Mt Baw Baw Sunday
6th March 2011
|
Peter Jones (leader) |
Honda CBR1000 |
Jason Duff (rear) |
BMW S1000RR |
|
Dave Chisma |
BMW F800 |
Jason Wilson |
Kawasaki ZX9 |
|
Pierre Ong |
Ducati 1098 |
Tony Stegmar |
Honda CBR1000 |
|
Geoff Dick |
BMW R850 |
? |
Hayabusa (orange) |
|
Ken Goederee |
Suzuki B-King |
|
9 bikes, 9 people |
[Warning: article
contains extreme language. …Ed.]
After what seems like an eternity of
shit weather, the weekend finally came good. Although I had my heart set on
going to see the Melbourne Air Show at Avalon, the thought of a pleasant ride
with a bunch of blokes got the better of me. So I headed to the Yarra Glen
meeting point.
As it turned out, I even enjoyed the
ride there, breathing the fresh, crisp air before the sun started to dry out
the damp patches.
A small gathering turned out and it
wasn’t long before we were heading to Noojee. We were pretty tentative,
speed-wise, knowing the gendarmes could be anywhere, taking it easy on the open
stretches, but hooking into the corners. There was a parked camera SUV on the
side of the road in Powelltown.
Arriving at Noojee, I was looking
forward to breakfast, so promptly ordered a toasted sandwich and coffee and sat
down to enjoy the sun and have a yack. Rear
rider Jason took longer to arrive than expected and when he did, the news wasn’t
pleasant. He had been booked for 127 in an 80 zone and expects to lose his
licence for a year. They didn’t confiscate his bike because it was too much
hassle.
The speed limit on even the open
stretches of road are now mostly 80 km/h. [I
heard today that Vic Roads is actively trying to make all open roads in
Victoria 80 km/h, including freeways! …Ed.]
I felt really bad for him as we’re in
the middle of nowhere, on a clear, open road, minding our own business,
enjoying a ride. (A potential threat to ourselves, no-one
else.) And here some f*#*knuckle cop decides to mess his life up. Do
these c*#*s ever think about the consequences of their revenue raising
exercises or are they just c*#*s? This would effectively send me bankrupt. I am
sick of these f@#@ing pricks.
After morning tea we headed for Mt Baw Baw, past numerous police cars on the side of the road. As
we started up the mountain, we met many bicycles (Cadell Evans wanna bes)
hogging the road but we had an incident free ride to the summit. There are still
quite a lot of washouts and potholes in the road (recent storm damage) so
caution was the go today. There must have been a mountain bike event or
similar up there as well because there were hundreds of cars and we had to
dodge numerous vans hauling big arse bike trailers up the hill.
On the way back down, along a straight
stretch of road, a BMW coming the other way took to the right hand side of the
road and headed straight for me. I don't know if this was on purpose or they
were not being attentive, but they swerved at the last minute as I was
preparing to leave the road to avoid a collision. If I’d had a brick or
something similar, I probably would have given chase.
After arriving back at Noojee we
ordered lunch and had a good chat, enjoying the sun and ogling the gorgeous
young waitress.
After waiting over an hour for food,
most of us had other plans, so said our goodbyes and eventually went our own
way.
On the way home through Gembrook I saw
yet more cops booking some poor bastard on a bike. Then I ran out of petrol
just short of Emerald, Tony Stegmar headed to the servo and brought back a
couple of water bottles with petrol which got me the rest of the way home. Doh!
That’s what that little flashing bowser means!
A good day was had by all except Jason
on the BMW. Thanks, Peter, for leading the ride.
Ken Goederee