Reefton and Black Spurs Sunday
Honda CBR954 Paul Southwell (leader) Yamaha YZF1000 Trevor Harris
Honda CBR929 Ben Warden Honda CBR929 Ian Payne (rear)
Suzuki GSXR1000 Danny Kosinski Suzuki GS1200 Ron Johnston
I’m enjoying riding with the Club. Today I’m allowed out if I clean the place when I get home. You beauty! Fifth ride in a row after not having ridden since February.
Being a wet, overcast day, I was hoping for a run up to Yea instead of heading into the hills. Looking at the sky I thought it was almost a done deal. Upon seeing Paul he calls out, ‘I hope you’ve got more clothes under there than last week!’ so we’re going into the hills.
It’s a nice run to Healesville, out the Cockatoo road, past a Ulysses group coming the other way, through Warburton to Reefton. The roads thus far have looked super-slippery with diesel splotches all over the place, and it hasn’t been at all enjoyable. Besides, my hands are cold, even with Damart inner-gloves. L We regroup at the bridge, which took about a minute, as there were only five of us. Ben looks to be enjoying himself and glad to be back on the bike after a few weeks’ absence and Ian appeared to be pushing Trevor along after his two months without a fix.
Riding Reefton is always nice. I found it was grippy for accelerating and braking but I was uneasy in the corners. I’d found my comfortable lean angle and repeated it for most corners. It felt nice. There were no rainbows of diesel on the road but the bark soon took over which limited cornering lines. I’d counter-steer into the corner by making the front wheel lean the bike and then make small adjustments with it as the back wheel held the lean constant. A little bit of throttle to take some weight off the front and the bike felt like it was loving it as much as I was.
Regroup and wipe fog off inside of visors at Cumberland Junction.
After the Lake
Mountain turnoff we encountered an oncoming stream of cars and coaches. Must be sightseers –
Lunch at Marysville bakery took advantage of the ‘two for one’ coffees. It’s been a nice ride. There’s mist visible on the nearby hills. Ian mentioned that the Triumph Club are to have lunch here today, and two minutes later over twenty assorted Trumpy’s roll into town. I don’t think there was anyone under fifty years old.
As we’re gearing up, Ron pulls up, mentions he needs fuel and starts to chat… ‘Get the fuel, Ron!’… then we were off.
The Black Spur is almost oil free but very wet as we participate in the slowest ‘steam-train’ of all time. Traffic lights are back due to part of the road falling away a few weeks ago, between the two parks, and we all got through on the green without needing to stop.
Following Ron, his lines looked like mangled spaghetti, which works for him, so it didn’t surprise me when he mentioned his back end moved around while I was behind him. It was an awesome sight though, seeing a big bike like the bandit squirming under its hundred and twenty horsepower.
Riding across to Yarra Glen felt like a different ride. The dry roads enabled improved lean angles and our beloved mediocre tyre wear to return ;) My odometer showed 155km from YG to YG, where we went our own ways. Paul, thanks for leading and Ian for being our rear-rider.
Danny Kosinski (Suzuki
GSXR1000)