Mt Baw Baw Sunday 18^th March, 2007

Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Darryn Webster	Kawasaki ZX6
Tony Raditsis (Lead Rider)	Yamaha TRX850	Cameron Stevens	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ron Johnston (Rear Rider)	Suzuki GSF1200	Breht Emmerson	Suzuki GSXR 600
Matt Brice (2^nd ride)	Suzuki GSXR 1000	Ben Warden	Honda CBR 954
Dave Ward	Suzuki GSXR600		9 bikes, 9 people

Nine riders decided to go for a ride today rather than either go to, or stay at home and watch, the Melbourne F1 Grand Prix. It was a few more than I anticipated, but about five less than Dave thought would turn up, considering the twenty five degree sunny forecast.

Tony gave us the pre-ride brief and, just and as we were about to head off, Ben seemed to appear from nowhere. Tony informed him of who the rear rider was and we set off on our way.

At the start of the Chum Creek Road we saw a bloke trundling along on a 12V electric Yamaha DXRRR wheel chair on the road, the type normally seen doing 10 km/h down the foot path in a dead straight line. He was giving way to no-one. Where his rego sicker and license plate was, I don’t know. Good for him, I say. It’s probably my future. J

All was going well until we turned up Don Road in Healesville; Ben missed the (non-existent? …Ed.) corner marker and went straight down the main street of Healesville. Paul gave chase after a while but wasn’t able to catch him. Upon Paul’s return, we pressed on as per the planned route, thinking that we’d probably meet up with him again in Noojee.

The ride section between Powelltown and Noojee was interrupted by an incident. A senior citizen had decided to do a U-turn in the middle of the valley section of road, preceding a blind right hand corner. Not very smart to say the least. This caused Paul to crash and Dave a near miss. The damage to Paul’s bike was a broken front brake lever and significant cosmetic damage to both sides of the bike (quote $8K …Ed). Paul pushed on to Noojee with the rest of us where the absence of Mr Warden was noted. Paul decided that he’d limp home because the bikes braking system wasn’t fully functional. He’d count the bruises on his body in the morning.

The accident happened in a 100 km per hour zone. I understand Paul’s frustration at having a bent bike, but the physical toll could have been a lot worse.

After a quick fuel stop and morning tea at Noojee we headed to the top of Mt Baw Baw. About half way up we met our beloved Club Secretary, Ben, looking a bit like a lost sheep. He told us that it wasn’t until he got to the other side of Healesville that he noticed something was wrong. He assumed because he went the long way into Yarra Junction that he was behind us when in fact he was ahead of us. Ben continued heading back down the mountain and home, to fulfil family obligations.

We had a very quick regroup at the top of the mountain. Breht decided to head home via Marysville. The pack went back down the mountain turning left at Icy Creek and on to Moe for lunch.

Lunch time talk was dominated by the talk of scooters. Darryn had just bought a Vespa which he commutes two up on into the city and back every day and Dave had just bought a Yamaha YW100 BEEWEE for Bronwyn to ride to and from work. Apparently they go and handle better than one would think. A decision was made that we didn’t need fuel and so we set sail.

Old Sale Road to Buln Buln, right to Crossover twisties and then left at a Neerim for Jindavick. Matt decided that he had to go into the town for fuel and Dave accompanied him. We met them both again at the break up point on the Princes Highway. All up we covered 320 km from start to finish; the ride was good mix of open sweepers and tight stuff. Thanks Tony for leading and Ron for going rear. Bye for now.

Cameron Stevens