Towong - Snowy Mountains  Melbourne Cup Weekend 1-4 Nov 2008

 

I waited a year for this ride.  I can still remember the feeling a year ago when I wanted to come for the cup weekend ride but Ben wouldn’t let me.  I wasn’t ready… I needed another year’s riding experience.  I can still remember the deep-felt misery I had all long weekend not being able to ride with the club.  I paid my dues… rode all year and this cup weekend I was able to come.  Ben was right, this is a ride of endurance and I certainly would have struggled.  In fact, after the first day’s ride on Saturday after having done 740 km, I felt a bit weary and wondered if I had the stamina to do 700 km every day; lucky for me, we averaged only 500 km a day.  In total, we did about 2,300km of great riding through vastly different terrain ranging with fast, exhilarating sweepers to tight mountain-top twisties and everything else in between.  My favourite was riding through seemingly endless sweepers through a very isolated pine forest plantation.  The sight, the smell, the feeling… so breathtaking.

Such a wonderful and memorable long-weekend was had – thanks to all the riders who made it so;  your crazy sense of fun is absolutely unique.

 

Pina Garasi

 

Ian Payne

Honda CBR1000

Peter Jones

Yamaha FZ1

Paul Southwell

Honda CBR1000

Pina Garasi

Yamaha R1

Dave Ward

Honda CBR1000

Ron Johnston

Suzuki GSF1200

Misho Zrakic

Honda CBR1000

Cliff Peters

Suzuki GSXR1000

Ben Warden (leader)

Honda CBR954

Greg Trainor

Triumph Daytona 955

Stoimen & Vittoria Stojanov

Honda VT250

 

11 bikes, 12 people

Sat 1st: Melbourne, Yarck, Mansfield, Whitfield, Myrtleford, Rosewhite Rd, Happy Valley Rd, Tangambalanga Rd, Mitta Mitta, Dartmouth Dam, Mitta Mitta, Tallangatta, Granya Gap, Walwa, Tintaldra, Towong.  747 km for Ben; 135 km to get to Yarck

Sun 2nd: Towong, Khancoban, Alpine Way (Tom Groggin, Dead Horse Gap), Thredbo, Jindabyne, Charlotte’s Pass, Jindabyne, Dalgetty, Berridale, Adaminaby, Kiandra, Cabramurra, Khancoban, Towong. 479 km, road surfaces best condition ever, weather brilliant: warm, clear skies

Mon 3rd: Towong, Khancoban, Cabramurra, Elliot wat, Tumbarumba, rosewood Road, Tumut, Bondo, Tumorama, Adjungbilly, near Gundagai, Tumut, Rosewood Road, Tumbarumba, Jingellic, Walwa, Towong. 554 km, heavy rain just before Cabramurra at usual photo spot overlooking dams; two lots of thick fog prior. All cleared by the time we reached Sue City (front cover). No more rain or wet roads for the rest of the weekend.

Tue 4th: Towong, Walwa, Granya Gap, Tallangatta, Tangambalanga Rd, Happy Valley Rd, Rosewhite Road, Myrtleford, Whitfield, Mansfield, Yarck, Melbourne. 435 km to Yarck making 2080 km official ride length. Home to home for Ben 2350 km.

Ian, Paul and Dave started a day early spending the Friday night in Bright, picking up the Falls Creek run and Tawonga Gap a couple of times before joining the main party on Saturday in Myrtleford for lunch.

Accommodation: Ian and Dave stayed in a motel family room in Corryong at $105 per night (another person was to have shared the costs making it $35 per person per night).  The main group stayed in Towong at the Snowy Mountains Bed and Breakfast with hosts Ron and Sarah Vise consisting of two cottages and under house bedrooms. Price was $38 per person per night. Eight of the 10 people were in queen size beds. The B&B is brilliant value with added benefits of kitchen and laundry facilities, bike cleaning facilities, plenty of space, secure, under cover bike parking, spectacular location above the Murray River offering views across the valleys and of the Great divide including Kosciuszko. It is dog, canoe, biker, and fly fishing friendly. The garden is brilliant.

Peter Jones: arrived on his new commuter, a new naked “street fighter” FZ1. Throwover pannier bags completed the ensemble. He wished for his more potent and fully fared R1on more than one occasion.

Stoimen and Vittoria deserve a medal for riding the VT250 two up with rack and full Gearsack bag.  It was an exhausting trip with many stops on the first day with the occasional sleep. They took a more direct route and arrived 5 minutes before us on Saturday, spending the next two days bike-free, enjoying the sights and facilities of the B&B. Rest and recovery for the trip back (!), leaving at sunrise! (around 6 am, having completed packing and 20 minutes yoga). Stoimen (the R1 racer and track marshall extraordinaire) had done some suspension work on the VT including welding up two of the front fork damping orifices so that the damping would actually work!

Misho: riding his brand new, 400 km old yellow 2008 Honda CBR1000 Fireblade. He loves it. An aftermarket rack bolts on with a minimum of fuss – 4 easy to get to external bolts, as compared to my 954 which is a three hour struggle with fairings off, drilling of plastics, relocating blinkers, etc etc. Another tick in the box for the next bike. Stock tyres very soft; lucky to make it home, rear shot.

Pina: survived almost unscathed apart form a minor altercation with an errant car driver poking his car though a stop sign and propping on the Whitfield road, top of the twisties just before town. She braked hard and just touched his driver side door before toppling over, minor cosmetic damage mostly to the rear duck tail seat – which at some other point on the ride ejected itself, sucking out the contents of the under-seat storage. Another recover required. Car driver well into 80’s, not worth getting annoyed about, kept going.

Greg: riding his bright blue, immaculate Triumph with factory hard panniers and top box, possibly carrying clothing for both himself and wife he was due to meet after the ride to continue the Snowy Mountains Odyssey for another few days two up. Faithful rear rider all weekend and skills improved each day. Whole experience somewhat of an eye opener.  Noted chain over tight on Day 3 but with no tools to adjust (single sided swing-arm, 50 mm socket required for axle nut), continued on.  Tight chain degrades rear suspension performance apart from the obvious potential damage to chain, sprockets and output bearing. New roads, new experiences, what’s possible on a bike were some learnings.

Ronny: survived the full 4 days without mishap, either personal or mechanical.  But we had to train the rear riders not to stop for his roadside breaks as he would always catch up.

Ian: first time on many of the roads up this way and he still hasn’t managed to stay at the B&B.  Possibly the last trip on his old CBR, a new 2008 model just around the corner.  Left early with Dave on the last Day, his neck giving him jip.

Cliff: the perfect Club member. Always first with his helmet on, always grinning from ear to ear, never an unkind word, always itching for a bit more riding yet happy to go with the flow, never has bike issues, travels light and long. Remarkably good fellow. Loves the Happy Valley Road!  Misho and I gave up on chasing him (fully loaded, shabby tyres – but that is only our excuse). He was on fire. When the ride gets going, he’s always there. Loves that old GSXR1000 even more than his new ZX10.

Roads: not since Jan 2007 have we been back to Towong and hence the “north” loop to Tumut as described in Day 3 above. In that time many of the roads have been widened, dirt sections reduced (only 8 km of dirt whole trip and even that could easily taken at well above recommended speed limit) and road works completed. The roads were generally in brilliant condition making for fantastic riding conditions combined with the mainly clear skies and warm weather.

Tyres: Dave was always in tyre trouble on his new CBR but managed to eek out the five days by dropping off various loops on each day’s riding, saving himself and the bike for the really good stuff. Paul was in a similar situation, feathering the throttle half way through the second day with us. Misho just managed to see out the 4 days on 400 km old tyres. (Paul’s were brand new at the start.) I chopped out my hard compound Pilot Road on the front yet the rear Pilot Road II is still not even half worn and probably the best wearing tyre on the trip. Grip was never an issue.  Not sure about the wisdom of buying cheap sport tyres if they only last less than half of a standard road focused tyre.

Reliability: all bikes were totally reliable though Pina’s R6 seemed to be upset at altitude, the idly dropping, other times racing. No punctures, no battery problems, no breakdowns. The modern bike.

Animals: Pina and Greg ran into kangaroos down near Tom Groggin and Dave and Paul spotted two lots of Emus including a family with chicks.  There were plenty of turtles attempting to cross the roads around Towong and I counted 7 dead blue tongues in one 20 km section. Only killed one big bird on this trip.

Police: did not see any all weekend

                                                                                                                                                   

 

Ben Warden