Australia's Greatest Riding Road: The Oxley Highway

I was invited along on a ride on one of Australia's best riding roads, if not "the" best riding road the Oxley Highway in Northern NSW. Most aussie bike riders know of this road, it's probably our equivalent to the Tail of the Dragon in the USA. The road itself starts from the coastal town of Port Macquarie and snakes it way up through the great dividing range and out to Tamworth and beyond. But the best part for us bikers is the bit from Long Flat up to Gingers Creek and beyond that.  This road has 54kms with over 300 bends which is an Aussie motorcycling mecha. When I got the invite I was like sign me up and when can we go.

DAY 1

This was to be a 3 day affair with us meeting up at McGraths Hill maccas. I'd met up with the Slomax and we rode out to Riverstone as I had to stop and vote in our local council elections before leaving otherwise they would have hit me up with a fine for non voting and I'd rather keep the money in my pocket than give it to those bastards. Stopping early we ordered a coffee waiting for the polling booth to open, taking the first sip of coffee and it was like it had been made in the fires of Mt Doom. I think i'd burnt the taste buds on my tongue. Struth it was hot, it took 10 minutes to cool down to drink it.

Continuing on we arrived at our meeting point to find Doug and Dave waiting for us and no sign of Bushpig. About 15 minutes later he arrived. He looked like he'd gone six rounds with Mike Tyson blood shot eyes and all. We got it out of him he'd had a big night out at the pub the night before doing karaoke.

The ride took us up the Putty Road to Singleton, being a nice sunny day the blast up here through the 10 mile of twisties was fantastic and I was having a blast. I pulled over at the end for a little boys stop and let everyone catch back up and soon we were under way and on into Singleton for a refuel.

Dave's ZX-10R ballistic Missile

Putty Road Rest Stop

Road from Gresford to Dungog

After Singleton we headed out towards Dungog. This would be a fantastic little road if it wasn't so god damn rough. The bit from Gresford to Dungog and across to Stroud is an awesome area but the road is so rough it's no longer any fun. I'd say it borders on being dangerous. Some sections of this road you can no longer actually see the road anymore as it is just a series of patches upon patches until there is not road anymore just patches.  Note to Dungog council - Fix your fucking roads you pissed me off you bastards. I'll never spend a cent in your shithole of a town until these roads are fixed that's how pissed I am. I had to check I still had all my teeth when we stopped in Gloucester.

There was one sphincter puckering moment when the Slomax went to overtake only to find that there was someone coming the other way, I hope he brought a spare pair of undies because he sure would have needed them. Just goes to show you can never be too careful, and he is usually a super careful rider.

Dungog Turn off

After a lunch stop in Gloucester we continued on the Buckets way towards the coast foregoing the usually Thunderbolts way. I hadn't ridden across this road in about 15 years or more and it was quite a good bit of road winding up through the hills as we turned off up yet even more back roads to come into the back of Taree which is Troy Bayliss country. No wonder he was so fast with all of these roads on his doorstep but a hefty dollop of talent thrown in.

We decided to stop by Harrington which was on the coast for a quick beer on the water front before we headed to our digs for the night at the Coopernook pub which is just off the highway.

Harrington Hotel

Hotel Coopernook

Into the pube to spend the holiday monkey

Rick turned up about 30 minutes after we got there, he'd ridden down from Brisbane to meet us and had to contend with rain most of the way. Better him than us I thought!

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The Coopernook pub was a good little find just off the main highway, there was no noise from the highway and it was only $35 per person per room, with continental breakfast included. It was meant to rain over night so we put the bikes in under the front verandah for the night but it didn't do much more than spot a bit.  We sat out the front enjoying the warm weather talking shit and drinking some fine ales.

DAY 2

After breakfast we had a bit of a late start but that was fine by me as we didn't have a lot of kilometers to do today. We did a short section of the Pacific hwy to get us to Wauchope were we stopped for a coffee across from timbertown. There were a few bikes coming passed going up the mountain.

On the way up there was a heavy downpour for about 5 minutes just as we got to the first set of twisties. I could see blue skies on the other side of the cloud so we pressed on and the sun came out again but now the roads were wet. Fantastic, twisty wet roads.....

The Oxley Highway

The view from Mt Seaview

We arrived at Gingers Creek store just on lunch time and we were all famished. I'd ordered the bacon & egg roll on Doug's recommendation. Good call doug it was very good. Although the hamburgers that came out looked even better. Rick had trouble getting his mouth around it, it was that big no joke.

Doug decided he'd take a break and read his kindle whilst the rest of us left our gear at the store and headed back down the mountain. It was staring to dry up now with only a few damp patches here and there.

A lot of this was so tight and twisty that on the R1 I was riding most of it in first gear which allowed me to concentrate on corner speed and lines without having to factor in gear changes. There were only a few places I needed to change into 2nd or third but they were few and far between. This road is mostly 35 or 45kmh bends.


Coming around the Mt Seaview bend I could see Dave and Rick on the side of the road, I slowed to pull over but they waved me past, I hadn't seen Bushpig or Slomax so I pressed on.




As I came around a left hander what did I see on the side of the road but these two bums sitting there enjoying the sun shine. Taking my helmet and gloves off my hands were shaking with adrenaline, they both laughed at me as if I was some feeble old guy with parkinson's.

Slomax & Bushpig

Heading back up to Gingers Creek the road had dried out and I was getting my eye in now after two passes. By the time I got to the top I was starting to get a bit tired and thirsty after 80kms of hard riding on this winding road. Pulling back into Gingers Creek there were now a lot of bikes here in the carpark. I thought I better top up the tank as I probably wouldn't make it to Walcha. I was right I would have run out of fuel 30km out of town, this R1 is thirstier than an alcoholic on payday.

Dave & Rick at Mt Seaview

Ricks Tuono

Rick, Dave and I decided on a quick stop in to have a look at Aspley falls which is just off the side of the road. With all the rain lately the falls were roaring today. Time for a quick selfie.

Aspley Falls

It wasn't long before we got into Walcha for a fuel top up, a quick beer before the quick trip across to Uralla and the Top pub which was our stay for tonight.

DAY 3

Bushpig and I went for a walk around Uralla early to see what was open. Being a small country town and a Sunday there was sweet FA open so we headed back to see if the others were up yet. We did make one vitally important discovery on our walk but damn it they were closed. I had to stop Bushpig from licking the windows. Maybe next time then.

Brewery Goodness

After a big cooked breakfast at the cafe across the road from the Top Pub we got under way again heading down the New England towards Tamworth. We said our farewells to Rick as he was headed back to Brisbane as we went south. This was just boring slab work until we got to the turn off on the out skirts of Tamworth.

Top Pub Uralla

Nundle Road

Bushpig just chillin and catching some rays

Doug has shown us a new route to go down to avoid the crap top section of the Thunderbolts way. It starts from the top of Tamworth and heads out towards Nundle running in between some large hills and along beside a creek. The roads flows well through beautiful countryside here before suddenly coming up a tight twisting section called Port Stephens cutting quickly ascending the mountain side until it comes out on top of the plateau. It was rough and tight and there were plenty of picture opportunities but I was having to much fun to stop and take any photos.

It wasn't long before we'd popped out back onto Thunderbolts way near to Nowendoc. A few minutes after we stopped a Ducati 1198 and a BMW came flying up, they were starting to look for fuel so they headed for Nowendoc.

Doug on the Thunderbolts Way

Lunch At Gloucester

We stopped in at Gloucester for fuel for the bikes and ourselves. A large iced coffee hit the spot just right. I wasn't hungry after the huge breakfast I'd had. We headed back down the way we had come on day 1 through Dungog and Gresford. I had to wave Slomax through on one section as I had to slow down the road was that rough I was getting hammered by the road surface and hard suspension. I repeat it again, Dungog council get your fucking shit together before your crap roads kill someone.

Another slaps of fuel in Singleton it was the home run down the Putty Road back home. A quick stop at the top of the ten mile then we were under way again. The pace through here was good and I followed Dave and Slomax getting my knee down on Batman corner. When the road is in good condition this new R1 is superb but when its not it can be a nightmare. Such a big difference in surface conditions on this ride.

Putty Road

Stopping just outside of Windsor we said goodbye to Dave who was heading back down to Nowra, he had another 2 hour ride on top of what we had to do. Wonder how he felt at the end of that? I was shattered by the time I got home from the hammering I'd copped going through Dungog, it took me about two days to feel ok again after that ride.

Another top weekend of beer, bikes and bullshit...... er roads. Gents lets do this again soon!

Celsius for the win

I just read this post over at Duncs lounge where he was explaining about what side of the road you drive on depending on what part of the world you live in which was an interesting blog post.

It reminded me of another interesting thing I saw on the net a couple of weeks ago. I used to convert the degrees Celsius into Fahrenheit to make it easier for readers in other countries to work out what temp it was on a ride. 

Here is the world map of countries that use degrees Celsius vs Fahrenheit.

 

Yep the good old US of A are the only people on the planet not to come into the 21st Century. I think the formula for C to F is something like this:   C=(F-32) x 5/9.......WTF.

I will no longer be putting fahrenheit on my blog.

America come up to speed with the rest of the world oh and god help all of us if Trump gets in.

Two rides in one weekend

Yes it's hard to believe I know but the drought is over and I got out for 2 rides in the one weekend. Hallelujah brother Amen! The lord must have been shining down on me this weekend either that or he'd fallen asleep and I caught him off guard.

Yes siree Bushpig and I got out for a short ride for lunch. We headed up towards the half way house on the Putty road today. It was perfect riding conditions another 23°C winters day with not a cloud in the sky. Gotta love these Sydney winters.

Riding up Windsor road there were Highway patrol cars and motorcycle police bikes everywhere, must be a blitz on today, that's not good just have to keep the speed in check, not as easy as you think when you own a 200hp ballistic missile it actually takes a lot of concentration to stick at the speed limit on one of these babies.

Filling up the tank at Wilberforce we made our way up to Colo and on through the twisties. Bushpig and I got split up a bit here as he was a speeding but I was being a good boy and who did I see in the middle of the twisties, yes that's right another mobile tax collector, looks like he just did a u turn to chase another bike going the other direction.

Passing by the Grey Gums cafe there must have easily been over 100 bikes in there and there was also a HSV club outing, they followed us out from the cafe headed north.

We soon arrived at the old halfway house and there were a few bikes in here today to.

Bushpig doing what he does best

I might ad here that the hastily written and obviously dodgy signage is factually correct. The bacon and egg rolls are salubrious. I love them with a health dose of pepper! Mouth watering.

We met one of Bushpigs friends from the pub here who was on his way back from the Vietnam veterans ride so we had lunch with Sam and his mate. There was a constant stream of bikes going past today and why not it was the best day for it. It was time to head for home though and we turned our bikes around and rode back down towards Windsor again.

Another fantastic day out on the bikes, since I've had the gearbox fixed under the recall the bike has been going great and I think I've now got it nailed down how to power wheelie the thing too but that's a story for another day

The Royal National Park

Friday was my RDO or rostered day off at work for those not in the know of what an RDO is. I had a thousand and one jobs to do at home which I started the first one which was painting the back patio. As it warmed up a bit I was eyeing off the bright blue sky's and thought to myself wtf am I doing here painting and not out riding? I am I stupid? Don't answer that. back in Feb 2015.

Well let's just say that I hurriedly finished the painting and got straight on the bike and pointed it in the direction of the nearest twisty road. Luckily due to the painting I'd missed the Friday morning peak hour traffic and it took no time at all on the M7 & M5 motorways to get down to the southern side of Sydney to ride through the Royal National Park. The last time I'd ridden down here was when I had Scooterbob back in Feb 2015.

I missed riding in from the top end of the Park near Sutherland preferring to ride into the park via Waterfall and down directly into the twisties. There were quite a few bikes out today which surprised me a little bit being a Friday and all. I suppose that there are a lot of other bike riders out there that also have an RDO or don 't work Friday's, that or they just called in sick to work and went for a ride.

It wasn't long before the 14kms of twisty bits were dispatched and I'd popped out at the look out at Stanwell tops or Bald Hill as its called. Spectacular views from up here and I enjoy it every time I come here. There were a lot of bikes up here today and I had a chat with a friendly young guy riding a GSXR750.

Looking south to Wollongong

There were two friendly little parrots walking around the lookout looking for some stray food that any of the tourists might have dropped on the ground but I had nothing today little fellas sorry.

It was not lunch time and I fancied a burger and beer and knew just the spot for it. I would ride down over the Sea Cliff bridge and on to the Scarborough Hotel for lunch. Its an expensive pub but the views really make up for it and I only do this once every couple of years anyway. I'd stopped at all of these places with my old R1 and thought I'd get some pics with my new R1 at the same locations.

Ocean views galore

 

My new R1 on the Sea Cliff bridge

The Scarborough Hotel is not very far down past the Sea Cliff bridge and is usually very busy on weekends and it was friday lunch time today and they were already busy. There were a few bikes parked in the carpark today but looks like I got pole position out the front!

The burger and beer was absolutely delicious but was a bit big and I couldn't finish it all. After lunch it was a reverse of the trip down with a few less stops. All up a fantastic way to spend my day off on a friday.

It's on again

After getting permission from the minister of finance and warfare last year things have been set in motion for another EPIC motorcycle tour. Last years trip didn't eventuate and has been delayed but its back on now with bike hire now confirmed. And who knows there could even be an international bloggers meet up involved. The destination has now been confirmed and dates locked in. Look out my kiwi blogging friends we are coming to play in your back yard. Lock up your daughters.

North Island New Zealand

Looks like this will be part two of the amazing journey we started back in 2014, with a 9 day tour. One thing for sure it will be EPIC. Bring it on! I can't wait. Now to get started on the planning......

When a blog dies......

I like to read up on all things motorcycles and I happen to follow quite a few moto blogs out there on the interwebs, whether they be on blogger, wordpress or other platforms. I also happen to follow a few Vloggers on youtube like RJ and Adjrian Nickelodean and a couple of others.

Some of the blogs I follow are quite active and post up new posts everyday and then others like myself only post up every couple of weeks or so. I notice some blogs haven't been updated for 8 months or 12 month or sometimes 1 or 2 years. I recently last year found a young Aussie blogger from Adelaide called Riding with Ash, to which I subscribed to and read all of his posts some of which were quite well written. He rode a Yamaha MT-09 naked bike.

Here's a quick pic of his blog, link is above.

Riding with Ash

There are not a huge amount of Aussie blogs but when I find one I usually subscribe and see whats going on in other Aussie riders worlds. This was a fairly new blog and it started out very quickly with regular posts then it stopped again as quickly as it started. I often wonder why a blog will go along then suddenly stop with no new posts. Why are there no more posts???? Did the blogger get bored with it, did they not get the attention on their posts that other social media platforms provide an instant response and gratification from like facebook, instagram etc, did it become a chore rather than an enjoyable thing, have their live's become so busy with the real world that they no longer have the time to post? The possibilities are endless.

What ever the reasons they can be many and varied but I am always left wondering. Geoff at Confessions of an Aging Motorcyclist put up a post to let his readers know that the blog wouldn't be receiving any more updates because of his hectic social life, how hectic can a 68 year old's social life be anyway? But at least he never left anyone hanging, on what happened.

Now where is this all going I hear you all thinking. Just the other day I came across a Moto Vlogger on you tube called Snarkies Vlogs. He is another young kid from Adelaide in his early twenties who rides a Kawasaki ZX-6R and is a bit of a genius at video editing. From one of his particular vlogs I learnt a startling revelation that came as a complete shock. Snarkie was talking about a lot of riders crashing in the Adelaide Hills and he was explaining about this one guy that run his own blog called Riding with Ash. Click on the link below and start it at about the 7:50 mark to find out what happened.

Video courtesy of Snarkies Vlogs, no copyright infringement intended

Yes that's right Snarkie goes on to explain in the above video that Ash was killed on his bike while out riding with one of his mates. Such a sad thing to have happened no matter what the circumstances actually are. Now I know the reason why there were no more updates to his blogs. I feel incredibly sad for his young family.

I have also wonder recently about giving away blogging as I've been kind of feeling like I don't have anything else left I could possible say. If that does come to pass and I do hang up the blogging hat then at least I am going to put up one final post to let everyone know that I'm ok and that I'm just giving it away. I would hate for people to wonder what had happened and may fear the worst but hoping that it wasn't so.

To all the riders and bloggers amongst us, ride with care, stay vigilant and have fun and come home to your loved ones.

Cheers

Seriously, WTF?

My brother recently dropped his bike at my place so I could take it to Teknic so he could have the suspension sorted out. The bike was ready to be picked up but a weekend of rain and another being away out of town and it had to wait 2-3 weeks before I could go get it, no problem or so I though.

Bushpig and I both had an RDO after the long weekend so we went and picked it up. Whilst out the front of the shop I did a quick inspection on Flyboys bike only to discover a dent in the petrol tank. What the F#CK? So I did a little more looking and I found a cracked fairing around the front headlight assembly, a scuffed screen and both mirrors with scuff marks all over them.

Dented Tank

Cracked Fairing

I went back and and saw Nick the owner and asked him to come and look at it. I showed him the damage and he said he didn't know how it happened and he didn't think it happened whilst it was in his shop. I was pretty certain it did but couldn't be 100% sure until I checked the photos I took of Flyboys bike the week before I took it in and as you can see below there absolutely no damage on the bike at all. Double WTF. You can enlarge the image and zoom in on the front fairing and tank and clearly see no damage. We will see what happens from here, this isn't over yet......more on this later. I understand that sometimes shit happens but they should have maned up and told us, sure we would be unhappy about, who wouldn't be, but trying to hide it and say you didn't know anything about it and hope we didn't notice then ride off. Thats pretty low in my book.

Leaving the shop I noticed the fuel light was on so a quick stop in for fuel and then we would be off for a quick blast up the Putty Road and test out the newly rebuilt suspension and test the new steering head bearings.

It was a cracking winters day too I might add being in the low 20°Cs(75F) perfect for riding. I noticed the suspension on the bike felt pretty sweet straight off the batt but the bike did feel a bit funny in its handling. I didn't check the tyre pressure when I got the bike and I just knew it was low but how low I didn't know. It was still kinda handling ok but not quite right.

The plan was to go up through the twisties and have lunch at the Cockfighter Tavern then head back. Our first stop was at Batman corner about a handful of bends into the 10 mile of twisties. I stopped for a quick pic and to do what men do when they stop in the bush. That out of the way I pulled out the Gopro and mounted it on my helmet.

Batman Corner

Flyboys slightly dented R1

Tasty Twisties

Some of the sections of road that have had no sun for the last month or so is now covered in moss and you could see where the wheel tracks were cutting through the mossy surface, must take it easy through here, don't wanna crash Flyboys bike on the moss. BRAP, BRAP......

Crouching Tiger

Not so hidden R1

The 2002 R1 is a quick bike(even with low tyre pressure) and this one has a shorty Remus pipe, which when onsong in the twisties sounds beautiful it has this nice crackling and popping noise when backing off into a bend, sounds sweet. You can't tell it doesn't have as much power as my new R1 until you ride them back to back and this bike is still a great amount of fun, very fast, precise but I did notice the rear suspension needed a little firming up for my weight, I'm at least 10kg heavier than Flyboy so it will probably be perfect for his weight. The steering felt precise and wasn't notchy in any way, looks like the new steering head bearings have worked a treat. I did notice the brakes felt terrible in low speed traffic though, I think the lever might need grease on the pivot or there could be something wrong with the master cylinder. So Bushpig and I decided we would give his bike the warm Road to Nowhere welcome it deserves........





We stopped up near the top end of the twisties as there was road works happening and so turned around and head back deciding we would stop in for lunch at the Grey Gums cafe instead of the Cockfighter tavern, they do a good burger there and is very bike friendly.

The trip back was much the same as the trip up except we came across this road side feature that I hadn't seen before. For the non aussie readers we have a species of tree here called a Coolabah tree which has been made famous by some aussie folk musicians. The following photos were taken at a place called Colo. I wonder how they got up so high to plant those boulder holders.

Yep there were Bra's of all shapes and sizes and all colours and even a few thongs tied to the bras. I guess a few young ladies left here with no VPL and a little cooler than when they arrived. I had to talk Bushpig out of trying them on although that could have lead to some interesting pictures i'm sure. All up it was a great day out on the bikes except with experience at Teknic. I'll update you later with whats happens about that. Its one of those things you hear about every now and again. We will wait and see what they are going to do about it.

Cheers