Lavers Hill via the Great Ocean Road Sunday 21^st March, 2004

Honda CBR929 Peter Weyermayr (lead) Suzuki GSXR1000 Cliff Peters

Honda CBR929 Ben Warden Suzuki GSXR1000 Derek Tomlison (rear)

Honda CBR929 Ian Payne Yamaha R6 Joel Haley

Honda CBR954 Liz Oliver Honda VTR1000 Patrick Davey

Honda CBR600 Jean-Yves Avenard Honda CB400 Ron Johnston

Honda VFR800 Bruce Saville Kawasaki ZX7R Tim Walker

Twelve bikes, eight Hondas at West Gate Shell Servo for a 9.30am early start. Along with the Porche Car Club. And of course there were thousands of cyclists riding across the West gate Bridge as part of the Great Victorian Bike Ride, all very conspicuous in their bright orange T-shirts and black cycle shorts. And after Pete outlined the route, it wasn’t long before we were amongst them, though the police had cordoned off the left hand lanes of the bridge exclusively for their use, squashing the other road users into the remaining two lanes.

Heading down the monotonous Geelong Road I had time to reflect: was this a Committee Ride? After-all, 7 out of 8 Committee persons were present, with only Kate missing. And they ALL were riding Hondas. Even Ron has converted, though he claims the big Suzi is not to far away from a glorious return.

Having lost sight of the Porche Club we now found ourselves passing the more sedate Vintage Car Club with lots of very old (1939) but very well maintained Jaguar beauties from a long gone era. And there were a couple of old Mercs in there as well. I am sure Ian was salivating, given his past connections with car clubs. Of course, on the other side of the road we were treated to a continuous procession of Ulysses Club members returning home from their nationwide AGM held in Geelong the previous night with something like 5,000 attendees. You have never seen so many trailers, trikes, and large touring bikes in your life. We were to encounter them, everywhere, all day, in some cases holding up the cars, particularly along the Great Ocean Road.

I corner marked the Little River exit. Soon afterwards, I came across Ron stopped at the side of the road. This is about where he got to last time before he called it quits on his 400. That day we had a strong head wind and Ron felt he would be holding up the ride and thrashing his engine mercilessly, and hence retired. I thought, “Not again”, but then noticed Ron attempting to reattach his visor. A brand new Laser Helmet, the visor ripped off when he opened it at speed. Cross that model off the potential replacement helmet list. After stowing the visor, Ron continued on using his sunglasses for wind protection. He suffered for most of the day, eventually taping the visor to the helmet at Lavers Hill.

We worked our way through Lara and across the back roads of Geelong picking up the Moriac Road. Somewhere along here Ian pulled over. It turned out he was ringing Patrick to notify him of our first stop – Lorne – not Anglesea. Coming from Ballarat, this time without a pillion after last week’s marathon effort, it made sense to join the ride part way. At Moriac Jean-Yves stopped for fuel on his brand new CBR600 in Yamaha blue. With only a 16 litre tank and the first stop 160 km, he wasn’t taking any chances. Liz also took advantage of the unscheduled stop while the rest of the riders continued on, enjoying the fast sweepers. If only the weather would warm up!

Now following Pete from Deans Marsh to Lorne we encountered relatively fresh bitumen – the type where they spray and then add stones. The surface was very coarse and not well worn in the middle. It looked dodgy, but was not as bad as it appeared. Pete did get crossed up under brakes, his rear end hopping and skipping about. It turned out Pete still had his Broadford Superbike School track settings from a week ago – rear damping wound up. It worked on the smooth track, not on a bumpy road.

At Lorne some refuelled. Of course, there was barely anywhere to park, bikes everywhere, and for once, in the majority. Rumours of a silver, unmarked police Falcon circulated, but proved unfounded. But there were a hell of a lot of silver cars between Lorne and Lavers Hill, generating some unpleasant moments.

After a brief stop Pete was off. It took me a while to catch him. He appeared to be in licence preserving mode and waved us on. There were an enormous number of cars, buses and bikes on the road. Almost every overtaking opportunity was stymied by oncoming vehicles. Almost. I switched into racer mode, got on the gas, gritted my teeth, and left. Bruce had his race face on as well, his bike nicely set up with new tyres, new chain and sprockets and a full service, providing him with boundless confidence. So, I wasn’t altogether surprised to see Bruce (and then Ian) reappear in my mirrors on one of the longer straights, despite the ugly traffic. Then Bruce overtook me, with a big grin. I passed him back a couple of times around the outside just to keep him honest and broaden his grin. And then Cliff sorted us all out on the high speed run into Lavers Hill. I was just happy to keep him in sight. He knows this road very well.

First into Lavers Hill servo meant I had to surrender my mobile phone as surety I would not abscond with a tank of fuel. Only then would they turn on the pumps – diesel, or premium unleaded at $109.9 cents per litre. Cripes. $19.33 for 17.65 litres to fill the tank for the 275 km from home or 250 km from the start. A new dollar record. No wonder they wanted my phone. Petrol is liquid gold out here. Similarly, the shop prices match the pump prices in scale. Always have. Always will. Pie: $5.50, 2 dim sims: $1.20. Not ideal weight loss material but the cheapest on the menu! I did like the look of Pete and Liz’s salad rolls.

Everyone was having a good time: the weather was now marginally warmer with the sun occasionally breaking through, no cops, roads grouse as per usual, tyre wear extreme. Rear rider Derek was getting a buzz out of his GSXR, so much so that on Monday he emailed me with a request for a membership form. And so too Jean-Yves, a regular rider – one a year for the past three years, and hence now qualified to join. At Moriac, he completed the necessary documentation and paid for the remaining part of this and next year as well.

While lunching, Allan Zimmer rocked up on the new Kawasaki ZX10. What a beast. He allowed a few of us to sit on it. He was running in a demo bike for Brighton Kawasaki, having known Ken from his apprenticeship days. A dirty job; someone’s got to do it. At this stage I remembered I had the trusty digital camera to capture this ‘Kodak moment’. We goaded Tim into having a sit on it. His trusty ZXR has now got over 80,000 km on it. Kawasaki doesn’t even make sport 750s anymore. The ZX10 is unbelievably light, 180 HP. Hmm. A bit different from my (and Rhys’s and Dave Ward’s) old ZX10s: 40 more horsepower, 50 kilograms lighter.

Back the 48 km to Apollo Bay for fuel, then up the Skene’s Creek Road, following Bruce and Pete, ducking and weaving through the spitting stones. (Note: just before Apollo Bay, Ron and Cliff were spotted unexpectedly at the side of the road. Cliff was heading back to Portland and home to the farm, bidding Ron farewell.) Pete found the tricky right hander back to Dean’s Marsh. The group was now riding in relatively close formation, only a minute between leader and rear rider, insufficient time to clean my visor. I waved Derek on, and then had to go like a cut cat before the Winchelsea turnoff. There was a bit of excitement as Jean-Yves had sailed through the intersection, realising too late he was supposed to turn. No harm done.

Break-up in Lara at the BP. I headed for the Freeway. They have murdered the Little River road, reducing the speed limit to 80 km/h for some unknown reason. It is dead straight with good visibility everywhere. Hence the Freeway is slightly more attractive at the end of the day. There was one of those overhead speed indicators. I tried to calibrate my speedo but picked the lane that wasn’t working. Surprisingly, there are no cameras on this road, and, with an eye in the mirrors, good returns can be achieved. I caught a couple of members and together we worked our way through the heavy traffic, diverging at the Bolte Bridge exit.

Home by 5.10pm with only one fill for the day and 530 km showing on the trip meter. One of Ron’s remaining Dunlop 208GPs (rear tyre) survived the ride, working faultlessly. The right hand side fork seal is talking to me. I guess 109,000 km is a fair innings. Could be a job for Easter. Thanks Pete for a great ride in excellent company.

Ben Warden (Honda CBR929)