MotoGP BBQ and Ride
Honda CBR600 Di Welsford (leader) BMW R1100S Darryl Chivers
Honda CBR929 Ben Warden Yamaha FZR750 Lisa Croucher (1st ride) BMW R1150GS Rob Langer/Kirsten Anderson (rear)
At the BBQ: Ray, Katrina, Jai, Riley, and Tanya Walker, Craig Morley, Emma and daughter, Jon Riddett.
Yarra Glen was
the starting point for today’s ride, a short ride to the Walker Residence in
Sunbury for a BBQ lunch and to watch the GP on TV. As per usual quite a few regulars were at the
Di filled us in on the day’s proposed
route and then we were off, Rob and Kirsten taking up the rear riding position.
Left at the Christmas Hills turnoff saw us stack up behind a bunch of cars
heading up the hill. I managed to squeeze by and had a pretty clean run through
to Kangaroo Ground, Darryl not far behind. We corner marked for the others as Di headed for Panton Hill and
At St Andrew’s we turned left taking a lesser side road that rose and fell steeply as it twisted this way and that through country suburbia. A road to be wary of and judicious with the throttle. Soon enough we picked up the familiar Arthur’s Creek road, the country now more open. Lisa, on her first ride with the Club, was feeling the bike and other riders out, riding well within herself. I am sure it must be quite a culture shock riding with the Club for the first time. We probably appear to be a bunch of crazed lunatics riding way too fast on less than ideal roads and surfaces. But it doesn’t take long for the bug to bite – hard. By the end of the day Lisa was sticking to Di like the proverbial to a blanket. And Di wasn’t going slow, on a mission to reach Sunbury by the designated 1 pm lunch time. Back to the ride.
From Arthur’s Creek we blitzed across to Yan Yean picking up Plenty Road to Whittlesea and Kinglake, the group stringing out a little. The first twisties after Kinglake West are some of my favourites, deceptively quick, quite technical – steep downhill, fantastic fun. Darryl, side stand grounding problem rectified, new scrubbed-in tyres, Ohlin’s suspension set perfectly, and plenty of practise on the Reefton, thought he was ready, and figured he would latch on to my tail. Like the good old days when I had a ZX10 and he had a GSXR1100 H. Alas, no…. I must stop messing with his mind.
At Flowerdale we turned left and headed along the Flowerdale Road, Di well ahead, allowing some fun to be had in the sweepers. I think Rob is onto something – he ignores his BM’s speedo – it reads high anyway. And look how well he is riding these days. Forget the road signs and speedo, read the road!
On to Broadford, looking out for the usual gravel in the corners on the uphill section. We fuelled up and then headed into town for morning tea. We were making good time and Di was pleased, the stress of leading abating. Darryl took his leave and headed off to visit his elderly mother. He reckons he was all fired up and had a top ride home. Meanwhile, our long morning tea over, it was time to make tracks.
After heading north from Broadford we turned left at the top of the hill and worked our way west heading for Pyalong along familiar roads, veering south to High Camp, a blimp on the map, before dog legging and picking up the main drag to Lancefield. The speed of the ride had picked up, Lisa more confident with the bike and the group, and Di pressing on. The roads turned straight as we headed south along the Highway to Romsey and across to Riddells Creek and the back road into Sunbury to arrive at the Walker residence a few minutes after 1 pm. Well done Di!
I got stuck into the BBQ, cooking a mountain of chops, sausages, burgers, onions and mushrooms. Katrina had all the salads and bread etc under control as per usual and it wasn’t long before we were enjoying a tasty lunch. Various members had arrived and the conversation flowed. Later we checked out Lisa’s bike and mercilessly pointed out all the things that were wrong with it – the odd missing screw, blown headlight, missing reserve switch cover, no horn. Ray and I managed to lock down the switch with a couple of almost correct screws as a temporary measure. Interestingly, Craig still has the exact model and we deduced the bike was running flat slide carburettors (off the SP version). That would explain the poor fuel economy Lisa noted.
Soon enough the flag dropped and the GP racing was on for real. The glare on the outside TV was less inviting than the big screen inside TV, so we all squeezed in the lounge room, after a rapid rearrangement of the lounge room furniture. Some of us had worked up a bit of a sweat on the ride and were a bit on the nose, according to some. This was just another element of the friendly abuse flying around. A good time was had by all, though Lisa did ask how long we had been riding together. We clearly knew each other too well. The 4-strokes annihilated the front row 2-strokes, McCoy’s tyre chunked and he retired, Rossi did his thing and finished on top of the podium. A good race, not a great race.
Afterwards, all testosteroned up, it was out with the skooter for Craig to demonstrate his bare feet monoing ability. It could only end in tears, so Lisa and I headed off, via a friend’s home coincidentally only a couple of streets away. Then back home for some running repairs on Lisa’s bike – replace missing fairing screws, remove headlight bulb, and Lisa promising to track down a reserve switch cover and horn from the wreckers.
Thanks Di for leading and Rob/Kirsten for picking up the rear riding duties. Same time next year?
Ben Warden (Honda CBR929)