Highlands Sunday 13^th December, 2009

Willem Vandeveld	Honda ST1300	Mark Rigsby	Suzuki GSXR1000
Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Geoff Shugg	Suzuki DL650
John Rousseaux/Kate Stewart (rear)	Honda CBR1000	Geoff Jones (leader)	Yamaha R1
Ron Johnston	Honda CBF1000	Damian Jones	Yamaha R1
Mark Copeland	Honda VTR1000	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Ivan Radywonik	KTM 990
Dave Williams	Honda CBR600	Cliff Peters	Kawasaki ZX10

I had hoped to complete this write up while on holiday in south eastern Queensland over Christmas/New Year but did not seem to get to it between all the eating (gained 3 kg in 2 weeks!), seeing friends and family and enjoying the great beaches and sight-seeing that Queensland has on offer. Alas, my laptop was only used to play computer games, locate restaurants and book tickets to theme parks! So here I sit back in Melbourne on the afternoon of Sunday 3/1/10 completing the write-up at the last minute.

I drove home to Melbourne from Brisbane on New Year’s day, breathalysed by Mr Plod as I drove out of Brisbane at 4:30am. As we entered Victoria late in the evening we were greeted by some of the heaviest rain and most spectacular lightning I have ever experienced. As I drove down the Goulbourn Valley and Hume highways, I kept thinking how bad it would have been to be riding in such stormy weather and how thankful I was to be in a nice, dry car. I also observed during my drive up and down the Newell Highway to Brisbane and back that Harleys seemed to be the ride of choice. I know that doing the Newell on a sports bike is not much fun.

Apologies to Ben for the late submission and back to the write-up. I was really looking forward to today’s ride and was not disappointed. Two of my favourite places are my bed (as I never get enough sleep) and riding my bike. So, a perfect morning is getting out of bed late, having a quick breakfast and going for a ride! The weather was looking good with only isolated showers predicted so I packed the wet weather gear in the tailbag, just in case.

As I turned off the Maroondah Highway onto Victoria Road on the ride out to Yarra Glen, I saw John and Kate on their Fireblade as they passed me with a quick wave. Arriving at Yarra Glen it looked like a good turnout with 14 riders for the day. John and Kate volunteered for rear riding duties and Geoff gave us his usual thorough run through on what we could expect on the route for the day.

The first part of the ride was along the well worn path of Chum Creek and Myers Creek Roads and then on to Marysville and Eildon for our first break. The run up Chum Creek was a blast. I got caught up behind Geoff Shugg momentarily and then continued to enjoy the fast, flowing corners to Toolangi. I remember my first time down Myers Creek road (which was with the Club) was very tentative as visibility of the oncoming road is poor, making the anticipation of the collection of tight, alternating corners difficult. Now, after having ridden this road many times, the pace is as quick as my skill level and bike will allow. Familiarity breeds confidence!

I quite often ride early in the morning on weekends with a mate from work who rides a Ducati 848. I have noted on recent early morning rides an increased presence of Victoria’s finest. One morning during a two hour ride we saw no less than eight police including being pulled over for roadworthy and licence checks at Woori Yallock. Back to today’s ride.

As we rode out of Healesville I saw Mr Plod (one van and one bike) parked in the lookout area overlooking the Maroondah Reservoir. Seeing Mr Plod there made me think that running into any more police on the Black Spur was less likely so in between blasting past the assorted cars and 4x4s, I explored the limits of my riding capability to the top of the Spur, arriving at the Marysville turnoff with a smile.

After riding through Marysville, cruising up to Buxton and Taggerty with Damian Jones in close company, Dave Williams blasted by on the CBR600. So we upped the pace and arrived in Thornton shortly thereafter.

The road between Taggerty and Eildon via Thornton was in good nick and provided a good variety of fast sections interspersed with some good sweepers and tight corners. One errant wallaby on the road kept my attention focused!

We lunched in Eildon, the sun now out in force and the temperature heating up. As I ate my chicken salad roll, I took some time to admire Damian’s R1. Black body work with gold wheels always reminds me of the hot looking black and gold John Player Special colour scheme on GP racing cars of a bygone era.

After Geoff sounded the 5 minute warning call for our eminent departure, we were off to our second break at Yea via Highlands. It was on the Yarck to Terip Terip section of the ride where Ron, Cliff and I were exploring some Isle of Man TT type pace when Mark Copeland came past on the VTR, surprising me as the V-twin gave a throaty roar as he went around me to try and catch Ron. Terip Terip via Caveat, Highlands and Ghin Ghin to Yea provided some beautiful country and a great variety of interesting roads.

Yea for our next break. As we ate, drank and talked, we also watched a variety of bikes come and go including a Honda 929 which parked nearby. Pina invited him to join us by he declined the invitation.

Willem explained that he has installed some blue LED lights in the front cowling of his ST1300 which makes the bike look blue when it comes up behind you, even though the colour of the bike is red. The differences between the meaning of sarcastic and cynical were also analysed. While I do not know how Ben and Pina ended up discussing the last topic, there were plenty of sarcastic and cynical statements provided as examples!

On the final leg of the ride, we left Yea to go down the Melba Highway and turned off to cut through a back road to Murrindindi to rejoin the Melba at Devlins Bridge. The next part of the ride was really interesting as we turned off the Melba Highway for a second time to ride through Kinglake National Park before finishing the ride at Kinglake. This turnoff is one I have gone past many times and wondered where it leads to. Thanks to Geoff, now I know. It runs through a magnificent forest.

At Kinglake, after a quick stop and goodbyes, I made my way home to Glen Waverley via St Andrews to top off an excellent day with no incidents. Thanks to Geoff for leading and John and Kate for rear riding. To all of you, I hope you had a safe and happy Xmas and New Year and wish you all a safe and prosperous 2010.

Mark Rigsby