Castlemaine Sunday 11^th October, 2009

Craig Morley	Honda VTR1000 SP1	Phillip Hotschilt (3^rd ride)	Suzuki GSXR1300
Ron Johnston (leader)	Honda CBF1000	Rob Jones (rear)	Suzuki GSXR1000
Tim Emons	Honda CBR1000	Etienne Gous	Suzuki SV1000
Misho Zrakic/Pina Garasi	Honda CBR1000	James Crabtree (1^st ride)	Suzuki GSXR750
Ha Du	Honda CBR600	Damian Jones	Yamaha R1
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	Peter Jones	Yamaha R1
Greg Trainor	Triumph 955	Nancy Abdou (1^st ride)	Yamaha R6
Adam Wright (2^nd ride)	Triumph 675	Cameron Stevens	Yamaha FZ6
Marty Thompson & Tatyana Ostapovich	Kawasaki ZRX1200		17 bikes, 19 people

I’ll start with a brief ride report from last week’s ride to Mt. Pinninger: The ‘Blade was singing it’s familiar song as I cranked the throttle open to pass a couple of cars en-route to the Yarra Glen start, but the feedback from the road told me something was not quite right. I put it down to paranoia about my “still got one ride left in it” front tyre, and continued on. I took the sharp right onto McIntyre Lane at a cautious pace, and my fears were confirmed – no problem with the worn front, it was the near new rear that was losing air at a rapid rate of knots!

The source of the leak was obvious – a big hole, bang in the middle. I got out my unused repair kit that has accompanied me for countless kilometres around the countryside, and set about plugging the tyre. The routing tool was very loose in the hole. Whatever had caused it had also put a split in my hugger before being wrenched out, elongating the hole.

Cameron arrived on the scene just as I was about to release a compressed gas canister into the tyre, and offered the use of his hand pump instead. As I started pumping, the audience of onlookers around me grew. It reminded me of the crowds drawn to watch the frequent puncture repairs on buses in the Indian Himalaya!

I thanked Cameron for the use of the pump and waved him on his way as I back-tracked slowly home, stopping to replug the hole three times more along the way. The following week I had two new tyres fitted, and figured out what caused the puncture. I’d cut through Chadstone Shopping Centre from Princess Highway to Warrigal Road, and noticed they had replaced the old speed humps (which used to have a gap between them to ride through). I recalled an odd feeling as I rode over the first one that day, so I went back during the week to take a closer look and sure enough, there were at least half a dozen sharp spiked fixing bolts left scattered around from removal of the old speed hump – about 100mm long and 5mm thick!

I successfully transferred my Club ride pass to the following weekend as I’m booked up for the next month of weekends. So when the two year old woke me up at 5.55am after a 2am finish at a 40^th party the night before, I was unusually bright and positive.

This time I avoided the Chadstone carpark on the way to Yarra Glen. The morning was cool and fresh, with a sunny 22 degrees forecast. I ditched the textile jacket and summoned the leather one out of hibernation. The bike felt like a frisky horse on a crisp spring morning, and I was having trouble keeping it reined in to a respectable pace...

I noted several unfamiliar faces gathered at Ron’s pre-ride spiel, and the absence of a handful of regulars (rumours of a break-away group watching the Bathurst1000 in Dargo!). Ron covered the basics of our intended route – vaguely recognisable place names meaning very little to me. Once we cross to the west of the Hume, I’m lost. As it turned out, I was lost well before the Hume, with Ron taking all manner of interesting back roads before popping out on Plenty Road, south of Whittlesea.

After passing through town I got a tow up the hill behind Craig’s thundering SP. A great stretch of road, but remaining cautious of our proximity to areas popular with ‘The Presence’, we took things easy after the dual lanes merged into one. Passing through Kinglake West we saw two of our group (SV1000 and Daytona 675 I think) had in fact already been pulled over by the fun police, body language not looking good. Craig pulled the clutch in as we quietly passed by. We had a very sedate run to the next corner markers waiting at the Strath Creek turnoff.

I needed to blow out some cobwebs after that, so I picked up the pace, chasing Dennis and Cameron through the uphill tight twisties and on through the fast sweepers, dodging a group of cyclists on our way to morning tea at Broadford.

Marty, Tatyana and Craig decided to call it a day. Apparently, they were all suffering sore backsides. Adam had already departed for home after the discussion with plod, and Misho, Pina and Nancy left just as we were getting ready to move on. I thought this was quite unusual – what could be so important for these die-hards to leave after the first leg? I heard later that they had just gone to fill up at the servo before continuing. I guess the tail rider wasn’t aware of this, and we all left without them. And why did they not catch up? According to a message Ha relayed at the end of the day, Nancy had crashed her R6 and Misho and Pina stayed back to assist. Not sure of the details, but hopefully a ‘minor cosmetic’ and we’ll see her back riding in the near future. (Bike sold as wreck, rider broken rib, gashed arm and severe leg bruising. Off work for a week. …Ed.)

As for the rest of us, we ploughed on through Pyalong, looped around Lancefield, had our fillings knocked loose on the Burke and Wills track and rolled on through Redesdale. Then the fuel light forced me into fuel conservation mode for the final leg into the first servo at Chewton. I needn’t have worried – I still had almost a litre to spare! Those with bigger tanks (or a gentler throttle hand) continued on for fuel just up the road in Castlemaine before regrouping for a long and leisurely lunch.

A couple of Harley riders came over and invited the club to a poker rally in the area on Saturday November 14^th. Ron has a couple of flyers and entry passes if anyone’s interested.

After topping up on an ‘all day cooked breakfast’ (signs of the hangover setting in...), and discussing how sick Cameron is of hearing that question (have you heard anything yet?) we doubled back to Chewton, then turned off on a back road to emerge on the Midland Highway, where the MSR Captain put on a rare display, masquerading as a law abiding citizen, keeping those behind him “safe”, somewhere around the legal limit.

Geographical confusion had well and truly set in by now - according to the itinerary, we probably ventured down through Vaughan, Drummond and Spring Hill, then on to Woodend, with several stops to re-check the map along the way. I recall signs indicating that we were somewhere near Hanging Rock. Then the pace picked up as we belted along some narrow roads through the hills. Cameron must have hit the nitrous button on the FZ6 as he shot past Peter (unfortunately the R1 wasn’t sporting the latest accessory seen in the pictures Peter sent out on the Club newsgroup...), and managed to squeeze through to overtake a couple of cars. What was one to do but follow suit! It took me a bit longer to get past the cars, but once I caught him (only because he’d backed off and had slotted in behind some other riders) I didn’t want to stop, so I passed the small group and kept on charging until I caught up to Ron.

One corner mark later, we were assembled at a servo in Wallan. Ron announced the completion of the official ride, and we said our farewells. Thanks Ron for leading and mixing things up with some new roads, and to Rob Jones for revealing his patient side as rear rider.

Tim Emons