Lake Mountain Sunday 20^th September, 2009

Paul Southwell (leader)	Honda CBR1000	Brett Richards (1^st ride)	Yamaha R1
Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Chris Tran	Honda CBR1000	Cameron Stevens	Yamaha FZ6
Peter Jones	Honda CBR1000	Paul Drakeley (1^st ride)	Triumph 675
Ron Johnston	Honda CBF1000	Stuart Forster	Triumph 675
Brien Armstrong	Honda VTR1000	Graeme Tuckerman (1^st ride)	Triumph 675
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Adam Wright (1^st ride)	Triumph 675
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	Dave Ward (rear)	Kawasaki Z1000
Ha Du	Honda CBR600	Clifford Peters	Kawasaki ZX10
Dave Williams (2^nd ride)	Honda CBR600	Viet Nguyen (3^rd ride)	Kawasaki ZX6
Tony Copson (1^st ride)	Honda RVF400	Stephane Boucard (2^nd ride)	Suzuki GSXR750
Jared Wade	Triumph 955i	Anthimus Papadopoulos (1^st ride)	Suzuki GF600

How does that Bob Geldof song go again? “Tell me why, I don’t like Mondays, tell me why, I don’t like Monday-ays!” Recovering from Sunday’s ride, six more sleeps till the next one, general Monday-itis, and for those poor suckers who don’t like their jobs, that, unfortunately, makes Mondays a real helluvalot more abysmal.

Bugger me if I know how many riders we had on the day, but it was a huge turnout. We had five new riders starting off with us from Berwick, found Jared and a couple of others waiting for us at Warburton - that’ll learn youse for going to the wrong meeting point J and picked up another rider at Cumberland Junction.

Barely a straight stretch throughout the whole day—now that’s what I call a great ride! Coming out through the Reefton Spur at Cumberland Junction, you could feel the adrenaline amongst the group, and hunger for more corners.

I don’t remember many other specific details other than the two incidents on the ride. First was me on the way down from Lake Mountain. I went for an interesting ride through the mud after taking a right hand corner too wide. I tried steering myself back towards the tarmac as much as I could, and just when I thought I was going to make it back onto the asphalt again without getting my backside in the mud, I decided to take my chances trying to steer over a stick, but couldn’t get the front wheel at the right angle -it was either that or deeper mud right next to the ditch and hill face. It would have been such a wonderful fluke if I’d made it. J

I’d never felt both wheels go so far in opposite directions before, the bike went right, I leaned left to counterbalance, and then the bike slipped on its left side. Any chances of picking it up were futile as I sat on my bum with the bike on my leg. Thanks heaps to Brett for getting the bike off me and Misho for getting it started again. The clutch lever and gear rack were both a bit more bent, and there’s another crack in the left fairing, but it was a gentle slip, so it didn’t affect my nerves or the bike’s handling for the remainder of the ride. I did, however, pay particular attention to how I took my right hand corners and turns after that. A visit to Paul’s house after the ride sorted out the gear rack, no problems. Thanks Paul.

Second was Brien on St Andrews Road. I heard a crash behind me after coming out of a right hand corner. I quickly checked my mirrors and saw Brien and the VFR on their sides. By the time, I pulled over and ran back to where Brien was, Chris and Viet had already come to Brien’s aid and both were upright again. The right hand blinker was gone, there was a dent in the fuel tank, the screen was broken, and other cosmetic damage. The main thing was that Brien was ok.

By this stage, the ride had already finished, and the group had dispersed in various directions, so Chris, Viet, and I waited with Brien for the tow truck.

So there you have it. Thanks for leading an awesome ride, Paul. I loved, loved, loved it. J Thanks also to Dave for rear rider duties.

“On the road again, just can’t wait to get back on the road again, goin’ places that I’ve never been, seein’ things I [hope to] see again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again.” See you on the next Super Sunday.

Ha Du