Another Sydney Trip

once again, another bloody fantastic weekend!!! 

Had so much fun last weekend up in Sydney, that when the Tintaldra ride I was supposed to be going on (forecast for 6 degrees and possible snow - welcome to Canberra I say!) got cancelled, I thought stuff it, I’m off to Sydney again!

Slabbed it up on Friday evening again and was just as cold as last time.  Stayed with my aunty in Narellan which was nice to catch up with her, haven’t seen them since New Years when they were down here. 

Noticed that my chain was heaps loose (it’s been on it’s way out for a while) so went to adjust it, only adjusted a bit, couldn’t stretch it out any further!  Crap. 

Was due to meet Micky at McGraths Hill at 8:30 so turned up and we had breakky… was telling him about my chain when the dude at the next table pipes up and says that I should replace it before I do any more riding, and says there is a motorbike shop just around the corner, he’s mate is there and he’ll look after me.  Sweet.  We were still waiting for Karl to come along, so we went to the bike shop and they fitted the new chain while I waited (thanks RRR Motorcycles!  Champions!).  Karl turned up, and Micky went home as he wasn’t feeling too good.

We set off up Putty Road with Karl leading the way.  Got rained on for about 15 seconds, then we were at the Halfway Roadhouse where we ran into some other netriders that Karl knew, had a bit of a chat then we continued on our way with me leading this time… for the good section!  Was just as good going up as coming back, had an absolute ball.  Not much traffic and had a very nice and smooth run through.  Stopped in at Broke for fuel and then onto Wollumbi Pub for lunch. 

Halfway Roadhouse

I had done the road from Wollumbi to Broke once before, earlier this year, but then it was foggy as and about 7am.  This time it was clear and sunny… the lack of advisory signs threw me a little at first!  Hadn’t noticed that last time, probably because I was following LOL. 

Burgers at Wollumbi Pub were fantastic, and after our feed it was on to Road Warriors.  That was a nice run down there, and yep, still love the old road, well the small section of it that we did  made a bit of a dint in my chicken strips there. 

At Road Warriors we collected Dale who had ridden up from Canberra that morning and we were heading into the Netrider coffee meet at Rouse Hill.  We decided that Wisemans Ferry would be the way to go, so off we went with me in the lead again.  I was being sensible and keeping the speed fairly sedate (watching for coppers hehe) when there was a flash of something resembling a Gixxer thou flying past me… wooohooo the chase is on  didn’t last long, I guess Dale was being sensible too!  Stopped again for fuel then onto Wisemans Ferry Road, which was very nice, though very annoying as the sun was setting and kept getting in my eyes… was blinded a few times, scary! 

On the Wisemans Ferry Road I did something I haven’t done in a long time… touchdown with the boot!  Last time I did that I trained myself to ride with my toes on the pegs… yet I still have chicken strips…. arrrgh!  Think they are just gonna be there forever LOL. 

Wiseman's Ferry

Across the ferry and a short rest on the other side before continuing on back towards Windsor… had a bit of a moment when going up a very steep 15km/h lefty I tried clicking down from second to first and got neutral… with Dale rapidly approaching from behind!  Didn’t want to go into gear at first, but finally did and off we went again.

Coffee meet was good, got to meet a heap of new people.  Wish we had cool places like that in Canberra!  Dale wanted to go check out the big boat that was at Woolloomooloo (kittyhawk??) so we ended up with a group of five heading into the city, avoiding tolls as someone (me) doesn’t have e-tag!  Was a good ride in but very heavy traffic rolling through the city and the cross.  Was great to be back in Sydney though - I haven’t been up to the cross since I left!  Brought back memories LOL.

Got to Woolloomooloo and parked… wandered over to the ship but there were no tours of the ship this time (and it was pretty late I guess!).  So we duly admired the general hugeness of the ship, laughed at some drunk american and went out onto that pier with the fancy-arse apartments to get a different view of the ship and just generally hang around chatting. 

From there I headed off to Caringbah on my own to stay with my friend Lesley… managed to take a few wrong turns in the city… took forever to get out… so much traffic!  Gotta take some splitting lessons from Micky I think LOL.  Eventually got back to Caringbah about 11pm… about 10 minutes before my friend arrived so that worked well!

Another early start on Sunday, was meeting the KSRC boys for their nasho run at 7:30… got there and there was a dude on an R1… asked if he was KSRC and yay he was!  Apparently the time had been changed to 8am so we chatted for a while as the bikes kept rolling in… so much for KSRC, should be the ZX9R riders club LOL I swear about half the bikes were 9’s!  Was a great sight to see anyway.

We cruised through the park and I got left behind a little bit but that was cool, it’s so pretty through there!  Stopped at Bald Hill again for the coffee… and there was no wind - hurrah!  Stood around for ages just chatting… the Sydney Crew are a very friendly bunch!  Felt very welcome. 

Departed from there, down the coast road again… just south of Wollongong the rain started so I pulled over and pulled on the wets.  The rain stopped at Albion Park so had a dry run up macquarie pass but it absolutely bucketed down when I got to the top.  Stopped at the pie shop and there were heaps of bikes there… they were all meeting for a charity event down at Wollongong!  If the weather had of been fine I would have joined them but I was cold and wet and looking forward to getting home.  I got my coffee and two girls turned up dripping wet… I joined them for coffee and it was really nice sitting about defrosting and just chatting. 

On the way to Wollongong

I headed off for Moss Vale and was thinking with the rain that I should probably just get on the freeway and slab it home from there… hell no!  Highlands Way was decided in the end and I’m glad I did.  I ended up with a left boot full of water (really do need to get new boots) but that was okay.  Very little traffic and it stopped raining at about Tallong.

I stopped in at Marulan for fuel and more coffee (and to beg some plastic bags - I had dry socks in my bag YAY!) and ran into an old workmate, so that was good to catch up with him.  And the sun came out here as well!

Headed off for Bungonia and continued on that way, towards Bungendore it started raining again… goody.  Just before Bungendore I caught up with a 4WD, there was a nice patch of mud on the road and I got showered in mud… couldn’t see a thing out of my visor!  So I stopped in at the servo at Bungendore to clean my visor and have a toilet stop… glad I did… was walking back to the bike and noticed a huge pool of oil underneath it… SHIT!!!

Was really low on oil, so I bought some more and topped it up and just limped home (and a big thank you to the guy who came over to make sure I was okay).  Think I confused the 4WD that was up my arse coming up Smiths Gap and Macs Reef Road… a motorcyclist doing the speed limit or below!!! LOL I was taking it *very* easy. 

Got home, oil was everywhere, all over the rear tyre, I got the side fairing off and couldn’t tell where it was coming from.  I got on MSN and was talking to James and he came over and has mostly sorted it out for me now… just gotta replace a couple of washers and she should be good again.  Hurray!  Was a bit of a worry at the time though!

So that was my second fabulous weekend in Sydney.