Thresherman’s Bakery                Monday June 11th, 2007

 

The Ride: 2 bikes, 2 riders:

Honda CBR929

Ben Warden (Leader)

Yamaha YZF1000R

Trevor Harris (Rear)

 

The Bakery: 15 people, 3 bikes

Ben and Julie Warden

Robert Langer and Kirsten Anderson

Paul Southwell

Trevor Harris and Barbara Rolfe

Lyn Duncan and Peter Hill

Jacinta Thomas

Ian Payne and Kerrie Gooding

Dave Ward and Bronwyn Manifold

Darryn Webster

 

The day was cool and damp in places, with the possibility of rain.  As I had proposed the ride, I thought that the least I could do was to show up at Whittlesea.  (And if conditions were not too good, hope no one else arrived, then go home and keep warm doing housework.  Not exactly a good trade-off!)

I arrive about quarter to ten.  Ben arrives soon after.  And that’s it: one leader and one rear rider.  This should make for an easy ride.  Ben tells me that he intends to check out a few of the unused (by the club) roads today, as the small group means that U-turns, etc will be easy if required. 

10 am arrives and no one else has, so we are off.  The first ‘new’ road is tried just as we cross the main road in Whittlesea, following Ian’s’ recent exit route.  And we do a U-turn a couple of hundred metres up the road when the seal ends…  One possible new road is off the list.

Back to the usual roads. We headed for Wallan via Upper Plenty, not taking in the Eden Park twisties today.  From Wallan it was north for about 1km, then turn left to Romsey.  This stretch showed the road to be damp and slippery in places, as the YZF moved sideways near the chicken/egg farm on one of the slickery* patches.  Ben got ahead through here, as I’m a bunny on damp roads – give me dry or give me really wet.

Romsey came and went, as we now headed for Woodend.  Up Straws Lane, left at the top on to the Mt Macedon Cross turnoff.  Where we turned around: very windy and foggy; not pleasant at all.  So it was down into Woodend and the bakery on the corner for a rest and the chance to get the hands working again.  Ben got a hot chocolate and unbelievably I got – nothing!  Quite unusual for me in a bakery.  We spent around twenty minutes taking in the sites, and discussing the previous day’s ride and Stuff.

Leaving Woodend we took in a number of the roads that were travelled on Ian’s Heathcote ride a couple of weeks earlier, and some new ones.  I didn’t recognise any of them at first but then some of the bridges and corners looked familiar – déjà vu time!  The itinerary says that we were taking in Clarkefield, Wild Dog Road and Bulla.  The weather was improving and the road was mostly dry for this section.  Our next regroup was at one of the parking spots near Tullamarine airport, where we watched a few planes come in to land.  A couple of them seemed to be rather close, but we have faith in the air traffic controllers knowing what they’re doing. 

About to head on the final leg to Thresherman’s Bakery and Ben offered to swap bikes.  I considered it, declined, then accepted his offer.  This was the run down the freeway, around the zoo and into Carlton so no real opportunity to try the Fireblade.  My observations: higher bars, much closer to the rider; you sit more over the steering head compared to the stretch over the tank on the YZF; not much go down low; great brakes; firm suspension, tall seat when at a stop.  And easy to stall!  Did that two or three times.

We get to Faraday Street, park the bikes and Paul rides up.  I don’t think he is earning a point for that one!  Into the bakery where we get lucky and commandeer a table or two.  Eats, drinks, chatting.  People kept arriving until there were fifteen of us.  This was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon on a long weekend.  I’m glad to report that while we were sitting inside and under cover that it rained.  Timing is everything! 

The ride home saw me get a little damp, but I made it inside before the rain seriously set in.  Thanks to Ben for leading, me for bringing up the rear and the others for rocking up at the bakery.

Rain threatened throughout the day, but the worst we got was a sprinkle every now and then during the morning.  Have I mentioned that it was cold?  From the web site: “160 km, cold, overcast 14 deg., wet roads till midday.”                                                                                                               

 

Trevor Harris

 

[* Slickery (n)   A patched area on a road using a substance that is Very Slick and Very Slippery when wet.  Known to give motorcyclists extremely rapid pulse rates when encountered unexpectedly.]