Powers Lookout                     Whitfield 10/3/02

 

RF900 - Andrew Symes                       R1 - Lorenzo Cunico                            ZX9 - Dave Hives

TL1000R - Ravi Gnanaiah                    ZZR1100 - ? (Friend of Ravi)               CBR250RR – Kate Stewart CBR250RR - Jamie Myers                 VFR800 - Michael Sampson (1st)        CBR929RR - Ben Warden      

CBR919RR - Ian Payne                       Aprilia Falco - Darryl Otzen                  XT600 - Les Leahy (rear rider)

ZX6R - Orlando Iluffi (1st  ride)            GSX1200 - Stuart Lens                        ZX9 - Rhys Williams               

Aprilia - Ken Wright                             GSX1200 - Ron Johnston (leader)        XT600 - Michael Barnes                                             

Being quite a long ride, an “early start” had been requested by Ron. The card itinerary showed the correct 9.30am start at Whittlesea, but the newsletter stated a 10.15am start at Yarra Glen. I obtained my newsletter at the Social Sip the previous Thursday and had set the alarm for the later start. It wasn’t until breakfast on the Sunday morning that I detected the error. It was too late to reach Whittlesea so I headed directly to Yea and joined the ride there. So what happened between the start and Yea I’m not privy too!

 

I had initially been hesitant about this ride because I had been quite ill after picking up a nasty virus back in late January. The virus had forced me to stay home from work for just on three weeks but the thought of exploring the new sealed section of road between Tolmie and Whitfield had me up and eager to go.

 

The group duly arrived at Yea for a fairly relaxed break. During this time Ravi decided that his rear tyre just wouldn’t go the distance so he and his friend on the ZZR headed for home. The rest of the group then left for the “mind-numbing” seventy-six kilometre grind along the highway to Mansfield. Fortunately, this passed quite quickly. After a brief regroup in Mansfield, where a few riders topped up with “premium unleaded”, we were soon on our way to Tolmie. Briefly I found myself at the front of the ride, behind Ron. As I said, briefly, as Kate, on the baby Blade, quickly snuck in front of me as we dragged up the fast stretch of road on the out-skirts of Mansfield. Once we reached the bends, the riding became a little more serious. Ron took off and I had to overtake Kate to try and stay with a quickly disappearing Bandit!

 

What a sensational sixty one kilometres of road! All too soon it was over. The rest of the group filed into Whitfield. Initially, Ron had planned to visit Powers Lookout but changed the ride to continue along to Lake William Hovell at Cheshunt South. Could it have been the attraction of another sixteen kays of twisting road? If it was, it was Jamie's undoing, because not far from the end he “failed to negotiate a bend”. Fortunately he was uninjured and his baby Blade suffered cosmetic damage only. After a brief stop for this unfortunate incident, it was back to the pub for lunch.

 

Due to the long weekend holiday, the place was packed and had certainly gone “up-market” since the last time I had been there! With such a crowd our meals took nearly an hour to arrive and these were just pizzas! Imagine the delay had we ordered something exotic. Still, the break gave us a chance to get to know some of the newer riders and also contemplate the whereabouts of Dave Hives, as it seems he left Mansfield with the group but did not arrive at Whitfield! The consensus was that he left the ride without informing the rear rider. This is a prime example of why it is important to advise the rear rider if you wish to leave the ride, for here we are, three weeks later, still not sure what happened to Dave!

 

Ron was anxious to get going as we had a long haul back to Melbourne. He rallied the troops and everyone headed for the servo. The group would be a lot smaller for the return run as Ben, Rhys, Darryl, Michael and Kate would go on towards Omeo, stay overnight, and return to Melbourne on Monday. Also, Renzo would go on to Myrtleford and stay with his brother for a couple of days.

 

The trip back was fairly uneventful. We had a brief regroup at Mansfield with several riders opting to head for Yea and not follow Ron to Alexandra and Healesville. Hence, by the time we reached the servo at Alexandra we were down to five riders. Mick was a bit concerned with his XT as it was emitting quite a plume of smoke on acceleration, an indication it was burning lots of oil. After several attempts at topping up the engine (the bike is dry-sumped with oil stored in the frame), Les urged us to continue on as he and Mick would be some time tracing the problem. That left 3 of us for the trip to Healesville where we all went our separate ways. Thanks to Ron for leading this epic ride and Les for the rear riding duties.

 

Ian Payne (Honda CBR919RR)