Mirboo North Sunday 17^th April 2011

Damir Djikic	Honda CBR1000	Ben Fuller	Suzuki Hayabusa
Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Mark Rigsby (rear)	Suzuki GSXR1000
Misho Zrakic	Honda CBR1000	Lyn Duncan	Suzuki GSXR1000
Tony Stegmar	Honda CBR1000	Bill Simpson	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ben Warden (lead)	Honda CBR954	Rob Jones	Suzuki GSXR1000
Pina Garasi	Honda CBR600	Geoff Shugg	Suzuki DL650
Kurn Bridgeman	Honda CBR600	Mark Copeland	Kawasaki ZX10
Geoff Dick	BMW 850R	Rob Langer	Kawasaki Z1000
Marc Marais	Triumph 675	John Willis	Kawasaki Z1000

Eighteen bikes is a very healthy turnout, thanks to the weather gods that had Sunday predicted fine and sunny, six days in advance. All Club Members, so should be a stress free, slick ride, all going well. That was the plan … Of course, the hardest part is getting someone to do a write-up. And as I failed in this task, it falls to the leader.

The route follows closely as described on the web page:

Leg 1: First stop Korumburra Bakery via Drouin.

Leg 2: Up through Arawata (3 km of dirt) and Leongatha along endless twisty roads looking for the perfect sweeper, touching on the Grand Ridge Road. Two years later and we will still see remnants of the fire damaged areas around Boolarra. Mirboo North bakery for lunch.

Leg 3: Then we'll do a loop down to Hallston and back to Mirboo North, before pressing on to the Thorpdale corner sequence and Trafalgar for fuel. The Hallston loop offers the chance to skip 60 km of twisties and have a breather for 35 minutes before rejoining the main group. Or jump on the back of your partner's bike.

Leg 4: Last hop back to Longwarry North depending on the time, riding conditions and participants' energy.

My daughter Fiona came and stayed for the previous week. Down from Newcastle, she now has 60 hours driving logged, ready to get her licence in July on her 17^th birthday. A big family birthday get together was held last Sunday so I missed the ride, a rare occasion. Hence I was looking forward to getting back on the bike and heading deep into Gippsland, where the best roads within cooee of Melbourne hide.

Lyn Duncan had been in contact during the week and, weather depending, threatened to come on the ride. Last minute texts and phone calls saw us agreeing it would be best if she met the group at Korumburra at 11.15 am. She was riding from Stratford way and would be on her 100,000 km young Suzuki K1 GSXR1000.

At Berwick early, I watched all the new bikes roll in. Ben Fuller is pleased as punch with his new Hayabusa, sparkling in the sun, brand spanking new. Geoff Shugg is back from his enforced sabbatical, swelling the Suzuki numbers to almost as many Hondas. Tony Stegmar is back with a vengeance, riding most Sundays, enjoying his new Blade, particularly after fitting a set of heated grips acquired from Ben at the last Social Sip.

Kurn’s bike was freshened up with a major service at C&C Engineering including a set of plugs at relatively low kilometres – but 10 plus ride days. Misho was there in body, having been on call and short of sleep. He notes his bike has accumulated 85,000 km. Damir’s CBR is now all blinged in Ohlin’s suspension – as good as he can make it.

The ride was uneventful to Korumburra except to note that the Warragul Korumburra Road is in pretty poor condition with pot holes, bitumen mounds, high frequency corrugations and ripples. Probably the worst I’ve seen it. But it is still a great road; dangerous as all hell – statistically our highest “incident” road, but fun and challenging as you pick your way through the obstacles.

The Korumburra Road has also got four counters in two pairs, near the Arawata turnoff. Interesting. One counter is a counter. Two counters are – speed detectors. Four counters are … point to point average speed detectors. A camera in the bushes would be ugly. I don’t like it.

Marty Thompson and a couple of friends met us at Korumburra Bakery. He was on his own ride, his body not ready for the rigours of an MSR ride just yet, as he recovers from a series of serious ills.

After morning tea in brilliant sun-screen inducing sunshine, we headed for Mirboo North, stopping at the end of the Grand Ridge Road for a photo or two. A huge amount of large diameter crushed rock was stockpiled making a convenient prop for the group photo shoot. They might be going to extend the road and these are the raw materials. Sing praise to the logging industry.

Misho’s bike had a puncture. Not so much a puncture as a dinged rear rim allowing air to escape should the tyre flex enough (for instance, over rough roads). The tyre was pretty flat and no service station with air to be seen. Not to worry: Mark Copeland produced a 12V air compressor from his bag! Within minutes the tyre was re-inflated back to 40 psi and stayed up for the rest of the ride. (The rim was rolled (heated and rolled) during the week, and then resprayed.)

As is their custom, Rob Jones and Ben Fuller took advantage of the Mirboo North Brewery, but not before checking what route we planned to follow. In the past we have met up again, and with luck, would do so again. Alas, no such luck as we spent quite an amount of time on our Hallston Loop.

I ran out of corner markers about four kilometres short of completing the loop. Backtracking, fearing the worst, I was happy to learn that no one had crashed but we had lost the rear rider Mark. See his email below. Misho left the first main street corner, unsure who the rear rider was, as clearly Mark wasn’t coming as it had been more than five minutes. Or so he thought.

All figured out and collected again, Lyn took up the rear riding position and we made our way to Trafalgar and to the Old Sale Road, Crossover twisties and Jindivick to finish at Longwarry North. 379 km official ride length with another 103 km to home. Thanks to all who participated, especially our long distance riders Geoff Dick (Tatura), Billy Simpson (Geelong) and Mark Copeland (Bacchus Marsh) whose rides are usually 700+ km home to home. Cliff Peters (Geelong) would normally be included in this bunch but he’s still recuperating with a broken hand in plaster, the result of the stone flicking incident on the recent Dargo ride. I am sure he is missing us.

Ben Warden

Email from Mark Rigsby (18/4/2011)

Just want to let you know what happened when I left the ride last Sunday. After everyone had left Mirboo North on the Hallston loop, the gentlemen on the new GSXR1000 (Billy …Ed.) took another five minutes or so to finish putting his gear on by which time everyone else was long gone.

As we rode out of town on the highway he did a u turn. So I stopped. He said he thought we should have turned left off the main street. So we did, but did not see any corner markers. He then decided we had been abandoned and said he was heading back to the café to wait.

I proceeded down the highway for about 10 kilometers to see if I could see any corner markers but to no avail. So I came back to the café but did not feel like defrocking again and sitting down to wait for you all to return. So I said my goodbyes and gave Lyn the ICE list.

As I proceeded home I saw you and Pina and then the rest of the boys coming the other way. I don’t really don’t know my way around that area so I had no idea where you all went.

I really enjoyed the ride so thanks. I got lost on the way home and ended up on a logging road through a state forest(?) which was an adventure. I eventually found my way home.

I hope the rest of the ride went well and all made it home safely. Take care.