A bit of a ride

[Cormanus]

Great story and pics Cormanus. The failed brakes escape ramps are common in the US where steep grades can be a problem for semi trucks.

Thanks redbirds. I'm not surprised about the escape ramps. They're a good idea and I kind of expected they would be used elsewhere.

Awesome report as usual Cormanus. Beautiful country, beautiful mountains.

Man that semi could not have made it under that underpass and stay in his own lane. Wonder how many have made that mistake?

Good spot, Ferret. I'll try to remember to slow down and check for scarring next time I go that way.

[Cormanus]

Day 3: Denman-Sydney

446 kms

[url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zwzS5Q1Lo7Yk.kkMlijLMSo08]

I'd pondered the whole business of the final day’s ride into Sydney. After Pterodactyl's descriptions on this forum, I was keen to ride the Wollombi Road and check out Lemming Corner but, when we discussed it at the LionsTT, he’d persuaded me that the road through the Bylong Valley was a more entertaining proposition given a day to do it. It was the reason I’d ended up in Denman and I'm very glad I took his advice. It's a great ride.

I came across dirt road just after leaving Denman and cursed Pterodactyl for not warning me I was in for that. It didn’t last long at all, no more than a few kilometres and, had I only known it, could easily have been avoided. Turned out Pterodactyl had no idea about it as he had taken a different route on to the Bylong Valley Way. But he wasn’t there to defend himself, so I got some satisfaction from cursing him.

But on the Bylong Valley Way I was soon racing alongside enormous coal trains through pretty agricultural land flanked by striking mountains. You have to climb some excellent road over a couple of the mountains.

A coal train to the right


Load adjustment


More coal train

The ranges west of Sydney produce great hills and mountains with sheer rocky faces that look like they mean business. I really like them.

I'd readjusted my load and was much more comfortable, but it wasn't quite stable. Just after getting off the dirt I stopped and re-secured it. Almost every driver, car or bike, slowed to make sure I was OK. A couple, he on a large BMW, she on a Honda 900, actually stopped. Having checked that I was OK, the bloke proceed to tell me how much he liked the CB1100 and how he had very nearly bought one. I suspect that was really why he stopped: for a bit of a drool. They headed off, but I soon caught them up and stayed with them until they stopped, I think at Bylong.


Load adjustment


More coal train




Approaching one of the mountain passes

[Cormanus]

At Kandos I had a very ordinary cup of coffee and refuelled. I was assailed by one of those helpful people who wanted to tell me there were lots of kangaroos about, which was very kind, but he then wanted to talk about every single one that had been run over, and give me the details of its heritage for two or three generations. I was worried he was going to move to a history of the drivers who hit them and so politely made my excuses.

Looking back near Sofala



From Kandos I had a quick trip to the outskirts of Bathurst where I had to resort to the GPS briefly to find the back road Pterodactyl had pointed me at. By this point there was a fair bit of traffic about and it dawned on me the major V8 supercars (The Bathurst 1000) was on over the weekend. I was glad to be going the other way, although it occurred to me I’d like to ride the circuit one day. I’m pretty sure it’s basically a public road the rest of the year.

I wasn’t on the Great Western Highway for more than a few minutes before I turned right onto O’Connell Rd. 9.5 kms later I turned left onto Tarana Rd which I followed through the delightfully named Brewongle. It’s a pleasant enough road with great scenery. A few blind corners and an almost total absence of painted lines make it a wee bit treacherous.







Tarana Road

Arriving in the tiny town of Tarana, I stopped at the pub for lunch.


I ate this very ordinary looking and average tasting chicken burger and was forced again to ponder why people insist on overheating the milk for cappuccino.


At the pub I met a chap with a 250 Honda road racer which he said could do 180 kph at 22,000 rpm. He assured me he’d be in Lithgow in 11 minutes. I’d be lucky to do it in 25. He also told me I should have given the Tarana Road a miss and driven another 11.5 kms and ridden the apparently much better Mutton Falls Rd. In this game, there’s nearly always another reason for ‘next time’.

[Cormanus]

I had a more leisurely ride to Lithgow through pretty country and past the dam at Lake Lyell.









At the dam

Pterodactly introduced me to Bell’s Line of Road on our first ride together in June and I was looking forward to riding it again. For the serious Sydney riders it’s lost its appeal because of an over-regulation of the speed limit. I see what they mean but for riders like me—unfamiliar with the road—the speed limit is mostly fine.





Bell’s Line of Road

At Windsor I stopped for a cup of tea and to set up the GPS for the run into central Sydney where I would be off the bike for the weekend at least spending some time with my eldest son.

I made it through the traffic filled with a plan to take a photo from the CB as I rode on to the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge. I managed this shot and then immediately got the now familiar ‘Battery exhausted’ message.

Not long afterwards I reached my son’s place, showered and changed and walked just around the corner to a new restaurant called Ester. We had an excellent meal with a more than tolerable Shiraz to help it down. The menu was structured so that we shared dishes and, for the benefit of EmptySea (and others) I’ll mention that we ate raw fish with warm mandarin and nori; beef tartare with oyster and horseradish; chicken and garlic bread sauce and salted caramel semi freddo.

It was a welcome change from most of the food of the past week or so.

[Rocky_imp]

Nice road report

[emptysea]

As always, a great report. I'm curios about the last picture caption; is the name of the road "Bell's Line of Road"? Seems like a cumbersome name, but maybe the "of" and/or "line" are part of Australian speech convention?

[Cormanus]

Yes, ES, it is called 'Bell's Line of Road'. I also find it a very strange name. There's certainly no speech convention that I'm aware of that would give rise to it.

A cursory Internet search doesn't help, other than to discover it was originally an Aboriginal route and was then called Bell's Line. Why it wasn't called 'Bell's Line Rd' is likely to remain a mystery to me unless one of my NSW based colleagues can shed further light on it.

[VTR1000F_imp]

Wow, thank you for great friday reading for me. Work day is painfully slow today and this helped!

[The Spaceman_imp]

You should start the Aussie equivalent of MotoQuest. Your ride routes are amazing; I'd happily pay to have you guide for a 3-5 day trip!

Do you ever takes rides out in the vast central desert areas? Is it even possible or practical?

[Cormanus]

Spaceman, never have done a ride out west. May well sometime, although it's not hugely appealing as it's terribly flat and the roads are very straight. In summer it could be agonizingly hot and, on the CB at least, access to fuel might be an issue. There's a place called Birdsville, right our near the Queensland/South Australia/Northern Territory border that I've a yen to ride to one day. That'd probably be enough.

As I recall, Mr Tim rode his CB from Perth WA to Melbourne, Vic. That's quite a haul across some lonely spaces. See [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3412&pid=50194#pid50194]here.