Lancefield 8^th May, 2005

Triumph Sprint ST Ern Reeders( rear) Suzuki GSXR1000 Breht Stuart (1^st ride)

Honda CBR929 Ben Warden Suzuki GSXR1000 Danny Hasnat

Yamaha R6 Joel Haley Suzuki GSXR1000 Chris Pointon

Bandit 1200 Ron Johnston (leader) Honda CBR954 Steve Cowburn

Honda CBR1100 Peter Feistl Honda VFR800 Anders Plemge

Honda CBR1100 Martin Hastie Suzuki TL1000S Frank Kopacka (1^st ride)

It’s a brisk morning with the sun shedding a clear but cold light on the riders gathering on Whittlesea’s United forecourt. Time to catch up with old mates and say hello to a couple of new guys … asking if this is the MSTCV or the MCTSV, or was it the MTSVC. Yeah guys, any of those will do.

Ronnie’s leading and gives a cryptic outline of the route. I volunteer to be tail-end charlie given I’m running in my new Trumpy Sprint. (And I know the cracking pace that el bandito will set).

My resolution fails though as we head up the twisties after the Toorourong Reservoir turn-off. With a motor like a turbine I can’t resist rapping her out and leave Anders behind who has more respect for his license than I have for mine at that moment. But I drop back at the top and he catches up.

Outside of Flowerdale and on to Strath Ck. all the throttles are opened wide, very wide, and I’m barely keeping pace. Tyres have warmed, passions have warmed and I doubt that anyone’s feeling the cold. The Tyak bends do their normal job of testing what the riders bring to the ride. Then it’s on to and out of Broadford. More testing. Long bumpy narrow stretches of the black stuff followed by bends dosed with gravel. It’s 110% concentration here or you’re off. This convinces me that off-the-peg suspension is a health hazard and I decide to book the Trumpy into Promecha to get some cheap life insurance.

The names of the towns flash by. Lancefield, Vaughan Springs (where Ball and Welch was started by two women on the goldfields), Hepburn Springs, Daylesford. One of our number is pulled over and hassled.

Lunch takes some time; some of the group have commitments and head off. The rest of us queue for fuel. It takes time. A woman in an SUV occupies one of the two queues to use the windscreen washer to go over the front, then the back then the side windows. Then ambles off to pay. Then comes out and does a u-turn into the other queue to start again. Lordy!

We finally get off and head down to Trentham and Greendale. The speed outstrips the Trumpy’s safety margin and I’m well behind the others. And the hunched over posture is giving me curry; it’s a long way from the sit-up-and-beg posture of the TDM. We head off and pull into Bacchus Marsh and I’m a quick wave to Ronnie and off. Not polite of me but the muscles brook no argument. Thanks to Ronnie for the brisk ride, as always.

………….

The Sprint is a run-out ’04 model with factory panniers. Pearl of a motor and excellent stoppers. Makes me realise how hard I’d been working to keep up on the TDM850 and how well she did when asked. Not an unmixed blessing though. In the first 2,000 km the fuel gauge dies, grease leaks out of the rear hub onto the back brake, and a nut comes off the sub-frame and unbelievably ends up rattling round inside the drive sprocket cover. Finally, about 5 kay out of Strath Creek., on a solo ride, it popped the nipple on the crankcase end of the clutch cable and I’m left stranded almost at the top of the Tyak bends. Thank heavens my mobile is CDMA and I get a signal by scrambling to the top of the saddle. Takes nine minutes though to get through to the RACV, leaving the battery close to flat. Wallan RACV ring back and say they’ll get to me in about 50 minutes, but it’s outside of their zone and I’ll need to pay extra. Sort it out with the RACV says I. OK says them. Meantime four cars stop offering help, inc. the Broadford Mower and Motorcycle place – they can take her into the workshop and solder on a nipple. Tempting, but no, the Wallan guy said he was on his way, so I decline. But then he leaves a message to say the job’s been passed on to Yea.

So, two hours after the call, the Yea guy arrives with his flatbed – outside of his zone too, he says, but he can’t leave a member stranded. Hallelujah. An hour later the Yea servo mechanics hum and hah and say no, can’t do anything. So the Trumpy gets locked away and I while away a couple of hours eating and sipping at the Yea Country Club hotel. Good tucker, good service and a fine Mansfield-made Pinot start to unlock the outraged fibres. At the end of an equally solitary meal in the bistro a guy comes across and offers a lift to Melbourne. He’s a Guzzi-riding Ulysses member. But he’s off to the East and I need to get to the North so I regretfully decline.

My partner arrives from Melbourne and after a coffee we head back to town.

The RACV gets a blast the next day for the pass-the-parcel crap. They offer to pay to transport the bike from Yea to Broadford to fix the cable. Encouraged, I ring Peter Stevens’ service dept in the City. The manager knows about the other faults and offers to ship the Sprint back to Melbourne and get her properly fixed and sorted. Later in the day I talk to PS manager; he listens to five minutes of invective, apologises, insists the bike will be taken care of, offers the next service free and thanks me for keeping the faith. This is a good start to re-establishing the faith.

Doug, on the spare-parts counter, at Peter Stevens, has gone out of his way to ensure a cable is available. Even rings back at the end of the day to see how things are progressing.

So, two and a half working days later, the Sprint is ready to pick up. Full marks to Peter Stevens manager and staff.

Scouring the newsgroups and talking to Sprint-riding acquaintances on email, it sounds like I’ve been unlucky. Hope so. I’m up to 3,300 km, the rear tyre will be cactus in about another 1,000 km or so, and I’m looking forward to putting some decent rubber on her and starting to push harder. Promecha have worked over the suspension; there’s a Rad Guard fitted as well as crash knobs, a hugger, bar risers, and relays to run both headlights on low and high beam. Ben has given useful advice (as always) on how to get some more compliance out of the front end.

The days are getting colder though. Lucky I got a Sprint with grip warmers. And there’s a power outlet with a standard socket for a heated vest. Would I be a wuss and get one? I’d have to go to a BMW dealer. We’ll see.

Ern Reeders