St. Pat's Day                        17th March 2002  aka Pyalong

 

Honda CBR919                       Ian Payne(leader)                     Yamaha R1                  Geoff Jones                 

Honda CBR929                       Ben Warden (rear)                   Yamaha R1                  Enzo Cunico

Kawasaki ZXR6                      Orlando Iluffi (1st ride)  Yamaha R1                  Dave Ward

Honda Varadero                      Frank Schutte                           Suzuki TLR1000          Darryn Webster

                    

Drizzle as I walk the dog, Spanner, around Navan Lake with an eye on the watch; need to  leave Melton with enough time to get to Whittlesea by 10.15am . Not much St. Pat's green to be seen as March has been dry and the wide brown land look dominates. The country north west of Melbourne where today's ride is going is also very dry and mostly brown but has more open type of roads that suit me more than the Reefton/Black Spur kind. I bet the Spurs are still green though. More like Ireland, maybe, or like that green Guinness that will be flowing at the so-called Irish pubs around Melbourne today.

 

Drone east to the pick up, fill up and soon the eight people on the ride gather. Bike brands and models:  Yamaha R1, 3 off, Honda Fireblade, 2 off, Kawasaki ZXR6, 1 off, Suzuki TLR 1000, 1 off, Honda Varadero 1000, 1 off.  Lead rider Ian, on carby Blade, Ben, rear rider on injected Blade forming matched book ends for the other bikes. Eight bikes means a ride that remains close on the road, keeping the wait at corner marking to a minimum and so it seemed during the day, or half a day really as the ride turned out. Something about a late night after a day spent making trifle was mentioned by Ian (the Di progressive dinner the Saturday night before).

 

Off we head through Glenvale to Wallan and turn west to Romsey on the Darraweit Guim road. Some light rain here but gradually clearing as we turn north at Romsey, through Lancefield and on through Emu Flat where we turn east and arrive at Pyalong for the first break. Fuel for some, food and drink for most and a chance for me to compare R1's. Dave's sees time at ride days and has a reversed gear change pattern, probably some suspension mods, different colour spring evident and some cosmetic indications of being in positions other than rubber side down. Renzo's has some slight cosmetic damage indications also, apparently caused by a domestic misunderstanding that delivered a 200 km odd R1 back to the point of purchase just as Renzo wandered in. His first new bike and he seemed to be smiling each time I saw him. My pride and joy is a first model R1 but hey, I'm still smiling. Well, most of the time.

 

Time, gentlemen please. So we move out to tackle the road across to Tallarook. Just out of Pyalong I have a close encounter with a flock of galahs, the white kind, and collect one between left fork leg and radiator. Quick grab of cocky's tail and a flick over my left shoulder clears the obstruction, Dave commenting that the bird seemed a little worse for wear afterwards. The radiator survived intact and so it should as I have fitted one of those Radguards as featured in AMCN.

 

Onwards and under the Hume Freeway and then across to the Goulburn Valley Highway and those sweepers down to King Parrot Creek Road for the run to Strath Creek. Fuel for Ian and then on to Flowerdale and Kinglake West for the ride end. Ah, what a section of road, sweepers to order. Just keep an eye out for Mr. Plod, today in a four wheel drive which turned off and left us to it. So we went for it.

 

One hundred and eighty-one kilometers it says on the Club web site and, as I followed Renzo down from the ride end to fuel up at Whittlesea, the R1 indicated 204 km on the trip meter and took 14.5 litres of PULP, 181 km it was. Fine weather, not much traffic, some straights to allow some carbon clearing and no incidents to report which should please Rob Langer no end. Thanks to Ian and Ben and all who sailed in the good ship MSTCV.

             

 

Geoff Jones (Yamaha R1)