As noted, the Indian Summer on the East Coast of Australia is well and truly over. We didn’t really have an Autumn with temperatures in the mid-20’s all the way up to the end of May. But, since the official start of Winter, the weather gods have decided that they should at least get ONE season right and it has been appropriately cold ever since June 1.
Now one of the forums that I inhabit has a yearly Icicle Ride around the end of July and it usually is well and truly Winter by then, but late last week Winter made its arrival known in no uncertain terms. The bulk of East Coast Australia has been plunged into extremely cold conditions. Snow has been widespread even in places where it doesn’t normally snow and we have been buffetted by gale force winds and very unpleasant conditions. SO, what better time to go riding?
We posted up a Very Late Notice Ride announcement on Friday (yes, Friday) and was delighted to find that, when Paul and I reached the meet point at Wilberforce, there were 6 other likely lads and lasses all appropriately rugged up for a blast up the Putty to the tree and back. Of course, Paul and I had already ridden for two and a half hours just to GET to Wilberforce so we were already in the groove, so to speak. The temperature was 5 degrees when we left from Wollongong and remained resolutely in single digits until we got to Penrith where it begrudgingly struggled up to 10 degrees.
Thankfully the skies were clear and sunny and we proceeded up to the Brunch Point, the famous Grey Gum International Cafe. As you can see from the photo, it was bitter once you stopped with a howling wind making conditions outside pretty unpleasant. No “take off the jacket and relax” for us!
Coffee and something to warm the inner man (and women) and it was back on the bikes for a blast up through the most entertaining part of the Putty. I do have to say that I was stunned to see how many bikes were at the cafe. Kimmie had full staff rostered on and they were flat out keeping pace with the orders. Top marks for Sydney motorcyclists.
Here’s a couple of shots of our lot.
(the little Kawasaki at the end of the row in the first shot was a ring-in) Appropriately, our two VFRs book-end the line-up here as we did during the ride, yours truly doing his usual TEC duty.
Amazingly there were more bikes on the road than cars but, wouldn’t you know it, just as we got to the 10 Mile, we encountered a woman driver (it would have been just as bad if it had been a male one) who decided that she was going to go as slow as possible and stop us from enjoying the ride. A few of the guys decided that they weren’t going to take her crap and they blasted by but the rest of us were stuck until we got to the tree. Some people shouldn’t be allowed to have a licence. Anyway, as I have said many times before, on balance I get vastly more good runs through the canyon than I don’t so, meh, that’s life.
A couple of the guys were riding bikes that have very small tankage and they wouldn’t have made it back to Wilberforce so the group decided to head up to Broke, fill up and then head back down the Putty. Paul and I had an extra 100 miles to travel to get home so we headed straight back down. The road was deserted, the Ten Mile was clear so we made up for the run up. Since both our bikes have good tankage, we decided that we didn’t have to fill up at Wilberforce where the fuel was selling at $1.59cpl and we would push on to Silverdale where it was selling for $1.39cpl.
Some days are diamonds, we all know that. It was clear till we hit the twisties at the top of Colo Heights where we encountered a 4WD towing a wobblebox and he hindered us all the way down the mountain till be pulled over for a cuppa and some raisin toast at the lovely Colo Riverrside Cafe. Grrr.
Fortified and ready for the last run, we scarpered through the back of Sydney and got the hammer down on the Wallacia-Picton run, racing the fading light as we entered the last leg of the journey. Picton Road was mercifully clear and we blasted down Mt Keira Road and onto the freeway, the lure of home, warmth and hot tea spurring us on. I pulled into the garage in the last of the light, 566kms completed in temperatures that had hovered around 10-14 degrees all day. That mileage still puzzles me, however, as I know that home to the tree and back is always around 600kms. Where did that 34kms go?
It was a great ride, proving that, as long as you have good gear, you can ride in adverse conditions and still enjoy it. A big thank you to the Sydney crew for joining in, it was really “cool” ride 🙂
My timing was excellent as I was just in time to watch the MotoGp races. The Moto3 race was like a rolling demolition derby, the Moto2 race, as usual, provided some of the closest racing and the main event saw Lorenzo pull a bolter again and prove all the sceptics wrong. Marc did what he had to do, racking up a big swag of points to increase his lead in the championship while his main rivals, with the exception of Rossi who again got 3rd, struggled. Desmo Dovi binned it again and Vinales finally got into the top 10 by only by virtue of a lot or retirements up ahead. Marc now has a more than one win points advantage while Lorenzo, who is the form rider at the moment, is nearly TWO wins behind and not in the frame (at this stage). Marc needs to go on winning but, should he be unable to do so, a heady ride to pick up a big bag of points (as in his ride last night) will still see him at or near the pointy end when the big push comes at the end of the season. And, speaking of MM93, his astonishing “save” at the end of FP4
makes you realise why they say that he is an “alien”
Since last time a few more pieces of the MotoGp puzzle have been put in place. Petrucci confirmed at Ducati. This places Ducati in a very difficult spot for 2019. It is clear that Petrucci is fast but he is no “alien” and he has yet to master the essential skill of tyre management. Dovi has always been, in my opinion, a journeyman racer rather than a star (even going back to his HRC days) and he plainly doesn’t have the ability to go with the top riders at the moment. I hate to say it, but I think his day in the sun has come and gone.
Miller has been confirmed at PRAMAC, racing a 2019 spec bike. Jack is another rider who has the speed but not the consistency, this is probably as far up the tree as he is going to get.
Still no word on Dani Pedrosa but the proposed satellite Yamaha still seems the most likely. And, speaking of Yamaha, what on earth has happened to Zarco? On the subject of Yamahas, this glorious RZ500 (complete with Phil Read’s signature on the tank) was at GGC yesterday.
It’s cold again today, AND it’s raining, isn’t retirement wonderful?
