Meredith Sunday 22^nd February, 2009

Honda CBR1000	Paul Southwell	Yamaha R1	Geoff Jones (leader)
Honda CBR1000	Misho Zrakic	Yamaha R6	Pina Garasi (rear)
Honda CBR1000	Dave Ward	Yamaha FZ6	Cameron Stevens
Honda CBR1000	Chris Tran (2^nd ride)	Suzuki GF1200	Ron Johnston
Honda CBR954	Ben Warden	Suzuki GSXR1000	Cliff Peters
Honda CBR600	Dennis Lindemann	Suzuki GSXR1000	Brett Cornwill (1^st ride)
Honda CBR600	Ha Tu (1^st ride)	Kawasaki ZX9	Michael Zrb
KTM 990	Ivan Radywonik (1^st)	Kawasaki ZX9	Mal Standish (2^nd ride)
BMW F800ST	Dave Chisma (3^rd ride)	Kawasaki Z750	Bronwyn Manifold

I was excited about this ride; after one month of not having my bike it felt so fantastic to be back riding the R6. The weather was so good we had 18 riders turn up including the usual familiar faces and three first-time club riders, two second-time club riders and one person on his third ride – which means membership time for them. Hmm. That should make Ben happy.

Since our usual ‘playground’ in the hills has been devastated by bushfires, we headed off into the wild and bumpy west, the roads most familiar to Geoff. With persistence, you start to appreciate the alternative routes on offer. The terrain in the west is so different – vast expanses of dry paddocks with the occasional rock formation to add some dimension to the otherwise flat landscape. Riding through Mt Macedon was literally and metaphorically speaking, a breath of fresh air; being surrounded by the greenness of majestic trees – something we took for granted in our rides in the now fire-ravaged areas in the east.

Ben Warden, who had been occupied in New Zealand partaking in Trevor and Barbara’s marital celebration (congratulations!) must have been missing us. The minute he landed back in Melbourne on the morning of this Sunday ride, it was straight home, on the bike to meet us for the first break at Meredith. Now that’s commitment!

At this first break, I asked Ha Du, first time club rider on a Honda CBR 600 how she was going so far. She made a very insightful comment – “You’re all f…..g crazy!” I grinned and replied “Yes, we are! Isn’t it great?” After this, I introduced Ha Du to Ben who asked which bike she was riding; Ha pointed out her Honda and Ben made a slight technical error and asked her if it was a 250cc? Oh, oh, that was a mistake… Ha replied “It’s a 600cc” and gave Ben a most disapproving look… Ben apologised profusely… such a gentleman! Just trying to be helpful when he sensed a moment of hesitation in the rider’s response.

Speaking of Honda’s, we have another addition to the ‘Blade Brotherhood’ – Paul Southwell with a silver/black one… very nice. Paul initially took it easy at the back as rear-rider but by lunch-time asked if I would do the rear riding job. I obliged – the force was with him!

Judging by the happy looks on the rider’s faces when we broke up at the end of the ride, everyone had enjoyed the ride. Hopefully we’ll get some of the new riders to come back and ride with the MSR club again, even if we are a bit crazy – a good time guaranteed though!

Many thanks to Geoff who was able to put a creative ride together to satisfy our need for a Sunday fix; you did a great job.

Pina Garasi