Tim and Ben left from Whittlesea on Friday 2.30 pm for Tallangatta only to encounter a fierce rain storm from Swanpool onwards. We spent about 2 hours in the eye of the storm, the rain absolutely thrashing down, lightening bouncing all around, wondering if we were going to survive. Tim reckons there was half an inch of water on the road, not to mention all the leaf litter and twigs. Lots of banging was going on underneath the fairing and I whacked my left foot a couple of times as branches richocheted into me. My DriRider acted in its usual sponge fashion and it wasn’t long before I was drenched. All the clothes in my bag got wet – I wrung out my gloves the next morning, and it would take a day and a half before my boots were dry. Ho-hum. Tim just followed my tail light – it was very dark – and visibility was poor. I was down to 90 km/h. Of course we went all the tight and twisty back roads including getting a little lost! One kilometer from Tallangatta we rode out into bright sunshine and dry roads.

Monday required downing of tools and remedying of the tyre situation. I had another day’s life at least (D204 GPs don’t have any tread grooves on the sides from new – they look like a slick – and hence look far worse than they really are. Darryn had the puncture and Danny …. The Honda shop was fantastic allowing us free use of wheel stands and tools. Danny and I got stuck into removing axles and brake calipers and getting all greasy and generally having fun. Danny had scavenged a front from the Suzuki throw away pile but when we came to fit it the tyre mechanic pointed out a 10 cm slash rendering it useless. The salesmen then produced a new old style Sportsmax at a good price, except that it was $150 more than Danny wanted to spend. Sanity prevailed and Danny improved the value of his bike to $150 Rhys later quipped. In fact Rhys was dropping one liners all weekend and it was a pleasure to be in his company, reducing us to tears at times.

Get a few beers into Wayne and he is a scream blessing us with true stories of the antics he used to get up into his youth – like a couple of years ago! He has gone through various old style cars (V8s, Monaros, Kingswoods) – him and a mate – blowing them up in all manner of inventive ways, mainly through stupidity (burnouts, doughnuts), and then attempting to fix broken axles, diffs etc, further compounding the problem, eventually taking the whole mess around to the local mechanic to fix. Wayne and his mate were the mechanics dream, because it was always expensive! Real petrol heads. We normally see the Wayne the Mr Conservative, financial advisor, ex-smoker, rational, politically correct, mild mannered, all round nice guy. I’ll never think of him in the same way. Of course Rhys sees it from the other side of the fence and has many stories like people asking for their 4 cylinder car to sound like a V8. He obliges, suggesting that the new note is really "cool", but not as cool as the owner!

Riding with Danny Kosinski is great fun. Highlights were the Tom Groggin to Khancoban section and around the Lake from Bonegilla (near Albury) and back across the Granya Pass. His youth and raw talent is matched by my experience and rat cunning. Put him on a bike with some ground clearance and we wouldn’t see which way he went.

At the top of Mt Buffalo we sat and for an hour or so watching 3 hang gliders and one para-glider (a square parachute launched by running off a hill) thermalling up and into the clouds, far away in the distance, mere specs. Fantastic, particularly with the aid of Rhys’ binoculars. If we had enough guts we’d be doing it too.

Sensational weather apart from Friday night: 27, 31, 32, 34 deg. C. Roads in very good condition generally, grip never an issue.

Cheap everything: accommodation $15 per night including breakfast; evening smorgasboard $6; $15 to fit and balance a tyre – we gave them $20 each because their service was so good; even petrol wasn’t too bad.

Gerry suggesting we do more riding (after we had already done 400 km) – approach Granya Pass from the far side which meant going around the Lake again. Mind you it was already getting late and we would certainly miss the evening meal. Everyone agreed, which indicated to me that everyone was having a grouse time and they weren’t ready to go "home".

The ZXR clocked over 100,000 km early Saturday morning (purchased March ’95 with 6,500 km). It has been pretty reliable considering the abuse it has endured. Technically speaking it got new fully floating disks at 58,000 km (originals warped and thin), replacement fuel pump at 72,000 km, new battery at 78,000 km, rechromed forks at 85,000 km, a couple of replacement tanks under warranty, a couple of dinted rims rolled out, one minor crash avoiding someone running a red light, some paint and welding on the top fairing after hitting a kangaroo, and of course a million tyres. Improvements to standard include an Ohlins rear shock and revalved front forks, floating disks. Problem areas: muffler mounting bracket.

The general good will of everyone from Tony the hotel custodian who could not do enough for us, to the bike shop mechanics and salesmen whose customer relations was excellent.