Lancefield                             Sunday 12th November, 2006

 

Trevor Harris (leader)

Yamaha YZF1000

Ben Warden

Honda CBR1000

Renzo Cunico (rear rider)

Honda VFR750

Bevan Roberts

Suzuki GSXR750

 

Full pre-ride carried out on Saturday, so I hope not to take any wrong turns today.

 

Yarra Glen for a 10 am start.  It's Greensborough, Eltham and the Christmas Hills route for me, so I arrive at Yarra Glen and fill up.  I find that there is the whole four of us today, so it will be easy to arrange Who Does What: Trevor (leader), Ben and Bevan (corner markers) and Renzo (rear rider).  The weather forecast is average with showers, so that explains the small turnout I guess.  A brief rundown on where we are going, skip the corner-marking explanation as we all know it and we head off on the first leg.

 

Old Healesville Road to… Healesville with some damp patches to keep things interesting. Up the Myers Creek road and across to Toolangi, Mt Slide and Kinglake.  I'd told the group that if they wanted to pass me on the St Andrews to Kinglake road they were to beep and go, so Ben and Bevan did just that.  Closely followed by a cop on a bike.  "This is not looking good" I think, expecting one or two sad faces and empty wallets to be seen soon.  Renzo and I travel along at a sensible pace - just as well as another bike cop is soon seen in the mirrors.  And a TOG car heads up the hill past us. This is looking very over-policed this morning.  Not what I had in mind when I planned the day.

 

So...  Renzo and I get to St Andrews where we are stopped by a few MORE cops and breath tested.  Ben is there having a licence check, and Bevan is being directed to an EPA sound check for his after-market muffler.  Renzo and I get invited to “Check out the Operation Roadsafe caravan” so we take up the offer - not being with Ben and Bevan of course.  Just two responsible older guys out for a ride on a Sunday morning.  Bevan gets measured @101dB and will be writing an 'I'm really a nice guy' letter to try and get off any penalties.

 

The two Responsible Guys wait down the road for Bevan (Ben has already gone by this time.) Bevan eventually shows and we continue on the ride. We meet Ben a few k's away on a quiet stretch and learn that he has been booked for - Nothing!  How does he do it?

 

All happy, it's back to it.  A few roads and we go past the Yan Yean Reservoir and get to Whittlesea for the first official stop of the day.  Comfort stop, fuel and away.  It's the standard route from here, taking in Flowerdale, Strath Creek and Broadford.  Another comfort stop as this leg to Lancefield is around 140 km and I intend to be comfortable! 

 

Roads are now all dry with the occasional gravel on corners thrown out by corner-cutting, car driving dickheads.  (Vic Roads: want a suggestion on how to spend some of that $50 levy on our registrations?  Seal the bloody road edges!)  On to Pyalong, with a quick right/left at the highway.  Great roads, even the 1.5 km of dirt.  We hit the Bourke and Wills track and head down it to Lancefield for lunch.

 

While eating healthy rolls and pies, we chat.  I'd planned a loop of just over 100 km back up the B&W Track, a few other localities and back to Lancefield but the consensus is that after the morning’s interaction with the Officials of the Law that the ride would skip that and head to Wallan to break up.  So we did, via Romsey. 

 

Farewells made, I headed into the bakery to get Barbara a pink lamington and then headed for home.

 

Thanks to all who came.

 

Trevor Harris