke coming down from Port Macquarie due to bush fires that they are having up there. I must be a huge bushfire for the smoke to come all the way down to Sydney some 400km away.

Besides the smoke in the air it was a fantastic day riding as the temperature was right in the sweet spot around 25° making for quite pleasant riding conditions. Continuing on we rode around the river along here. I swear this section of road hasn't been resurfaced for 15 years as its a pretty rough ride. Typical of most NSW back roads now. No wonder adventure bikes are so popular. Why does your car or bike have to have a road worthy certificate when the roads are not car/bike worthy?

Wollombi Tavern

 We stopped in at Wollombi Tavern and it was right on lunch time. Geoff order beers but when I asked about lunch he wasn't game to try eating here again. So we headed toward Broke for fuel and lunch. No I remember the food we had here last time was abysmal. Right on Geoff, you really do only give people one chance.

The ride into broke was a quick one and the road along this section was much improved over the road coming into Wollombi.

A quick refuel in broke and a excellent hamburger washed down with a powerade made for an fantastic lunch. Mark decided to make his way back to Sydney from here where Geoff and I continued around to the Putty road so we could ride the awesome 10 mile of twisties. An what a cracker of a day. There was only 1 truck in that section which I quickly dispatched.

We stopped in at the Grey Gums cafe for a drink and a break. A couple riding back from MotoGP started up a conversation with us and we had a good chat with them. They were on their way back to Brisbane so another 2 days ahead of them yet and also heading straight into the bushfire area.

All up another excellent day out on the bikes, thanks for the company Geoff, and hope to see you on the Alpine ride next week. Fingers crossed.

Putty Road Memorial Ride

Sunday was the first chance I've had to get out on the bike since last year. It's a sad story really......
But anyway I got a text from Doug who organised a ride and well I got the weekend mixed up. The looks I got from the missus when I told her and she said "You mean to tell me your not coming to your child's little athletics carnival" Those married guys will know the look I'm talking about. I haven't been on a ride since November so bugger it I'm off with the boys it's been far to long.

The plan was to meet at Maccas at McGraths Hill at 10:30am. It turns out there was the John Grace memorial ride on leaving there at 11am heading to the Grey Gums Cafe on the Putty road. We revised the time to 10am with departure not long after to avoid the crush. Arriving at maccas and there was a lot of bikes already.

Boys at maccas 

 Being mindful that there was going to be lots of bikes out today we kept the speeds down as this many bikes usually brings out the boys in blue, but we didn't see any all the way to the cafe. We stopped in and parked the bikes in the shade in an open area where there were no other bikes. I gave us a chance to look over Doug's new steed, a BMW S1000. Nice bike too.

Doug's new steed.

 We wandered over and found a table before the main group of rider arrived. It was busy but nothing compared with what it was about to be in an hours time. We had a bit of early lunch with a coffee and the best ever home made sausage roll, it was huge too.

Around midday all the bikes in the main organised ride started arriving, then the place got packed.

When we parked our bikes here an hour ago there were only the 4 bikes in the car park.

Where's me boike?

Found them

 It was starting to get really hot now and the temp gauge on the bike was reading 34°C. I was sweating like mad in my leathers. I should have taken my mesh jacket like the others and just wore jeans. Doh! Or at least take my camelbak. Anyway we continue up along the Putty rd through the ten mile and crossed over into the the hunter valley for fuel at broke. From Broke we made our way down through Wollombi and stopped at Laguna for a drink and break from the heat.

Laguna

From here we continued along down through Central Mangrove and peats ridge until we came to the Old Pacific Highway. There only seemed to be a handful of bikes on the old road today. Doug lead us on into Brooklyn to the Anglers Rest where we stopped for a quick beer before making our way home via Galston Gorge.

Beers and good times.

Cheers for the great day out boys. Definitely have to do it again soonish.

Wiseman's Ferry to Broke and Putty Rd

We had an nice warm 23°C winters day and the Slomax had organized a ride for us. We left Bushpigs place around 9:30am and headed up Windsor Rd and turned off up Annandale Road and past the old Amaroo park race track which is now sadly a housing estate. A few turns here and there we ended up funny enough at Glenorie bakery with a pie and coffee in hand. Don't know how that happened but it makes me think about buying a ducati. We left not long after and headed up towards Wisemans ferry via the old northern road. We had about a 5 minute wait to get on the ferry and took the spot right at the front. The water was calm today.

Once across we made our way along the river towards mangrove mountain. Such beautiful countryside through here I just wish the road was in better condition so that it would make the ride that much more enjoyable. We turned off and headed up towards Wollombi. Just short of the town we met up with one of Stu's friends that was on our Mudgee ride last month. He warned us of 2 Hwy patrol ahead but luckily we didn't see any and refueled both bikes and ourselves in Broke.

Wombat's ahead

Broke

After lunch in broke we headed around through the lower end of the hunter valley towards the Putty rd and back down towards Sydney. It was a quiet day on the Putty, not many bikes about and no highway patrol making it an enjoyable ride.

A beautiful Winters Day Ride

Friday was my RDO and I decided it was time for a ride. It was a cold winters morning as I headed to Bushpigs place to pick him up. We decided to do a loop ride up the Old pacific hwy to Wollombi and then around to the putty road and back home again. Being a Friday morning Pennant Hills Rd was pretty busy so we were lane splitting like bastards to get through the traffic. First stop was in Cowan for some fuel for the MT10.

The Old Road

We stopped in at the road warriors cafe for a coffee. Some of the corners were covered in water where the road was covered by tree's and the sun couldn't get through the tree canopy to dry out the road. It was very cold riding through these sections so we took it quite carefully.

Next stop was in Wollombi for a short break. After the coffee and cold sections of road I was busting to go so I stopped at the rest area in Wollombi. We parked the bikes next to a row of about 8-10 wheelie bins. I noticed an asian lady park her car when we were walking off.

Wollombi

When we came back the asian lady backed out and knocked 2 of the wheelie bins flying from the back of her car. We erupted into laughter. She got out and saw us laughing and then I said to her"Gee lucky we didn't park our bikes over there" pointing to where the 2 bins were now laying. She looked down like a scalded little school girl and sulked off to pick up the bins and hurriedly got in her car and left.

The ride up from Wollombi to the bridge is narrow and rough but after the bridge it opens up a bit and gets much smoother. I really enjoyed the ride after the bridge up to Broke where we stopped to top up the tanks. The plan was to stop for lunch at the Grey Gums on the Putty rd.

After the fuel stop in Broke we swapped bikes and I got to ride the MT-10. The upright riding position was great I really liked it and the engine felt like I was back on the R1, brutal power all the way from the bottom end. It just wheel stood out of the petrol station and down the road. I noticed in the 10mile that I was having a little trouble with throttle control as it was on/off like on my R1 before I had it flashed. Maybe it was because I wasn't used to this bike and the upright seating position I might have been snapping the throttle on and off too quickly. It handled the twisties very well. I could see myself trading in the R1 for one of these later on. It felt like you sit inside this bike not on top like the R1. The engine was pretty much the same although it did lack some of the mid range and top end punchiness of the R1 engine. Swapping back to the R1 and the remaining twisties felt like the R1 was on rails so much more precise than the MT10. Must be the riding position that makes it feel this way.

We stopped in at the Grey Gums cafe for a coffee and spot of lunch. There was only a handful of people about being a Friday and all but it still took 25 minutes for them to make me a simple chicken burger. I only ate half of it to as it wasn't that good, at least the coffee was fantastic.

Coffee at Grey Gums Cafe

We left and headed for home. The run down the twisties at Colo Heights was one of the best runs we've had through there in years we didn't hit any traffic whatsoever and we blasted along at a fun spirited pace. What a great way to spend a Friday.

Scooterbob visits the Hunter Valley

My good friend Bushpig joined in on scooterbobs adventure on Sundays ride. He was itching for a ride out and we decided to head up to some of our favourite roads and some roads that we haven't visited for a long time. I had the idea that for today's ride we would ride up through the Old Pacific Hwy on the northern outskirts of Sydney which is a notorious motorcycling road, and then after that continue on into the little hamlet of Wollombi for lunch at the pub then followed up by crossing the lower hunter valley and back down the Putty Rd(aka the putty motogp track - another favourite ride of mine with lots of twisties).

As we headed out through Castlehill we encounter fairly heavy traffic early on a sunday morning. Must be all the mums and dads going to church. Where else can all this traffic be going so early on a sunday? We were going to go up through Galston gorge but changed that idea at the last minute and headed up further north through to Berowra waters and across the ferry crossing. We just arrived as the ferry left for the other side. Plenty of time to show SB the sites. SB wanted to sit perched up high and look around the bay. He also decided he wanted a ride on Bushpigs trumpy.

Super Scooterbob

SB rides the trumpy

Crossing the ferry and heading up towards the old road now, I was feeling like a nice coffee. There is a new cafe that has opened up and I thought we would try it out as they also had some great views of the river. They weren't busy as we pulled up near the Hawksbury river bridge. We ordered two cappuccinos and then sat down to take in the views. 20 minutes went by and still no coffees. We went back and ours was next. Well the coffee was ok, but I'm sorry but over 20 minutes for 2 coffee's when your not really busy is unacceptable to me. I won't be coming back here again. Such poor shit service.

Whilst we enjoyed our coffee's SB checked out the views of the River and watched a myriad of motorcycles passing by on the bridge.

SB was impressed with the views

After downing our coffee's we rode up the twisty bit of the Old Pacific Hwy past the road warriors cafe, no we didn't stop in today but there was a lot of bikes in there. We turned off onto Peats Ridge road and headed out into the lower hunter valley.

The road along here is very scenic all the way along, but can be pretty rough in patches but there is also small amounts of new road so its a bit of a mixed bag. Beautiful green countryside, creek crossings and lemming corner. It was named Lemming corner by Cessnock city council in 2004 because there were 31 motorcycle crashes on it. It was along here SB told me he wanted to go a bit faster, I said "No scooterbob we are doing the speed limit", then he said "come on I'm just a slow little scooter you know". Not wanting to disappoint him, scooterbob un-officially became the fastest wooden scooter in Australia by joining the +200 club, and no we weren't practicing to become lemmings.

Lemming Corner courtesy google maps

We stopped in at the Wollombi tavern for lunch. Both of us hadn't been up here for lunch in a few years. We both ordered a steak sandwich and chips. What came out was probably the worst pub meal I've ever had. For the princely sum of $13 you got yourself 2 pieces of toasted bread with a small piece of steak slapped between, no lettuce, no tomato, no beetroot and with a hand full of over cooked chips. I should have taken a photo to show you how bad it really was. And we were only an hour out of Sydney. Bushpig got us a mid strength beer to wash it down with also over priced at more than $6 per beer. Another place with poor/expensive service. That's 2 from 2 today and another place we won't be back again. Beer was nice though.

Wollombi Tavern

After our very ordinary lunch we packed scooterbob away for the trip up through the lower hunter and across to the top end of the Putty road. This area is a very large wine growing region of New South Wales and attracts thousands of visitors every year. You can stop at many different cellar doors here and there is even a couple of brewery's at Pokolbin.

No time for that today as SB was itching to get stuck into the 10 mile of canyons at the top end of the putty road. Yeah he really enjoyed that, I think he's getting a taste for riding the twisties. I think he's going to enjoy the coromandel peninsula.

Yet another fun day out showing scooterbob the sites of this big wide land of ours. It will soon be time for scooterbob to continue his journey around the world and head off to New Zealand to continue his down under tour before heading back to the northern hemisphere. Maybe one more trip out.

Stay tuned for more amazing adventures of scooterbob as he slays the streets of Sydney.....