Eildon via Torbreck River 5^th February, 2006

Honda CBR1000	Joel Haley	Suzuki GSXR1000	Lyn Duncan
Honda CBR1000	Paul Southwell	Suzuki GSXR1000	Mark Rigsby
Honda CBR954	Breht Emmerson (leader)	Suzuki GSXR1000	Glenn Forsaith
Honda CBR929	Ben Warden	Suzuki GSXR600	Dave Ward
Honda CBR929	Simon Trubiano	Yamaha R1	Dave Moore
Honda CBR1100XX	Martin Hastie	Yamaha R1	Geoff Jones (rear)
Kawasaki ZX6	Darryn Webster	Yamaha TRX850	Tony Raditsis

Breht led a fantastic ride/day. He started off with an impressively informative pre-ride spiel. It was apparent he had pre-ridden the intended route.

A great turn out at the Yarra Glen pickup with newly acquired bikes almost out numbering old ones. Mark had picked up an immaculate `03 GSXR1000 Thursday and brought it along to his first General Meeting. That’s making an entrance: polished alloy, add ons and extras everywhere. What a beauty.

Glenn has only had his new `04 GSXR1000 since one week before Xmas. Dave’s pristine GSXR600 has already done the Social Sip scene straight after the Xmas Camp and was delivered by Bronwyn. It’s real debut was Towong, today only it’s second real outing.

Breht, only about his fourth ride not counting the Xmas camp was on his beautiful blue CBR954. Darryn’s Kawasaki ZX6 hasn’t been around that long either. Joel, turned up on a brand new Black Blade CBR1000RR, the gem of the day.

Then there was the rest of us: Paul on `04 CBR1000RR, possibly the novelty just starting to fade. Martin and his Blackbird; Tony, always happy with his TRX; Geoff on his trusty R1; Simon, whose 929 looked a little beaten up latter on; Ben, it’ll go for ever probably Blade, and me, I want a new one. What can you say: Dave Moore on a one-of-a-kind R1 rat.

We set out on the back road towards Healesville, then left on to Chum Creek Road. It didn’t take long to get to the good stuff. Dave, Dave, Darryn, Tony, Ben, and Paul (geez, just about everyone) rounded me up before Toolangi turn off for Myers Creek Road. Paul had backed off now and I was able to enjoy his company riding ahead of me into Healseville. Man, there’s bikes everywhere.

Our group rode sedately up the hill through the 80 km/h zone, getting swamped by an eager bunch but catching them up within the first few corners, the dust still settling.

Ben and Paul were in front of me now. It was grouse keeping up, made easy probably because of a couple of traffic delays. Glen was behind me, but I lost him towards the last few turns. Maybe the boat was a problem.

Glen and I corner marked at Narbethong. Eric Makin and company, not on our ride but live out that way also stopped at the corner. Half our group stopped to say g‘day while waiting for the rear rider to arrive. Then off to Marysville for half a salad sandwich, thanks Ben. Well done Geoff who was also eating healthily. Val would be proud, especially with the enormous number of culinary temptations.

It’s good to catch up with Geoff who I haven’t seen since before Christmas. The same goes for Joel. Then I spotted more Club members who I haven’t seen for about 3 years, Tom and Andi, looking fantastic. They have been helping set up a motard type riding group for a shop owner they know, spending most of their time on dirt lately. It was wonderful to see them though I didn’t even get a chance to ask what they were riding because we were already heading back to our bikes.

Breht leads on up to Buxton, Taggerty, Thornton and finally the turnoff for the tricky, hard to read, Mt. Torbrek Road. It goes to Jamieson but we will just do the 48 km to Big River where the bitumen ends. I’ve corner marked with Ben again, hoping to follow him through the twisties. No chance.

Joel has gone straight through to Eildon to wait, mentioning cramps. Mate, I couldn’t ride relaxed at all. The first few corners were covered in a fine spray of blue metal that lost my trust, faith and nerve. Ben was gone. The sun filtering through the trees made it almost impossible to distinguish the road conditions. Call me a girl cause I’m riding like one. Paul didn’t seem to be enjoying the harsh environment that much either. Simon, succumbing to the difficult riding conditions about 3 kms before the regroup area. He really didn’t feel like smiling for Ben doing our photo shoot. His bike was not looking bad, oggy knobs doing their job.

No swim today! I took off behind Tony. Who knows what mayhem was taking place else where! We’ve casually overtaken Mark, me possibly looking slightly untidy when my boot scrapped as I tipped in further on the left hander as I went around him, startling me for a milli-second. Tony charged away when we got to the white tar. I didn’t like the feed back from the different surface. Was it lifting? Was it loose? I caught back up to Tony sitting corner marking into Eildon for lunch. I enjoyed the ride out much more.

Lunch and it’s great to see Dave able to enjoy the whole day instead of work commitments interfering. Eildon has a new feature: an up-market café, with decking overlooking the pondage. Very nice. But we spent lunch in the grassed courtyard after everyone had ordered. A choice of 5 takeaways is quite bizarre really; it’s just not that busy here. Even the op shop was open.

Mt. Pininger Lookout after lunch. Photos of course. Then we ride over the weir wall and back through town. I really enjoyed this. We rode right past where I used to live which I haven’t seen for ages. The water was up in the weir and they were letting it out into the Goulburn River while we were there.

The road up and around Fraser National Park always has loose stuff on it, always. I stand corrected. Can we do it again please! I wasn’t ready.

On to Alexandra, then the open but immensely enjoyable Molesworth road. Next Yea for some story telling from the Australia Day Weekend at Towong which provided lots of laughs. Then the last stint through my beloved, but now as everywhere, more policed, Flowerdale Road. On the pinch of Junction Hill’s main top left hander, Ben’s just out of sight over the crest, there is a cloud of dust from a van pulling onto the road onto our side from a track on the apex off the right hand side. He can’t see anything to his left, let alone Ben. He is towing trail bikes, has a ute following him, and is blocking the entire lane by the time he stops. There are cars coming from the other way as well now. He would have been saying to his passenger, is there anything coming? He has stopped just short of our side of the road which was probably just short of Ben, by an inch or two, as he went through. It was just short of disaster I think. The track probably shouldn’t be there. And the driver shouldn’t have turned to the right, when he can’t see what’s coming from his left.

Soon forgotten with the great road ahead into Kinglake West, our break up point after 310 km. Heaps and heaps of fun. Geoff, rear riding from Marysville, thankyou. Martin up till then, before heading home, thanks also.

There were ten people on this ride with no volunteers for the article. There’s nothing like variety and the magazine could probably use it.

Lyn Duncan