EILDON – 28th
September 2003
Suzuki GSXR1000 Ray Walker - LEADER
Honda CBR929 Craig Morley, Emma ? 1ST
REAR RIDER
Suzuki GSXR1000 Derek
Tomlinson-long lost member returning to the fold, 2ND REAR RIDER
Kawasaki KLR650 Ian Black - started riding back in 1996,
been on a couple of rides this month
Aprilia RSV1000 Colin Edwards replica, Ken Wright,
new bike
Honda CB400 Ron Johnston
Honda CBR600 Di Welsford
Suzuki GSXR750 Troy Dykstra, booked in Yea for
monoing in front of cop
Honda CBR929 Greg Hales, no hair this week, back
on the diet, new leather pants
Honda CBR929 Pete Weyermayr/Liz Oliver; Liz picks
up new bike Saturday
Kawasaki ZX9 Dave Hives
Honda CBR954 Rob Jones
Yamaha R1 Geoff Jones
KTM950 Rob Langer
Honda CBR954 Paul Southwell
Honda CBR929 Ben Warden
Honda CBR1100XX James Cantwell, 1st ride,
lasted as far as Healesville, “Club too fast”
Kawasaki ZXR750 Damian Herbert, 1st ride
Triumph 955 Kurt McEnaney,
1st ride
Kawasaki ZX9R Justin Knight, 1st ride
Honda CBR919 Travis Luke, 1st ride
Kawasaki ZX9 Cliff Dobbie, 1st ride
Daytona 900 Scott Young, 2nd
ride
Honda VTR1000 Ross McCurdy, 4th ride
24 bikes, 26 people, 17 deg
forecast, cold north wind (AND SNOW UP AT REEFTON)
10.15am
– Yarra Glen to Warburton – 77 km
Back
from holidays one week and already getting roped into a write-up – this’ll be a
short one as I’m still in “can’t be bothered” mode! As most of the info from the ride is listed above in the list of
names I might just leave it at that, just kidding, I suppose I’d better make a
bit of an effort.
I
turned up at Yarra Glen to find a lot of unfamiliar faces. I wasn’t sure if it was my long break from
the Club or a lot of first timers. On receiving the above list I now know it
was the latter. New faces, new
leathers, new bikes-so many changes, it must be about time to change the Club
name again!
Back to
the task at hand – the ride…We headed out to Healesville to go up the Chum
Creek Road and down the Toolangi Road – at which point one of our first timers
decided the Club was a bit fast for him and headed off for a ride on his
own. The rest of us headed across the
normal way to the Warbie Highway and straight up to Warburton for a morning tea
break.
With an
invitation (or rather, challenge!) from Ray to overtake the leader – if we
could catch him! – we headed off to the Reefton where, for the first time in my
life, I saw snow on the Reefton. Feels
a bit strange when I was scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef just over a
week earlier! I think it’s time for me
to head back north – my fingers were losing circulation! The snow was also covered in bark and there
were several huge branches (or small trees?!) on the other side of the
road. Our rear rider (Craig) decided he
could no longer sit at the back and took off through the field (probably trying
to take up Ray’s challenge!). The
trivia challenge at the end of the Reefton was what bike belonged to the blue
bits of fairing that Craig found lying on the ground! I don’t know if they ever did reach a verdict.
The
snow was much heavier on the section from the end of the Reefton through to
Lake Mountain and there were a lot of snow patches on the road so I took it
really easy, especially after my rear tyre kicked out on a bit on ice. Greg told me he saw my bike do it, then his
bike did the same - must have been an icy section. Beautiful to look at, but a little nerve-wracking to ride
on. However, everyone made it through
without incident, so they must have adjusted their riding accordingly.
Straight
through Marysville, on to Buxton and a slow trip up the Highway to Taggerty,
then Eildon. What can I say? Some nice,
open, fast sweepers and lots of fun!
At
lunchbreak in Eildon, where we now all avoid the café that takes forever to
serve, we settled down on the picnic tables and caught up on all the goss. It seems Ken is going to meet Colin Edwards
when he comes out to Australia because he
bought the Colin Edwards replica Aprilia. Liz is also looking forward to getting a new bike, but settled
for being pillion for the day with Pete.
I
offered to take over rear-rider duties at this point but was told Derek had
already taken over. I think Craig was
itching to chase Ray!
After
about 2pm we headed off along the Skyline Road where Ian Black had to stop and
take off his numberplate as it was only holding on by one screw. Through Alexandra, along the good ol’
Molesworth Road and through Yea. As I
rode out of Yea I noticed Troy being booked by the 4WD cop. I found out later he had not noticed the cop
in his rear-view mirror and popped a mono right in front of him. Apparently having a father who’s a cop may
have helped because he was booked for doing 78 in a 60 zone, but there was no
ticket for careless riding.
We
finished at Kinglake West at about 4pm, cold as always. I didn’t hang around long because I haven’t
yet acclimatised to this Melbourne weather!
Thanks, Ray, for leading the ride; thanks Craig and Derek for going
rear-rider and a thanks to me for doing the write-up!
Di
Welsford (Honda CBR600)