Rob Langer BMW R1150GS Mal Chandler Honda CBR 600F3
Geoff Jones Yamaha R1 Adam Roberts Suzuki GSXR 600 (1st ride)
Rhys Williams
Liz Oliver Honda CBR 919RR Aaron Melgalvis Honda CBR 250RR (1st ride)
Pete Weyermayr Honda CBR 929RR Chris Kornow Honda CBR 250RR (1st ride)
Tony Grande Yamaha R1 Jamie Myers Honda CBR 250RR
Ten-thirty at Yarra Glen and no sign of our leader Rob Langer. Rhys and Geoff had begun working out a route and we were thinking about setting off when Rob arrived in a flurry.
A few new riders were present so after a very quick introduction and explanation of the corner marking system we headed off towards Healesville. Pete volunteered as rear rider when no one else seemed willing. Good on you Pete. With the number of 250s present, corner marking was going to be interesting. As it turned out, the 250s (other than myself) seemed to be rather fast and managed to keep up/catch up and so adopted the corner marking system along with everyone else.
From Healesville we headed up the
Black Spur and down the Reefton Spur to stop for coffee, fuel and food at
Warburton. The road was wet, although no rain fell, and the traffic was
minimal. I found the loose gravel still a nuisance up to the
Tony left the ride at Warburton, and the rest of the group must have been slow to get going because I found myself sticking close..ish to Rob with no other riders in sight for most of the way to the Noojee turn off. (Thanks for going slowly, Rob.) However, once Liz appeared, the pace quickened and I was on my own again, until the next corner only a couple kilometers away.
At Noojee, Rob found us an
interesting goat track complete with speed humps (or were
they jumps?) - to take us back to the road to
Warragul. After a quick stop for lunch we left Warragul and took off towards
Poowong. Unfortunately Mr Plod was on duty down the road in his Red SS VT and
took a shine to Pete, keeping him busy for sometime while the rest of us made
our escape. Most of us were oblivious to his plight! Apparently we passed the cop going the
other way, in a long line, all fairly close together, as he was pulling over to
do a U turn, I guess, in pursuit of Rob who was ripping along up ahead. He
pinned Pete at the tail of the group doing 129 km/h. At least he was sort of
generous. Chris and Adam saw him flash his lights but kept going. Pete had no
option but to stop, I gather.
I cringed when I saw the road works signs indicating about three kilometers of road reconstruction, but was surprised and relieved to find it hard packed and smooth after recent rain. Thanks, Geoff, for patiently rear riding in the absence of Pete through that.
From Poowong we headed back
towards Drouin through Athlone and waited at the Lang Lang road for the ride to
reassemble. This took some time! The ride broke up at that point and Rhys and
Geoff headed home via Lang Lang. A few of us took the Highway to
It was a fun day with only the
one incident (Pete's ticket), and, although overcast, we managed not to get
wet. We didn’t end up anywhere near
Kate Stewart (Honda CBR250RR)