Once upon a time, in a land far far away lived a princess. Fair of hair, pleasant of manner and adventurous of spirit, she was the darling of her adoring subjects. Princess Kath of Nerriga, they called her lovingly.
She rode a German thoroughbred far and wide and never a worry did her loyal steed provide.
Until one fine day when out on a ride, her companion coughed up blood and lay down on its side.
His blood was blue and temperature was high, Princess Kath of Nerriga was left high and dry!
She was stranded among ruffians of giant proportion, who rode shiny black dragons that made much commotion.
She felt like a sailor in a boat of feathers, when out of the gloom emerged her knight in shining leathers.
He rode an Italian stallion a thing of beauty, saving damsels in distress he considered his duty.
As the ruffians beheld him they turned to putty, for he was the mighty Prince Diavel of Ducaty.
He scooped up the princess and on the pillion her set, and they galloped off together into the sunset.
OK now that the kids are asleep, let’s get into some serious stuff shall we.
She rode a German thoroughbred far and wide and never a worry did her loyal steed provide.
Until one fine day when out on a ride, her companion coughed up blood and lay down on its side.
His blood was blue and temperature was high, Princess Kath of Nerriga was left high and dry!
She was stranded among ruffians of giant proportion, who rode shiny black dragons that made much commotion.
She felt like a sailor in a boat of feathers, when out of the gloom emerged her knight in shining leathers.
He rode an Italian stallion a thing of beauty, saving damsels in distress he considered his duty.
As the ruffians beheld him they turned to putty, for he was the mighty Prince Diavel of Ducaty.
He scooped up the princess and on the pillion her set, and they galloped off together into the sunset.
OK now that the kids are asleep, let’s get into some serious stuff shall we.
Sylvannia Maccas at 8:15AM was buzzing with activity and noise as a large bunch of unruly bikers congregated. The response to the ride astounded me especially I’d just given 3 days notice. There were 14 of us who set off on a perfect Sydney winter morning with the skies blue, the air crisp and bikes of all shapes and sizes filling the horizon. The protagonists were
1. HarryD
2. Andyavel
3. Kath1000RR
4. Pizza - Suspension
5. VFRJeff – Need for Speed
6. Ibishu
7. Joel
8. Chief (Special appearance)
9. ConRod (the crazy IrishMan)
10. Blazin 13laze (the quiet Australian)
11. Conan the DRbarian
12. Daewoo + Jenny – who did an excellent job of being Tail End Charlies, Thanks guys, you made my job easy!
13. Master Dean
Dan, his gentlemanly Uncle of impeccable taste and his lovely daughter were there to see us off and their final words of advice to me were simple “Don’t fall off mate”. Hmm I wonder why they said that
I love the Old Princess Hwy, it’s such a relaxing ride with its smooth sweepers and zero traffic. Wakes you up gently, setting the mood. Unless, of course, your name is Dan and you ride a blackbird, in which case the Old Princes is attacked with savage ferocity as if old scores need to be settled on that stretch of road. But thankfully, today Dan was missing and we had a leisurely stroll down till hitting the freeway. I haven’t done the Mt Kiera road too many times but everytime I do it, I really enjoy it. I think a large factor is the complete lack of traffic. The surface is not the best and it’s got wet corners on the driest of days but taken carefully, this is an awesome stretch of road which is find challenging and very satisfying. The Chief, meanwhile, had peeled off and gone straight down the freeway to Wollongong and was going to make his own way back home.
Filled up at Dapto, the 7-11 is still closed off so we assembled at the Shell instead and continued onto the SR backroad to MacPass. It’s amazing how much difference the suspension makes on this rough road. For those who don’t know, the beemer has ESA (Electronic Suspension Adjustment) which means that at the press of a button, I can change my rear suspension setting for both damping and rebound . There are 12 different combinations I can use and I distracted myself playing with these on the “goat track”, as christened by Jeff. On the R1, I’d be bouncing along with my bum occasionally touching the seat but on the beemer, I just flick it to comfort and cruise happily along like a geriatric on his motor wheelchair, dribbling contentedly under my helmet.
I was leading into MacPass and had a pleasant run with Conan following me on the DR. He had his camera on and shot this cool video of me climbing up the pass.
1. HarryD
2. Andyavel
3. Kath1000RR
4. Pizza - Suspension
5. VFRJeff – Need for Speed
6. Ibishu
7. Joel
8. Chief (Special appearance)
9. ConRod (the crazy IrishMan)
10. Blazin 13laze (the quiet Australian)
11. Conan the DRbarian
12. Daewoo + Jenny – who did an excellent job of being Tail End Charlies, Thanks guys, you made my job easy!
13. Master Dean
Dan, his gentlemanly Uncle of impeccable taste and his lovely daughter were there to see us off and their final words of advice to me were simple “Don’t fall off mate”. Hmm I wonder why they said that
I love the Old Princess Hwy, it’s such a relaxing ride with its smooth sweepers and zero traffic. Wakes you up gently, setting the mood. Unless, of course, your name is Dan and you ride a blackbird, in which case the Old Princes is attacked with savage ferocity as if old scores need to be settled on that stretch of road. But thankfully, today Dan was missing and we had a leisurely stroll down till hitting the freeway. I haven’t done the Mt Kiera road too many times but everytime I do it, I really enjoy it. I think a large factor is the complete lack of traffic. The surface is not the best and it’s got wet corners on the driest of days but taken carefully, this is an awesome stretch of road which is find challenging and very satisfying. The Chief, meanwhile, had peeled off and gone straight down the freeway to Wollongong and was going to make his own way back home.
Filled up at Dapto, the 7-11 is still closed off so we assembled at the Shell instead and continued onto the SR backroad to MacPass. It’s amazing how much difference the suspension makes on this rough road. For those who don’t know, the beemer has ESA (Electronic Suspension Adjustment) which means that at the press of a button, I can change my rear suspension setting for both damping and rebound . There are 12 different combinations I can use and I distracted myself playing with these on the “goat track”, as christened by Jeff. On the R1, I’d be bouncing along with my bum occasionally touching the seat but on the beemer, I just flick it to comfort and cruise happily along like a geriatric on his motor wheelchair, dribbling contentedly under my helmet.
I was leading into MacPass and had a pleasant run with Conan following me on the DR. He had his camera on and shot this cool video of me climbing up the pass.
It was a beautiful run down the twisties into K Valley. I was somewhere in the middle of the pack and enjoying it. I watched breathlessly as ConRod, “the mad Irishman” as dubbed by Jeff, was doing a Pizza and flogging the fuck out of his 250 and keeping up with Dean & Andy’s comfortable pace. Great to see ConRod enjoying his bike so much, I believe he’s come a long way in skill and confidence. Keep it up mate! The view of Kangaroo Valley on the road down was spectacular with the valley smothered under milky white clouds and the bright sun spotlighting the green mountains above it. Jeff found it irresistible and decided to take a picture. Kath must’ve been doing the whole run in first gear, probably to reach that elusive “power band” on the beemer, coz she was the only one who needed fuel. After another 5min stop, we marched onwards through to Cambewarra mountain and its gorgeous twisties. The stretch down from the mountain to Nowra is especially fun as the surface is silky smooth and the road is tight and twisty. I think I’m getting the hang of the K12R now and am not scared of throwing the lumbering giant into the tight stuff. The first few rides immediately after the R1 really made the long wheelbase and extra weight stand out but on this ride I didn’t feel it that much.
We were getting hungry at Nowra and had a 15min stop for fuel and . We decided to continue on to Nerriga for lunch as it was only another 60Kays or so.
Nerriga Road
We were getting hungry at Nowra and had a 15min stop for fuel and . We decided to continue on to Nerriga for lunch as it was only another 60Kays or so.
Nerriga Road
We departed from the Nowra fuel station at the same time as a large group of Harleys and realized they were heading to Nerriga as well. Probably 15 of them and there was about 15 of us so after turning onto Braidwood road, it was GAME ON! And what a fukn game it was! Nerriga Road is Litre Bike heaven! But anything smaller than a litre bike and you’ll feel like a drunk horny bastard at a Kings Cross brothel. The desire is overpowering but the performance will leave something to be desired. Anyway, I went first and overtook all the Harleys fairly quickly. Andy came in behind me and went past. Next thing I know, there’s a loud roar and 3 harleys rumble past me on one of the straights. I thought, Jeez despite the American economy in the doldrums, these Harley shares are ticking over nicely towards the 2 $ mark. Then started a great game of cat and mouse between the 3 harleys and myself and Andy. We’d go past them exiting hard out of the corners and then they’d come rumbling past in the straights. I wasn’t too keen on snapping my neck off on the straights so I was happy just to take them on the corners. And then we played our wildcard, they didn’t know what hit them. Dean came screaming past and took all 3 in his stride in a matter of seconds. One of them took off in pursuit, he looked like the ringleader. We lost sight of them two and I concentrated on the remaining 2 harleys and with Andy ahead of me, we made quick work of them but it was massive fun dicing with them at the speeds we were all doing. Now I’d like to say they were straight line heroes but to be honest they did pretty well keeping up with us despite the limitations of their machines. Good on them! Now Nerriga Road is all sweepers, fast, faster and fastest but there a couple of places where it tightens up suddenly and 1 such place caught me & Any off guard. I was happily folloing Andy as we came to an uphill 80K right hander. I followed Andy’s line and realized he’s running wide…wide….wideee…OH FUCK, we’re in the gravel. Stop looking at that fat Diavel tyre Harry or u’ll be connecting with it very soon. I had to back right off the throttle and gently dab the back brake at considerable lean and then force myself to look into the corner. Thankfully Andy had recovered by now and was gunning it out of the corner and we negotiated the corner safely. Speaking to Andy later, he said, “I was changing to Sport mode when the corner came up”! Fuckin Hell, what’s next, watching a UTube video on the move? They need to take the screen away from that machine I reckon! Anyway, we soon caught up with Dean and the Harley leader as they both had backed off considerably with Dean having left the poor guy for dead in their matchup. Having had his fun, the preacher backed off to let us catch up and led us into Nerriga triumphantly.
Just before we rolled into Nerriga, Kath caught up with us and a quick thumbs up showed that she had had as much fun as the rest of us on the beautiful piece of road. Unfortunately, as soon as the poor girl stopped in front of Nerriga Hotel, her prized steed started smoking heavily and looked like it was going to explode. A rock had made some damage to the radiator, which had pissed itself all over the engine. Anyway, that Beemer wasn’t going anywhere so poor girl’s ride was cut short but she was sporting as ever, the smile never leaving her face even at the most stressful of times.
Now I hadn’t believed Daewoo when he had told me that “Nerriga is JUST the pub”. What dyu mean its just the pub, where there is a pub, there has to be a town or least a village, or at least a post office? But fukn hell he was right. Nerriga is JUST the pub! Its bloody remote as and you feel like you’ve missed a turnoff somewhere and arrived into the wild west. But the pub is warm and cozy and does better food than it has any right to produce in that location. Good on them!
The ride back retraced our steps EXACTLY. Now usually we try to do a loop so we take a different route back but the route in was so fantastic I reckoned why change a winning combination. So up we went over Cambewarra mountain, into KV, up the mountain and into Robertson before doing a final coffee at the Robbo pie shop where we said our goodbyes.
I followed Dean down MacPass and noticed ConRod in my mirrors. We sailed down in smooth, unhurried fashion and it was a dream, traffic-free run all the way to the bottom. Blissful! Follow Dean through the twisties is very enjoyable as he makes it look so easy!
All up, it really was an awesome day out. Perfect weather, an awesome group to ride with, great roads, some old, some new. I’m sure we all discovered something new, about our bikes, about ourselves…and we all made it home safe and sound. Mega WIN!
Now I hadn’t believed Daewoo when he had told me that “Nerriga is JUST the pub”. What dyu mean its just the pub, where there is a pub, there has to be a town or least a village, or at least a post office? But fukn hell he was right. Nerriga is JUST the pub! Its bloody remote as and you feel like you’ve missed a turnoff somewhere and arrived into the wild west. But the pub is warm and cozy and does better food than it has any right to produce in that location. Good on them!
The ride back retraced our steps EXACTLY. Now usually we try to do a loop so we take a different route back but the route in was so fantastic I reckoned why change a winning combination. So up we went over Cambewarra mountain, into KV, up the mountain and into Robertson before doing a final coffee at the Robbo pie shop where we said our goodbyes.
I followed Dean down MacPass and noticed ConRod in my mirrors. We sailed down in smooth, unhurried fashion and it was a dream, traffic-free run all the way to the bottom. Blissful! Follow Dean through the twisties is very enjoyable as he makes it look so easy!
All up, it really was an awesome day out. Perfect weather, an awesome group to ride with, great roads, some old, some new. I’m sure we all discovered something new, about our bikes, about ourselves…and we all made it home safe and sound. Mega WIN!
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