Hunter Harleys Social Riding Group

HAVING a bike is essential to one’s sanity in this era of digital bombardment… just as essential as having entertaining motor bikin’ stuff such as you find between the covers of Ozbike!

Anyhow, I digress, the point is that going for a ride reboots things in your melon. When you pull your helmet on, all that insignificant crap inside your head squeezes out the bottom. Not the grey mushy stuff, that other imaginary guilt-causing noise that tries to hijack your thinking and makes you worry about trivial stuff, asking endless questions like: Did you put the rubbish bin out? Did you feed the dog yet? Did you remember to pick up young Myron from kicker ball this afternoon? Have you had ‘that talk’ with your 16-year-old daughter, or more importantly, her boyfriend? Why has my 16-year-old daughter got a boyfriend? What’s for tea? Why are my nuts always itchy? Who watches that shit they put on TV nowadays? What was I doing again?

So now you have your bonce-protector and anti-guilt shield fitted, where are you gonna go and who are you gonna go with? Completely legit questions. Even though we know the journey is the most important part, sometimes it’s good to share some road tales and have a debrief over a frosty beverage upon arrival at a destination. This can be more interesting if you’re with a different crew too, but where do you find a new riding crew?

Well, in the Hunter Valley, a place of ‘many good motorcycling roads with pubs along them’, there’s the Hunter Harleys group.

I was tipped off by another rider about this group and chased up the organiser, Kris Bithel, to find out a little more and help spread the word to others looking for another crew to ride with. I also took the opportunity to tag along on a ride to experience first-hand what they’re trying to achieve and to get some pix.

Although it’s an organised ride, there are no hard and fast rules so you ride at your own pace and end up in the same place to refresh and shoot the breeze. Everybody was friendly, everybody rode with consideration for the other riders, of which there were about 50 to 60 by my estimation, and with a wide cross section of experience across the group.

As the name suggests, the group focuses on having a single brand for no other reason than it’s what they wanted and it’s their group so they can do what they want! That’s not to say there’s any brand snobbery there; it’s just a practical consideration so everybody will stay together on the road and arrive at places at much the same time.

There are restrictions on bike size for learner and provisional riders so, to encourage the less experienced riders, Hunter Harleys makes an exception to the ‘Harley only’ rule where they can come along and meet some like-minded folk and hit the road with a good sized group.

I quizzed Kris to get a bit more info about the group and here’s what he had to say.

Ozbike: What is Hunter Harleys, a group or a club, and what is its aim?

Kris: Hunter Harleys is a social riding group for any Harley-Davidson owners in the Newcastle/Hunter region. We offer free organised rides every month and an overnight weekend ride every three months. My aim is to continue to grow as a Harley riding group, raise money for local charities, support small businesses, and host an annual bike show in the near future.

Ozbike: How do people get involved?

Kris: Hunter Harleys is a combination of word of mouth and social media posts. If you follow our Facebook and/or Instagram pages, the details of the monthly ride are posted there so keep an eye out for the date, starting point and time of the next ride, and turn up, it’s as simple as that! We also have a closed Facebook group for members only”.

So there you have it, if you’re keen to get a good ride in with a few folks in the Hunter Valley whether you’re a local or just passing through, look Hunter Harleys up; they’ll be happy to have you along.

Words by JT of Crotch Rocket Motorcycles; photos by iShootPix