Easter Rides.

Share your Easter Ride here.  Me first.

Friday. I convinced Jan and John ( on Princess Mary ) that it may not be too busy on Saturday for a nice quiet ride somewhere. Weather. Absolutely perfect. Traffic . About the same as a normal busy Saturday.  We caught the 7:10am barge. Set off to Beaudesert. Stopped there for a nice coffee and a pie. Breakfast of champions. Then off to Boonah and then out to Lake Moogerah. What a pretty place. Boats everywhere. Enjoying the perfect conditions.  Moogerah is man made. Has an awesome dam wall which you can walk over. After spending a little time relaxing there we set off to Rathdowney. The Drake trip riders will remember the pub there, where we discussed the merits of going to search for MM or not. A light lunch. Then a quiet ride back to Redland Bay. All up 290 ks.  John wih his young son pillion, loved it. Jan enjoyed getting out on the Gladius after too longer break.  One radar van spotted the whole day. Lots of bikes out enjoying this time of year.  Great stuff.

Half your luck .................I've been shovelling 9 cubic mtrs of bark over Easter & laying weed mat

paul wrote:Half your luck .................I've been shovelling 9 cubic mtrs of bark over Easter & laying weed mat

That's a lot of bark !

Hammy wrote:

paul wrote:Half your luck .................I've been shovelling 9 cubic mtrs of bark over Easter & laying weed mat

That's a lot of bark !

Yep , my back can vouch for that !

Nice ride out, Hammy.
I bet John was disappointed that you didn't take the bone shaker leg of our Drake tour. Lol.

A spur of the moment ride for Chris and I.
You have got to love a wife that convinces you that it IS possible to get enough money out of the wall and that we SHOULD go for that ride to buy another bike.
We rode two up from Newcastle to Queanbeyan, to meet Rolls aka Tony, re the purchase of his well loved and well sorted Bandit. Stayed at Goulburn overnight, where there was a hotrod show in town. So good to see, Saturday night, the main strip of town full of incredible cars from the past. I doubt that anyone will have any model 2014 car restored or rodded in 2094, unlike the 1934 Coupe that we saw.
A nice ride home swapping bikes on the way, brought some belly laughs from Chris when she experienced the joys of heated hand grips.
Showing up a "Bandido" on his Hog with "Bndit" number plate, with a couple of Bandits. Priceless.

Well done getting a ride in on the long weekend.

Since it was double demerits and triple enforcement, I decided it was time that we took David's girlfriend, who is learning, on a bit of a ride.

So we had Narelle and I on the DL1000, Toni-Maree (TM for short) on the GS500 and David and TM's son on the VFR1200x.

Out to Freemans Waterhole and the across to Kurri Kurri for a McCoffee then up through Lovedale and Greta to Branxton.

Lunch at the Swill 'n' Grill (nice name) at the Royal Federal Hotel Branxton.


Back via Lambs Valley Way and Buchanan, our learner was well and truly "over it" by now.

Surprisingly my bike seemed to use a lot more fuel on the low speed run.   

PS Paul's bark is worse than his bite.

Good one(s) guys and girls.  No riding action here due to house rennos.

Sad to say I rode the Triple, Suzy remains up on centre stand. I rode to the supermarket and fuel station. Experienced a few idiots in main street, enough
to make me ride straight home. *sob*

Still........trying to .......catch my breath! Phew...huff.....cough!! Ride.......bike...not....bandit! Pushie....kids...exercise...Yarra Trail...City....bloody....long way!!

I see in your pic SB, Suzuki are building a very lite weight bike!   

Kiwisteve wrote:I see in your pic SB, Suzuki are building a very lite weight bike!   

Its a baby Bandit! 

I rode with my two brothers in law (one on a GSXR750 and one on a Triumph Speed Triple), over the Rimutaka ranges North of Wellington (think of a mountain with lots of corners), through Masterton to a place called Pahiatua.  That leads onto a winding hilly road over what is known as the Pahiatua saddle to Palmerston North for lunch.  Mainly fine with a bit of rain on the saddle.  Then back down State highway 1 to the Paekakariki Hill road (more corners and climbs) back to Wellington.

I was away from my chocolate possessed offspring for a total of 6 hours and came back feeling tired yet exhilarated.  The Bandit is still such a great all round bike with more than ample power (Stage 2 Holeshot) and a lot more comfort than the other 2.  No way I can keep up with the GSXR in the handling on a tight road though, although I don't care that much.  If I wanted to do that I'd buy a GSXR but I find the ride position too uncomfortable.

I have ridden a lot of tourers lately (ST1300, Concours, K1200 GT, R1200GS) but the Bandit is like the old slippers that just feel good.  I liked the Concours, but I reckon the Bandit has the better top gear roll on (initially until the Kwaka winds up) at less than half the price.

Easter Monday I went on a ride with a few members from nswriders and made for Port Macquarie as we were all booked into the hotel.

We had on the trip

Ed's V-Star 1300, Charlie & Cathy's Triumph America, Lance's Triumph 800 triple, Graham's BMW 1200GS and my RT and we met up with Rob on a VFR in Port.

we set off from Berowra and took the old road to Calga and then through to Wollombi, who were having their annual market day with 3000 cars trying to park, so we venture onto Broke to meet Lance. Through Singleton only to not know which road to take. 
Next was Dungog and I know Recycled has taken me on this goat track before, some of it is good but bits of it have been patched to death, wounderful scenery with the green valleys though.

Stroud for lunch but the cafe was swamped with customers some of us went hungry(Lance and I). 

Booral and past the blue submarine to Buladelah for a short break by the river, then it was freeway to Port Macquarie for overnight, not bad food there at the hotel but its noisy from the disco and the air conditioning fans go on and off all night. I prefer to stay in Timbertown and eat at the Bago Tavern when I'm up that way.

at Timbertown




that camping ground just before Gingers Creek






Asply Falls




We had lunch in Walcha at the Royal and there Ed & I took the Thunderbolts Way southbound while the others venture north.



I had a ball. No uniformed encounters, no rain, good people, great ride.

That was a pretty huge ride, Baz.
Great pics, as always. Well done.

Great report Baz, (I thought you didn't get along with NSWRiders anymore )

Yes, some of the Dungog Shire roads leave a lot to be desired.

I would have gone through Gloucester and hit the highway at Taree but I guess it was someone else's ride,

I'm planning to stay in Port Macquarie (or timbertown) soon and do the Oxley both directions. (mmmmm Oxley)

Some great photos there Baz, sounds like a great ride too.

Ewok1958 wrote: No riding action here due to house rennos.

x 2



We've got a old solid brick 1923 bungalow. In the past week I've removed a chimney down to ceiling height, removed 1/2 the kitchen cupboards, cut a door way from what is at the moment our kitchen to our passage way ready to turn it into a office, I'm having today and the afternoon off tomorrow before bricking up the doorway between the original kitchen and dining room (which will become new kitchen), after that I've got 2 corner chimneys to remove, ceilings and walls to patch and a window to raise the sill height 300 mm ready for Mrs Chook to get the kitchen she was supposed to get before I got my Bandit.

Not sure what she been whinging about really, every woman should be happy to work in a 1.5 m X 3 m galley kitchen with 1940's or 50's cupboards with doors that wont always stay shut   

Oh well, back to it or my trip to Parkes in 2015 wont be happening.................................................

The only riding I got done over Easter. Good fun anyway with both of my boys

madmax wrote:The only riding I got done over Easter. Good fun anyway with both of my boys

Those hardy Antarctic folk, not a wet suit is sight.

Looks like you had a great time, and at least the rain doesn't bother you as much on that sort of ride.
Although it does take the shine off glamping, looks like you were lucky in that regard anyway.

Really It wasn't all that cold.