roads were pretty wet so it was a fairly sedate run up to Goulburn via Bungendore/Tarago, and with the storms etc, it was decided that the Bungonia road was likely covered in too much crap so Hume to Marulan. Top half of the wet weather gear was lost here! Took the turn off for Tallong, through to MIttagong, not much traffic so a good run along this stretch. Back onto the HUme for the short stretch to the Bargo turn off, a stop in Picton for fuel and a smoke and the rest of the wet weather gear was gone - it was HOT! 
way too much traffic over Razorback, dunno that I'd bother going that way again! Into Rouse Hill to the NSW Coffee Meet for a catch up with all that lot. IT absolutely bucketed down with rain while we were there but very kindly cleared up before we left.Now for the main reason I organised this in the first place - the Joe Strummer Tribute gig! We got into Surry Hills about 7:30 - waaaay too early (innernet said from 6:30 or 7:30 on different sites but doors didn't open until 8) so off to another pub for some food... how cheap was the food! $9 saw me a chicken schnitzel with mash and gravy and a coke
Got back to the Gaelic and paid our door fees... bands were still setting up, so off to the next pub for a few games of (mostly atrocious) pool... saw a sign saying the band I actually wanted to see (the Hard-Ons) weren't gonna be on until midnight... damn! Anyway we spent most of the night at the "other" pub, returning at midnight to see the main show... and they went off (James will tell you they were shit, and Karl said they were "okay" but I think they rocked!). I was "very excited" to buy a CD and have it signed by Blackie and Ray and Blackie called me "babe" :drunk: Anyway gig was awesome, I hung out right at the front of the stage and James and Karl disappeared... I saw a few punch ups and luckily wasn't in the middle of it (though the 'lesbians' copped it a bit) and it was 2am by the time we got back to Karl's place so bed it was as there was riding to be done on Sunday!Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny - perfect riding weather, not hot, just pleasant, slight breeze etc. Meet time was 10:30 at Berowra so off we met where we joined up with Dan (VTR 250), Dave (GS500) and Darren (GSXR1000). We headed off up the Old Pacific Highway, had a few nice corners before bikes coming the other way started waving about coppers ahead. So we cruised some of the nicest corners known to mankind at 60km/h
only to find the coppers doing RBT right before Road Warriors Stopped at Road Warriors for a bit of a chat before heading off for Broke, Dave left us at Peats Ridge as he had to get back home and we had a fairly good run up to Broke. The Ohlins sure got a good workout over that road! One left 65er saw me hanging my arse out of my seat 
closer than I have ever ridden to another rider on a corner... hehe anyone woulda thought it was a racetrack or something Lunch and fuel at broke and then onto the Putty. Darren was out in front for this stretch and we all kept together as a group through the Putty, not much traffic at all which was great and no coppers which was even better! Stopped at some fuel/cafe spot just before Colo or maybe it was Colo?? Not sure, anyway, got chatting with another couple of riders for a bit. One of them was on a shiny new Gixxer thousand... he left before us. Headed off and hit the next windy section, James was leading now, before long we caught up to the gixxer dude behind a truck. James sat there for a minute before overtaking them both, not long after gixxer dude got around and a while later so did Karl and I. Karl wound it on a little and we had a pretty good pace up before all to quickly we had caught up to gixxer dude... fair enough, first straight, Karl goes to overtake him, bastard sees Karl coming and winds it on so they're neck and neck, corner comes up so Karl pulls back in behind him. Next straight same thing again, Darren managed to get past us all but Karl had to pull back in again. Grrrr. An overtaking lane came up and I do believe it was on a slight corner so both Karl and I went flying past him there... even Dan on his 250 overtook him!!! Hope he felt like a right twat being overtaken by a girl and a 250 anyway off to Mean Fiddler again for an after ride drink, Karl had his brother's birthday dinner there so James and I went off to Westmead to visit Micky who was back in hospital for further surgery. Was good to catch up and kinda surreal to be back at Westmead visiting him. After visiting Micky back to Karl's for the night.Monday morning, slightly overcast. James had been checking out the weather, apparently it was gonna rain down the coast so it was decided to head back to Canberra the way we came. we skipped razorback, opting for the Hume to Mittagong, heaps of traffic on the M5 coming outta Sydney, James was in front and got great little gaps through the traffic... I found myself splitting them and thought that was a really bad idea so James was gone and I was just cruising in the traffic... after a while James must have slowed down cuz I caught up to him, cruised along for a while before I left something hit me in the thigh, looked down and there was something black there which then dropped down around my ankle and was gone... pulled over, had forgotten to zip up tank bag
it was my sunnies that had hit my leg. Luckily that was all that had fallen out so after checking they weren't lodged on the bike anywhere I continued on, found James pulled over a bit further up who had also left a zipper undone but luckily not lost anything... there was lots of double checking zippers after that... at Mittagong we went and checked out the Mt Gibaltar lookout which was kinda gay, not worth going to again. Bowral for fuel and a quick smoke before Highlands Way back to Marulan... James looked like he was going to go straight past Bungonia turn off so I waved and we did turn off and stopped. James waved me ahead for this section and I dunno what happened but I was goooooooorn it was a very spirited run into Goulburn with very little traffic stopped at goulburn for lunch before deciding to head back to Canberra via Gunning. Hit the backroad to Gunning and 
very little traffic out here, only saw one ute towing caravan (which was the subject of the dodgy passing trick alluded to in another thread) and another car coming the opposite way some time later... and that was it. I can say that my dodgy 100mph taped mohawk is definitely good at speed hit quite a few interesting bumps on that road 
but Jimmy handles it much better now (did I mention how good the Ohlins is? ) Stopped at Gunning for a smoke and me going "fuck yeah, how good was that" 
felt great! A slightly more sedate run into Gunning then Sutton where James kept going straight and I turned off for Canberra to home.All in all was a great weekend, thanks heaps to James and Karl for coming and seeing a band they had no interest in, huge thanks to Karl for putting us up again!!
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