Geoff Jones RZ350 Ian Payne RF900 (leader)

Lyyne Burns ZX6 Ben Warden ZXR750

Greg Bryant GPx250 2^nd ride Ron Johnston CB750 (rear)

Decisions! What bike to ride: 400/4 or 750? Decided on the 750. Thought I’d see how it would go after having had work done on it - hydraulic lifters. No more tappet noise. Weather was a bit sus. Started to rain as I walked out of the shed. Came back in, waited a couple of minutes, stuck my head back out the door and thought I have to go to Yarra Glen before I decided whether I’ll keep going or not.

Arrived at Yarra Glen 10.25. Ian, Lynne and Geoff turned up same time. Thought not many of us here. Greg Bryant turned up 10 minutes later. Raced down to the toilets. Arrived back at assembled group. 6 people, 6 bikes. Ian was lead rider. I volunteered to go rear rider and do write up to give myself time to get used to the bike.

We headed off in an easterly direction. Turned right Old Healesville Rd, left Chum Creeek Rd to Toolangi. Came across large group of Ulysses Club riders. George left us at Toolangi/Melba Highway intersection. Had to go home for one of his kid’s 21^st. I wave corner marker on.

I turned right into Melba Highway only to see Lynne drop her bike. Did a U turn in the middle of the road and parked my bike on the shoulder and gave Lynne a hand to pick her bike up. In the meantime all the Ulysses Club were going through the same intersection. Lynne couldn’t get the bike to go. A policeman in a 4WD across and down the road a bit came over and parked with his lights flashing. He offered Lynne sympathy and talked to her about the bike. Was a nice fellow. I got the bike to start and run. Broke R/F indicator, scraped mirror and scratched fairing. We finished talking to the policeman and headed off. The others were waiting at the Glen Burn pub. Ben came looking for us. We passed him going the other way. We caught up with the others and waited for Ben to return.

Headed off to Strath Creek. Ben left us at Flowerdale. That left 4 of us. Strath Creek stopped for a break. Poor old Lynne. She was a bit depressed about dropping the bike, her pride and joy.. There were a lot of bikers about on a variety of vehicles going to the pub. There was even a few sights for sore eyes.

We headed off for Broadford, then Kilmore and on to Bylands to the tram museum. When we got there Greg Bryant left us. Down to three. The weather was hot. It’s funny how you can’t escape your past. Lynne met up with some people she went to school with. Lynne, Ian, myself, and others went for a ride on the tram. The tram museum has been going since 1969 and is situated at the Bylands railway station on the old Heathcote railway line. The tram track is about 3/4 mile long. There are a couple of prefab buildings which are made from aluminium. One houses the office and tea room, and the other, which came from a Ballarat school 2 buildings end for end, houses buses. They had horse drawn trams from the zoo and a variety of trams dating back to the early 1800s. Some of the woodwork and etched glass windows looked really good. They even had leather seats as well as wooden slats. Well worth a look. We were there about an hour.

We headed off to Wallan for lunch. It was still hot when we got there. We had lunch under the shop verandah. After lunch we headed back via Whittlesea, Arthurs Creek, Hurstbridge and Warrandyte to where I turned off for home. It was a great day with good weather.