Thursday November 5th Overcast, showers and windy.

That morning as I rode into the park outside my office I could see myself tearing up the road faster than any other boy has ever gone. I felt that my skin was rough but my soul was ripe and no one was going to stop me now.

This year we were but two. But it only takes two to Biblio.







After innumerable photos of the group by the press photographer surrounded by all the beautiful people from the Library we were off on Alan Arnold’s Kawasaki 250 and my new red Ducati Testastretta powered S4Rs Monster.



The two Alans set off on their two-wheel odyssey to see the Central West and take greetings from the city to the country. As usual the staff at Gosford put on a good feed and Mayor Holstein was there resplendent in his BT4 T shirt.

The Somersby plateau is a beautiful part of the central coast with its green fields and bucolic countryside scenes. We were cruising at about 120k when a few trucks and some grey nomads in a Toyota coaster, no doubt heading to Cessnock for a day of bowls and beer, slowed us,

The odour was familiar. I lent over to switch on recycling until I realised my new Duke had a lot of things but not AC. The odour became a smell. This was the chicken capital of NSW so it should not have been a surprise that we were following a truck loaded with chicken poo doing 80k. I hoped he would turn off soon and after ten kilometres the red poo truck turned into a farm; pity the neighbours. We accelerated back up to cruising speed and the two rockets crossed the range and hugged the corners as we sped toward our Singleton appointment.




The Singleton boarding party welcomed us to their Taj Mahal and gave us welcome coffee and cake. The tall one turned up to join us on his yellow steed and I asked him where he was going and for how long because he sure didn’t look like he was planning to come with us.

I digress. Us Duke riders are clean-shaven, neat and lean and only take what we need. No sense having a bike covered in carbon fibre if you carry one sock too many. Speed and handling are everything. Power to weight is king.