Thomson Dam Sunday 13^th June, 2010

Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	John McGuiness (1^st ride)	Kawasaki ZX14
Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Cliff Peters (leader)	Kawasaki ZX10
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Jason Wilson	Kawasaki ZX9
Pina Garasi	Honda CBR600RR	Ken Goederee	Suzuki B-King
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600RR	Chris Pointon	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ha Du	Honda CBR600	Geoff Shugg (rear)	Suzuki DL650
Adam Wedge (1^st ride)	Honda CBR600RR	Paul Sorenson (2^nd ride)	Suzuki SV650
Tony Raditsis	Aprilia RSV1000	Ben Paterson (1^st ride)	Yamaha R1
Dave Chisma	BMW F800ST		17 bikes, 17 people

Unfortunately I missed out on the last couple of rides as it was Bianca’s birthday on the 29^th and my thirtieth on the 5^th of June. Plenty of drinks and sore heads the next day – riding a bike wasn’t on my mind at all after that.

The weather was supposed to be good for Sunday, but if you want good roads in winter the weather has to be good the day before as well. Rain on Saturday disappointed me almost like the loss against Serbia yesterday. This World Cup is probably the worst I’ve seen. Referees, regardless which team, ruin the game by giving penalties where players should be actors rather than football players. Not nice to watch and don’t get me started on those horns.

I took off early enough to get breakfast and a hot drink on the way. Still half asleep, I rode towards the Berwick meeting point for the second time since I have moved to Mitcham. I wake up out of my daydream after I see Dorset Road and think and this is way too far. Check the time on my dashboard - only reason why I wanted a new bike! No breakfast now and lucky if I can make it in time at all.

By the time I reach the servo it looks like everyone is ready to go. A few arrive after me and that makes 16 riders in total. Three first time riders on this ride – don’t think about the last time, Dennis!

After Cliff’s briefing we’re off to one of my favourite destinations. We take the usual route down the highway and get off at the Nar Nar Goon exit to reduce the boredom. Back roads through Tynong, Garfield and then we cross the Highway at Longwarry North to start the ride proper. The roads are still damp from the rain the day before, but if you look far ahead enough it doesn’t look too bad. I have Adam in front of me on his beautiful red/black CBR600RR and follow him for a while, but I’m soon distracted as everyone is flying past me and so I go past him eventually.

Time to warm up the tyres for the oncoming blind corners before Jindivick; always a favourite. It is a bit scary through these corners with only a few dry spots, but with Misho in my rear mirror, there is no backing off!

Cruising through Jindivick, Ben and Misho overtake me. I thought about going after them for a moment, but then decide to keep cruising. Paul and Ha are corner marking at Neerim South. Finally I can enjoy some almost dry roads through Crossover until the Old Sale Road turnoff. Frustratingly, the corners are damp and the straights dry, or maybe it just felt that way. My favourite corner on that section - roughly half way between the two corner markers, is a very smooth and nicely stretched 70 km/h corner with a parking area next to it. You know the one?

After completing my corner marking duties at the end of Old Sale Road with Ha , we set off to Moe for fuel and morning tea. While corner marking I noticed we are missing one bike – Adam on the CBR600RR. I ask Geoff at the servo in Moe and he said he left the ride as he couldn’t keep up with our pace and decided to go home. According to Ben he was running his bike in and left at Buln Buln.

I sat down in the Bakery and had a chat to Chris, Ben Paterson and Paul Sorenson and enjoyed my two pies and a hot drink. Ben has just come down from Queensland to work in Melbourne. He was riding a very nice new R1 with Yoshi pipes, etc. He still has a Triumph Daytona 675 back in Queensland.

Paul Sorenson left us here, sensibly heeding the Club advice of the ride not being suitable for inexperienced or first time riders. We continued our trip northwards towards the Dam…yeah. “Please be dry,” I’m thinking. I love this road; the tarmac is almost perfect and has all kinds of different corners with hardly any traffic. The road is really nice until we pass Erica where more trees start to overhang the road, keeping it wet. I start slowing down on those tight downhill corners and cruise through to the Dam while enjoying the scenery. We have a look at the water level, take some pictures at the rock and then set off for lunch at Walhalla.

We turn left at Rawson and take another very nice road down towards Tyres. Fast flowing corners and I’m all by myself until the turnoff for Walhalla. I follow Ben Paterson through the very tight and twisty parts when all of a sudden he slows down and falls behind. He keeps looking down and turning the throttle, but nothing happens. I’m already too far ahead and only see him in my mirror; turning around here is not easy. There are others behind me to help him, I say to myself.

I arrived in Walhalla and spotted Tony Raditsis sitting with Ken outside the shop. At Rawson, Ken had ridden straight to Walhalla rather than going to the Dam with us. And Tony had missed the start of the ride after clutch issues before he left home. On Saturday he had replaced the drive chain (the split link broke on his last ride ...Ed.) and the hydraulic clutch fluid. (An air bubble was trapped at the master cylinder end which was proving impossible to bleed off until Tony consulted the web and determined to crack the top banjo bolts, releasing the bubble. ...Ed.)

The rest of the riders arrived with Ben reporting that that Ben P’s R1 stopped 2.4 km into the Walhalla Road. They couldn’t get the bike to start again so Ben dinked him back to Rawson (where there was a phone box, mobiles ineffective) to make arrangements for a pick-up. Hope everything went well and we see him the next time.

We left after everyone had their meal and refreshments and took the twisty road 14 km back to the turnoff. I spotted the R1 standing there, on the side of the road - alone, dark and cold. Poor thing!

We continued down into Tyres for fuel and another quick stop. Then off through Yallourn North taking the turnoff towards Willow Grove and Hill End.

I tried to stay on Cliff’s tail but he gradually got away through the forest section. I can’t use the bike as an excuse anymore. It probably would’ve have ended badly anyway if I rode any harder as I encountered a few landslides along the way where the embankments had collapsed in the wet conditions and the cars had smeared soil across the road.

I corner marked at Icy Creek with Cliff. While everyone came through, I heard news about a police car coming towards us somewhere after Hill End. As soon as I saw rear rider Geoff Shugg, I was off. No need to hang around any longer than necessary.

On the bike I started thinking that the policeman is probably chasing after us now. He’ll find this bike group in Noojee and then ask for those two idiots on a green and a red bike he saw earlier.

Everyone arrives in Noojee and we try to get the story of the approaching police car together. Ken had by far the best attempt at mimicking the copper in his car trying to push all sorts of buttons in sheer rage, swearing, trying to turn around and calling for back-up while bike after bike flies past. I guess he just put the Christmas lights on and that was all a few of us saw of him. I still couldn’t remember any car along the way, but I was rather occupied at the time.

Geoff Shugg left us in Noojee and Dave Chisma picked up the rear rider duties.

After a few more laughs, we left for our last leg and final destination, Powelltown, suspecting every car on the road. The whole way I thought that the police car probably didn’t turn around, but radioed base which way we were heading and now they were waiting for us in the bush. No one was waiting or hiding and I had a law-abiding ride into Powelltown, making it 345 km for the day.

Everyone said good-bye but I stayed a bit longer enjoying my fancy hot chocolate and the scenery. I left eventually to get some home cooked dinner at my parents-in-law. Always good!

Thanks to Cliff for a great ride along my favourite roads and to Geoff for rear riding.

Dennis Lindemann