Before leaving for Yarra Glen, I went across the road to make sure that my neighbours, Stuart and Megan & their friend, Chris, were coming on the ride. They said they were, and I would see them out at Yarra Glen, after explaining where we meet outside the shop.

Arrived at the Glen to find about 3 or 4 bikes already there. Danny K was talking to Jenny Burns. I haven’t seen her for about 12 months or so. There were a couple of new faces. Ramil said he had followed somebody out to Yarra Glen. He had just moved to Warrandyte and was keen to join a Club. More people arrived. There were 6 people on their 1^st ride which is good. Some of them said they got the information off the Web Site. It shows that the site is working for us. Got everyone’s attention and gave them a run down on where we were going and noted that some of the roads would be a bit greasy and explained the corner marking system. I volunteered Mick Hanlon for rear rider because of a lot of new people on the ride. As we were leaving more people turned up. Ben stepped in and reiterated what I had said earlier. Thanks Ben.

We headed off for the Melba Highway around the back of Coldstream Airport to Coldstream, through Lilydale to Mount Evelyn, turned off at Silvan Reservoir to Macclesfield. Nice winding roads to Emerald. We turned off at Emerald to go to Monbulk. We had an half hour coffee break. Ben remarked to me that he was impressed with the number of people turning up for the ride. Mark Ayling left the ride here. Before we left, I explained we had to go past the turn off and regroup at the service station and head back to Perrins Creek Road. This road was pretty greasy at the top. Ramil dropped his bike; minor damage only: mirror and clutch lever.

I rode to the bottom of Sassafras Creek Road, where I waited for the first rider to corner mark. When he did arrive (forgot his name, sorry), he said he had seen someone drop their bike. Instead of me waiting for the rest of the others to arrive, I went back up to Perrins Creek Road, to see where this person had dropped their bike, but I could not find anyone. All the riders were at the bottom of Sassafras Creek Road. Ben ticked me off for going looking instead of waiting. (Well, actually, for not following normal Club procedure, and hence wasting everyone’s time. Combined this with creating an unsafe and illegal situation. Being the only Committee person on the ride, I feel that I was obligated to say something …Ed.).

We headed off up Sherbrooke Road, crossed over One Tree Hill Road and back down Churchill Drive, then right into Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, got to the Hair Pin and we dropped into a couple of side streets and back up Monbulk Road. Left into Alexander Avenue, lots of tight twists, turns and steep, right into Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, did right turn into Belgrave–Ferny Creek Road. This to is steep with lots of twists and turns as well.

Belgrave, right at the roundabout back down Monbulk, right into McNicol Road. I was waiting for the next person to corner mark, which was Mark Knight on a TZR 250. The Police followed him up the road and spoke to him. From there to Selby we had a slow ride with a police escort. Turned right into Belgrave-Gembrook Road, then turn right into Selby-Aura Road. This road follows the Puffing Billy line and is very narrow.

We stopped at Menzies Creek Station for a loo stop. We were there for about 15 minutes and then we headed off along School Road, then took Grantulla Road right into Emerald Road through the Patch back to Monbulk where we finished up. From here half a dozen riders turned up and the rest went missing. Some of them left for home. Half an hour later, the others turned up, only to be told that Danny’s VFR had broken down at Menzies Creek.

I headed back to Menzies Creek to see if I could help. I got to a quarter of mile down the road when I met the others coming back. Spoke briefly and we all went back to Monbulk. Ben explained that Danny’s bike had broken down and they could not fix it, so they left it at a house across the road from the station. I told Danny that I would pick up his bike after I got home. I delivered the bike back to him home that evening.

It was a good day and the weather was reasonable. There was only one incident. A good turn out – 19 bikes and 22 people. 120 kilometres for the day. Michael Newbound on the SV650 and Greg Hales on a TL1000S said they both thoroughly enjoyed themselves on their first ride with the Club. A few of the others made the same comment and some said they didn’t know the roads existed.

I hope that everybody enjoyed themselves and I look forward to my next ride in September.

Danny’s bike: Rhys and I realised something was amiss after about 5 minutes of no-one coming. After at least another 5 minutes sitting patiently, and since we were corner marking obvious, unambiguous cross roads that technically did not need markers, we both ventured back – all the way back to Menzies Creek, some 10 km. We discovered the VFR in a gentleman neighbour’s garage, Danny wielding a pair of electrical wire strippers, attacking the copper sulphate encrusted green connectors.

I sent Mick Hanlon to round up all the stranded corner markers all over the country and continue on with the ride, and chastened long standing Club members for not following Club procedure ("If a machine breaks down, the following two machines and the rear rider shall stop. After estimating the time of delay, one of the riders will proceed to inform the corner markers and the leader of the situation.")

Danny’s bike looked terminal, time and light were pressing, and Renata needed to get home to Sunbury. So I gave Danny my bike to pillion Renata on, and I pillioned with Rhys, all the way back to Doncaster, after settling on plan 27B. It was the complete opposite way for Rhys, but given there were many more bodies than bikes, and he was there, he had no moral choice! So much for a short ride.

It all worked well in the end. Danny enjoyed the smoothness (new chain and sprockets), seating position and handling of my ZXR. Renata disliked the high up seating position out in the wind blast offering a good view over the rider’s head (totally useless when you are 90% blind). And we got to drink Danny’s coffee and eat all his snakes and generally annoy him. And I was only 15 minutes from home!