Eildon (aka Lancefield) Sunday 7^th May, 2006

Honda CBR1000	Paul Southwell (leader)	Suzuki GSXR1000	Lyn Duncan
Honda CBR929	Ben Warden	Suzuki GSXR1000	Ron Solomon

The forecast wasn’t too flash with rain and hail predicted. Throw in gale force winds and the turnout was always going to be small. But lately, after missing a few rides, and with my waterproof boots keeping things ship shape down below, the urge and pleasure of going for a ride is very strong.

At Yarra Glen I slotted in next to Lyn making a total of 4 bikes and riders. Lyn said she had stopped three times along the way to Yarra Glen suffering with shoulder and neck problems, the exact time and nature the injury occurred unclear, just waking up and feeling sore. Lyn visits the gym almost everyday and confided to Julie that she is bench pressing 120 kgs. Maybe she has strained something.

The weather was closing in so rather than head over towards the Black Spur and Eildon, as the itinerary stated, we headed for Healesville, up Chum Creek Road to Toolangi and then the Melba Highway to Glenburn, across to Flowerdale and up to Yea for morning tea at 11 am after 80 km.

Paul had a new set of Dunlop Qualifiers on, convincing Red Wing to give him a set at the right price. The deal was for him to provide real-world feedback with his ‘tester’ hat on. Good work if you can get it. He had ridden the Chum Creek road on Saturday and was smooth and fast, despite the wet and bark strewn roads, pulling away from Ron and I in the tighter stuff.

Ron had slotted into the rear riding position, his first ride with us after 5 months or so. His wrist is still giving him curry but he is finally committed to seeing a doctor this week to get to the bottom of it. He has given up the cigarettes after an epiphany riding solo down to Apollo Bay and realising that he wasn’t in fact sharing the cigarettes around, he was consuming them all himself – at a great rate. He had also started a no bread diet, indigestion a real problem when riding (something that quite a few of us can identify with, the shape of modern tanks not helping), to the point of not eating all day. I pointed out that this probably leads to low blood sugar levels and hence early fatigue where the ability to concentrate for long periods diminishes. He noted he had been having a few close calls late in the day.

See, blokes can talk about health issues.

Paul has a definite liking for the Highlands Road so we decided to head for Seymour and reassess the weather and ride route. It had been pretty cold so far, but hadn’t stopped a large group of Hondas on a Jeffery Honda organised ride getting out and taking up all the centre parking places in Yea. They even had a recovery vehicle along for the ride. They must had started early to be at Yea by 10.30 or so.

We lunched at Mrs Macs Hamburger Place on the main street in Seymour before heading off to Pyalong and Emu Flat. Amazingly, the sun had poked its head out in Seymour and all was well with the world. It was great to be out riding and was warming up nicely. At Emu Flat we did the right left jiggle across to Baynton and that 1.3 km of dirt, in better condition than last week on Trev’s ride. Then left onto the Bourke and Wills Track to do the good twisty roads heading back to Lancefield. Alas, the weather had closed in again and the roads were wet.

Rounding the last right hander, riding nose to tail, me closer to Paul than Ron to me – Ron hates the stones and chips and I had copped a couple of wacks from sticks already – we were confronted with a Falcon with tandem trailer loaded with three large cylindrical hay bales doing a very badly executed U-turn, blocking the entire road. The roads were wet and the natural inclination was to drift wide to the right. There was still a small gap between the front of the vehicle and the undergrowth. But that was closing too.

Paul came to a complete stop a metre or so short, concentrating very hard on not locking up the rear wheel. I managed to squeeze up behind the trailer. Ron was fine. A short exchange between Paul and the driver ensued where blame was apportioned to the other party in strong terms.

At Lancefield we decided to call it a day and head back to Wallan, first down the highway to Romsey and then left onto the Darraweit Guim Road. A massive black cumulo-nimbus cloud was chasing us from the west and it was beginning to rain but we out ran it – until we turned south and copped the full brunt of the wind, and now hail. The road turned white and we slowed to accommodate the conditions. I dropped my GPz900 once in thick hail leaving a basketball game where the 16” front wheel just disappeared and hence have been a little apprehensive in hail ever since. Heading east again we outran the storm, the final left hander running into Wallan slippery as ever, all bikes stepping half a metre or so in the dip.

All up 250 km. Good company. Good roads. Thanks Paul for leading when he could have bailed at the starting point and Ron for rear riding duties and sharing a few stories. For instance, he has been investigating an annoying clutch shudder problem with the Suzuki K5s and K6s that people have been complaining about. He has made an internal modification to the clutch which seems to have cured it. Contact Ron for more information.

Ben Warden