It was a great morning as I left home and rode to the departure point. It was even better after I arrived to see nine riders streaming into the BP garage to join us for the day. After welcomes and discussions on the various bike models before us, we decided it was time to get this ride on the move. Weather prediction was for a slightly cloudy day with a top of 22 degrees over Taralga - great!
Having been on this route three weeks before, my brief emphasised the poor state of these country roads after 18 months of COVID restrictions and lock downs. So there was an emphasis on ample spacing between riders to ensure they could see these craters in time and take action accordingly. A couple of points here for the RTA is that you just can’t shut down ongoing road maintenance and repairs during lockdowns and expect to bring them back up to scratch quickly, though I expect sufficient government funding for such extensive work will be an issue for some time in the future.
Apart from the above issues, the ride was magnificent, though Canberra to Gunning was the worse route with a number of chopped up areas and pot holes or recent soft fill covering some really bad pot holes. As we made our way from Gunning up the Lachlan Range along Grabben Gullen the road was as usual just exhilarating sweeping up those 50 and 75km bends. On this section, we came across one area under repair with an RTA gang, which caused a minor delay and then the down hill entry into Crookwell which was badly chopped up in parts. Leaving Crookwell along the Laggan road towards Taralga was brilliant as ever with great sweepers for any bike though there was some minor road damage between Crookwell and Laggan. Note, not once through the whole road trip did we get delayed due to slow country road traffic - it was absolutely brilliant! See, Wednesday rides might be worth the odd sick day or two.
Lunch at the Taralga Hotel turned out to be a very busy event, as when we arrived there was the local community club booked in for lunch plus two bike groups which included ourselves. We managed to get a quiet seating space out the back under the veranda. Half of us received lunch within the first 30 minutes but the remaining members languished around for what seemed another 40 minutes before they got served. Staff were very apologetic about the usual circumstances for a Wednesday. To kill time we discussed great rides and the usual prohibited topics such as COVID politics and religion while Marilyn read a ‘Little Miss Smiley’ book given to her by a three year old girl with her parents. Isn’t it amazing the interest such a quiet unassuming ‘Growing Old Disgracefully’ bunch of riders receive when they turn up at these venues for a lunch.
For the return route, Andrew opted to try out new pot holes between Taralga and Goulburn, while the remaining eight members returned back down the way we had come. A couple of members stopped at Crookwell for a quick top up while the remainder continued towards Gunning. The intent being to all meet up at the Merino Cafe for final coffee and chat before making our own way home.
At Gunning, Chas obviously bored, decided to show us how to completely disassemble a pannier lock while attempting to open it. Noting the obvious situation he was in, he quickly applied his skills to the task visiting the Gunning hardware store opposite to purchase some duct tape in order to secure the left hand pannier so he could get home with both still attached to the bike. Well done Chas, and hope once he got home he remembered how to reassemble the barrel lock.
Overall it was a great ride with I think everyone enjoying the company, the laughs and the panoramic view of the countryside which we had the luxury of enjoying throughout the day.
The Team Members
- Peter Ongley Ducati Monster
- Kevin Sherman BMW 1250RS
- David Pitt Harley Davidson
- Chas Towie Honda ST1200
- Ken McLean Yamaha YZF-R3
- Andrew Campbell BMW 1250RS
- Tony Henderson Triumph Tiger800
- Marilyn Starick R1200R
- Warren Richer BMW 900XR
