The weather forecast for yesterday seemed good. Fine and 23 degrees so what better thing to do with the favourable conditions than go for a ride? I picked up my brother out on the highway and we headed north to one of our favourite pieces of road, the Putty. Winding north through the bushlands and mountains in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, the Putty has been an alternative route north since the mid-19th Century. When I first started riding, my brother and his wife were living in Denman, near Jerry’s Plains, so we became very familiar with the road, going backwards and forwards to visit them both in the car and on the bike.
Back in the day, the Putty was one of the alternative routes between Brisbane and Sydney, the Pacific Highway being far less open than it is now (!) and many trucking companies used the road, running out of depots in the Western Suburbs of Sydney and hooking up with the bottom end of the New England Highway at Singleton. In the days before radar, speed cameras and nanny-state policing of our highways, the Putty was a speedway, especially at night. Several companies ran Kenworth vans, a full-sized prime mover with a rigid pentach body, able to carry around 25 tons but usually carrying less than 10. At nighttime they ruled the road. Capable of 130+ km/h these behemoths terrorised any motorist silly enough to be out on the blacktop after 11. It was “Move aside or be moved” when they were around. As well the road was populated by people doing an overnight run to Brisbane and they also cared nothing for the speed limit or the niceties of road courtesy.
These days the Putty is virtually free of trucks. The F3 and the increasingly open nature of the Pacific have helped but the main contributing factor has been the increasing popularity of the Newell Highway. A longer run from Sydney to Brisbane but nearly the same time, 110 km/h speed limit for much of its duration and few towns to slow down the charge, the Newell is now the favoured run for many trucking companies.
All of these factors add to the attraction of the Putty as a motorcycling road as travelling it these days will prove. This is not to say that it doesn’t have its disadvantages. For a start, it is a long way away. From my place to Wilberforce, at the bottom end of the Putty, is 160 km. And getting there requires travelling over Sydney. Fortunately, as you know, we have found a very pleasant way of doing that and avoiding the hassle of Sydney traffic nearly completely. From home the route goes up Mount Ousley, onto the Picton Road and out to Picton. At the pub you turn right and head up the mountain towards the Burragorang Lookout. Before you get there, however, you take a right onto Montpelier Road and this takes you though the picturesque towns of The Oaks, Silverdale, Wallacia and Mulgoa. It pops you out at the bottom end of Penrith where you must needs endure the traffic that inhabits the industrial/commercial side of the city. But this clears fairly quickly once you cut right and head out to the Northern Road. At the moment, the Northern Road is a pain because of the new housing estates to the north of the town. Roadworks to accommodate the new estates are now taking place (I don’t suppose it occurred to anyone to do these FIRST?) so you have to suffer for a couple of k’s.
Windsor comes and passes and, just a few k’s past that is Wilberforce where I always fuel up. There are no service stations on the Putty. After Wilberforce, the next one is at Bulga, some 100 kms north. Even allowing for the frugal nature of the VFR, it is best to top off at Wilberforce and have enough to do the road and get back to the Shell again for another top-off before the ride home. Besides, by this stage you have been riding for nearly two hours and you need a stop anyway.
After clearing Wilberforce there are some entertaining sections of road up and over the mountains (some of it now strangled with a ridiculous 80 km/h speed limit) before there is a long section of flat, open country with lots of long straights. You really do need to keep your eye on the prize at this stage because it can easily seem that you have ridden a long way for little reward. Half way between Wilberforce and Singelton (about 80 kms) is the Grey Gum Cafe, a compulsory stop. The cafe is EXTREMELY motorcycle-friendly and is a noted gathering place for both road and adventure motorcyclists. The prices are not cheap, but they do reflect the long distance one would have to travel to get anything anywhere else. The company is always good, the coffee and tea refreshing and the visor cleaning facilities much appreciated. Say hi to John and Kim, the owners who deeply appreciate the efforts that hundreds of motorcyclists put in to save the venue from closure at the hands of the Singleton Council before they had even had the chance to open.
It is after you leave the Grey Gum and head north that the wisdom of your decision to ride the Putty becomes clear. The next 60 kms are pretty much motorcycling nirvana. Miles of twisty, fast corners that culminate in the Ten Mile, the famous 16 km of tight and challenging bends that wind you through the river valley and act as a magnet for riders from miles away.
A lot of roadworks have been done since last I was there and there is new hotmix on significant sections of the canyon which is greatly appreciated. Watch the advisory speed signs, they are pretty accurate but resist the temptation to go down too many gears for the slower corners. Most are constant radius and can be taken in higher gears than what the signs would suggest. Trust your tyres, use the right line and it will flow. Get in over your head and try and make the road do what you want it to do and it will be a pain of stop/start, jerky progress that will leave you wondering at the end why people rave about it.
When you get to the big tree with the barbeque sign on your right you have done the most entertaining part. You can go on to Milbrodale where you can cut east to Broke and back down to Wollembi, and points south, but that ten mile will usually drag you back, so you stop at the tree, catch your breath and head south again for another dose.
A note about speed limits. The more challenging and fun parts of the Putty are nearly all speed limited to 80 km/h. Sadly the road has claimed many lives over the years, both drivers and riders, but especially riders. Treat it like a race track and it WILL bite you. Consequently, the police interest in the area is high, especially on the weekends. Please note that I am NOT saying you should ignore the stupid 80 km/h limits in the areas where they are imposed. Fact is that, years ago, there was NO speed limit on the road so the road itself is more than capable of supporting even higher speeds than the mandatory 100 km/h that exists for much of its length. But it has been my experience that the police who patrol the road are mostly interested in riders who brutalise the speed limit on their Gixxers and R1’s rather than riders who are just a little over the limit. Proceed with caution and you will be OK.
Back to the Grey Gum for another cuppa then head home. Oh, and what other road house do you know where your cup of tea gets served like this?
So that was my day. 600 kms of enjoyment. Retirement isn’t really all that bad. 🙂