Warburton and MotoGP BBQ Sunday 18^th October, 2009

Paul Southwell (leader)	Honda CBR1000	Tony Stegmar	Suzuki GSXR1000
Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Geoff Shugg	Suzuki DL650
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Steve Clamp	Suzuki GSXR750
Ha Du	Honda CBR600	Damian Jones	Yamaha R1
John & Abigail Rousseaux	Honda CBR1000	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	Renzo Cunico	Ducati 916
Neville Hoare (2^nd ride)	BMW K1200GT	Henry Wright (rear)	Triumph 675

At the BBQ: Ian Payne and Kerrie Gooding, Ron and Julie Johnston, Kate Stewart. 20 people

Leg 1: Yarra Glen, highway to Mt Slide (Old Healesville Road closed), Toolangi, Myers Creek Road, Healesville, Launching Place, Warburton – bike friendly café under the bakery . Renzo had indicated he was low on fuel and intended to get some in Healesville. Ben waited behind but Renzo missed two open stations, the third was closed and continued on regardless. Ben searched in vane for Renzo and re-caught the ride at Warburton.

Leg 2: Warburton, Launching Place, Gembrook, Upper Pakenham, Cockatoo, Ferntree Gully.

I had reservations about feeling enthusiastic for this ride, as it was a test run for my R6 which had just undergone some mechanical repairs. I had driven Misho to his wits end trying to find the source of my intermittent and on-going, idling-rough and cutting out problem, so upon the recommendations of Ben Warden, Marty Thompson and Craig Morley, we decided to take my bike to C&C Motorcycle Engineering for investigations.

While on the dyno, C&C noticed my lights flickering a little and with testing, found the stator to be the problem. We picked up a second-hand one from Vic Wreckers (new Yamaha stator needed to come from Japan… too long) and that seemed to fix the problem, hopefully long-term. I was relieved that the bike went well on the ride particularly because the Cup Weekend ride was coming up. So a big “thanks” to all my fellow riders for all your patience, advice and support. Big kiss for Misho; word of advice to Cameron – “never surrender” and important message for Dave Ward: “NO, I’M NOT GETTING A HONDA”.

Now getting back to the ride…. most enjoyable, though I did find some of the Gembrook roads had a few unpredictable tricky corners here and there (a first time club rider found this out too by briefly checking out the surrounding greenery) but all ended well. John Rousseaux provided us with his very relaxing home to enjoy a pleasant afternoon of food (Julie Johnston, your baked potato dish is always a big hit, as were the hand-made chocolates – yum!) and beverage consumption together with MotoGP viewing. Thanks John. It was lovely to be there.

Entertainment was also provided by the viewing of one of Ben Warden’s photo album in which witnessed the photographic evidence of the famous MSR story of three members’ major cosmetic collision with a SAAB exiting from a carpark onto the wrong side of the Great Ocean Road. In particular, a photo of the incident which captured our imagination was the one in which a semi-conscious Craig Morley was laying on the ground with his leather pants pulled down to reveal very fetching figure-hugging red jocks; we were wondering why he may had done this given that he did not have any injuries to the lower part of his body, only to his head. Well, maybe the head injury triggered the response… Hmmm, but why? Don’t think we’ll ever know… Craig has no recollection of doing this. We were all most amused.

As for the race itself, it was quite exciting watching Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi do battle from start to finish with Casey finishing first. Perhaps Valentino had made a very altruistic decision in letting Casey win the race, after all it was his birthday and he was on his home ground - what better way for him to celebrate his return to the GP circuit?

Pina Garasi