Euroa Sunday 9^th May 2010

Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Jason Duff (1^st Ride)	BMWS 1000 RR
Paul Southwell(rear)	Honda CBR1000	David Chisma	BMW F800 ST
Pina Garasi	Honda CBR600RR	Chris Pointon	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Cliff Peters (leader)	Kawasaki ZX10R
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	9 bikes/9 riders	410 kilometres/approx

I arrived at the Whittlesea servo, the starting point for the day, at 9.38am, filled up and waited for whoever else would turn up for today’s ride. A fella rode in and proceeded to fill his bike. I wandered over to ogle it, a BMW S1000RR, the first one I have seen on the street. (I was to see a second one at Yea, parked across the street from where we were having morning tea, same colour and all). He introduced himself as Jason Duff and said he was looking for the MSR riders. Well, you have found us mate. Welcome.

It wasn’t long before everyone had arrived. I did the spiel and we are ready to go. Paul warned us that there was to be a function of some kind around the Flowerdale/Strath Creek area, Government Minister and all, apparently. So be on the lookout for “plod” activity.

We head out of Whittlesea, up the hill and through Kinglake West to Flowerdale. Then on to Strath Creek, keeping the speed at “Warp 4.5” (Star Trek lingo), instead of the usual “Warp 9” through here. We turned right at Strath Creek and rode out to the Goulbourn Valley Highway and then into Yea for morning tea.

Ben was heard complaining about the handling of his bike. I looked around and saw he was breaking out his tyre pressure gauge. Yep, only 12 pounds in the rear. A closer inspection of the tyre revealed a nail, roughly a two inch (in the old speak) with the head worn off, indicating it might have been there for some distance. So we head up to the servo and bung in a plug while the rest of the gang has morning tea.

David Chisma decided to head back home as he was complaining of a headache.

We leave Yea and back track about four kilometres and head up to Highlands leaving the smooth roads behind us. It’s going to give the suspension a good work out today, that’s for sure. This route has got to be one of the bumpiest on the Club’s itinerary. It is still very enjoyable though.

Did I mention the weather was quite cold but sunny and warming up? The roads were dry as a whistle. Excellent!

Up to Highlands, watching out for the thin line of gravel between the wheel tracks, all the way up to the top. Stay online or get out of shape quickly here.

We turn left on to the Gobur Road and follow it out to the Maroondah Highway where we stop to clean our visors. There are lots of insects out today; the good weather will do that.

We saddle up, head to Merton, turning towards the Euroa twisties which are race track smooth. Paul warned us earlier about one particular corner where someone planted themselves into a tree on his way back from a previous ride. (George, George, George of the jungle, watch out for that treeJ) We all made it out the other side safely turning right towards Strathbogie and on to Euroa for lunch and fuel.

The weather was now very sunny and warm. Misho was seen to be dialling in some comfort on Pina’s R6, whoops, CBR600’s suspension. He copied Dennis’s standard settings later in the day, and Pina seemed happy with it. Maybe it was that we had left the bumps behind by then. I will ask next week and see how happy she is with it.

Dennis had his new bike out today. Very nice it was too, though I miss his old one. It sounded awesome at full noise compared to the new one which is too quiet.

Food and drink consumed, chit chat and much laughter later, we head off to Violet Town along the 15 kilometres of old highway. Then back down through the Boho South ranges to Strathbogie. It is a good run with no two corners the same. Sharp, sharper, up, down, and around, fast and slow. A good mix on a clean road.

I was through here with Cameron Stevens a few weeks back on a mid week run and a koala was parked in the middle of the road, just sitting there having a scratch, watching us. I reckon he was thinking, “What are you two doing on my road?” He didn’t move as we went past either. No sign of him today.

Back to Merton, Highlands and Yea for afternoon tea. It’s good to have Paul back out on his bike after his recent injuries. If any ride was going to test his back out, this was it. His back came through with flying colours but I’ll ring him in a couple of days to see how he pulled up.

We were going to break up at Kinglake West but I decided to change to Kinglake Central instead as there are a couple of very enjoyable bits of twisty road this way. It is a little further, but worth it.

From Yea we rode down the Melba Highway to the Murrindindi turn off, through the twisties, back on to the Melba for a short stretch, watching out for that camera car, on coming vehicles flashing us a warning. We turned right on to the very nice back way to Kinglake Central.

A good day with good company. Thanks for supporting my run. See you next week.

Two incidents: one flat tyre and one unscheduled stop for fuel.

Cliff Peters

P.S. Thanks, Paul, for volunteering to be rear rider for the day. I will do Junction Hill next time, mate. Promise.