Toora Wind
Farm 21st September, 2003
Honda CBR929 Ian
Payne Yamaha YZF1000 Trevor
Harris
Honda CBR929 Ben
Warden (leader) Yamaha R6 Tamzin Knight
Honda CBR929 Damian
Czarnecki Augusta
F4 Dave Ward
Honda CBR954 Rob
Jones Kawasaki
ZX9 Rhys Williams
Honda CBR954 Paul
Southwell Triumph
955 Mark Easterbrook (rear)
Honda CBR929 Pete
Weyermayr Suzuki GSXR600 Craig Davison
Honda CBR919 Liz
Oliver BMW
R1100S Darryl Chivers
Honda CBR1100XX Aaron
Carmiste KTM 950LC8 Rob Langer
Honda CBR600 Greg
2nd
ride
Yamaha TRX850 Tony
Raditsis (2nd ride?)
Honda CBR929 Greg
Hales Kawasaki ZX9
Dave Hives
Honda CB400 Ron
Johnston Kawasaki
ZX12R Clifford Peters
18 members, 22 bikes and riders, 11 Hondas, 8 Blades!
Sunday, a Gippsland ride, and the forecast was typically Melbourne winter: a bit of sun, heaps of wind. Well, we were going to a wind farm after all.
I was keen not to be late to Hallam, so keen that it cost me a cool $200…what a start to the day.
Considering the weather forecast (gale force winds, cold, rain, etc), it was a great turn up. Big rides still attract keen riders, in fact 22 of them, even if it did look like the Honda Club. Ben gave the usual run down, Mark put his hand up for the rear duties and we headed off down the long, boring section of Highway picking up Darryl at the Berwick exit. Then on to the usual route via Tynong, Longwarry and the back way into Drouin.
Heading south off towards Korumburra the pace picked up decidedly as riders settled down to handle both the road conditions and the wind. Ron Johnston’s CB was working overtime down some of the longer stretches. I couldn’t help but smile at the angles some bikes were on, just in a straight line. Getting closer to Korumburra, the road conditions seemed to get pretty tricky as big winds seemed to come from nowhere, causing a huge effort on right-handers, and conversely, the bike diving in on left-handers.
A break and food at Korumburra were a welcome respite. Dave Ward had to head for home as work duties dictated, so he headed back with Tamzin, leaving the rest of us to push on to Toora.
The road down through Inverloch and Fish Creek to Toora was quite interesting as were the back blocks of Foster and Toora as we picked our way via some side streets to the Wind Farm. The turbines are really quite a sight and, standing looking at them, I couldn’t see what all the fuss is about. I’m told they can be pretty noisy, but I couldn’t hear anything from the big blades. The wind was blowing a gale down there so I guess they’ve picked a perfect place for them.
With people getting a tad hungry it was on to Welshpool for lunch via twisty, sometimes gravel-in-the- corners back roads around Agnes Falls. With over 200 km covered, it was time for fuel. Dave Hives, Rob Jones and Craig Davison left us at Welshpool to head off on their own path.
After an epic ordering of hamburgers, refueling, etc and a bit of BS, we took off for Mirboo North. Down the highway towards Yarram, past Alberton and turn left, heading for Balook, the road surface turns to dirt. We stop, I’m damn sure I hear 5 km mentioned, and then we’re off again on magnificent hard packed sand…smooth as…well, for a while at least. About 8 kays in and there’s a lot of large gravel and stones, and twiggy remnants of fallen trees being cleared. My rear tyre is pretty shabby and all I could think about was getting a puncture. By the time we’d covered 14 km the road reverted to bitumen and Ben’s rear tyre was flat on the bottom. Fifty metres on we pulled into Bulga National Park, where Ben and Pete, with a lot of verbal assistance, plugged the apparent leak. It was all good until about 30 km later around Taralgon South when Ben’s rear tyre let him down again. Two more plugs… About now I thought ‘well, we’ll probably stop at Morwell for air’…but no, we turned left and headed out through Churchill, and “let’s get on the gas”.
Just past Boolarra I catch up to our intrepid leader, only to see that pesky rear tyre looking decidedly unwell. It was tough but I passed the leader (Club rule?) and we all waited at Mirboo North.
Ben rode on slowly till the bead on the tyre let go. Then, with the help of Liz and Mark, got the Blade to a farm where he left it, getting pillioned into town with Mark on the Daytona. It was starting to get pretty late by now and most people were keen to get on the move. Mark led out, with Ben as pillion, and, as far as I know, a nice quick, uneventful trip back to Drouin (final fuel and breakup) and then home via the Highway for every one.
Around 550 km for the day…none too bad for winter. Thanks Ben and Mark. Great effort!
Rhys Williams
(Kawasaki ZX9)
p.s. Ben, Julie and trailer retrieved the Blade on Monday night, a 350 km epic, but after fitting the 29th rear tyre on Tuesday night Ben’s now back in business…