Strathbogie                           Sunday 22nd April, 2007

 

Cameron Stevens

Suzuki GSXR1000

Ben Warden

Honda CBR954

Ian Payne (rear)

Honda CBR1000

Geoff Jones (leader)

Yamaha R1

Roger Cowie

Honda CBR1000

David Bekesi (1st ride)

Harley Sports

Corbin Spurr

Suzuki Hayabusa

Lyn Duncan

Suzuki GSXR1000

Mark Rigsby

Suzuki GSXR1000

 

11 bikes, 11 people

 

It was an eventful start to today’s ride. Geoff Jones, the ride leader, commenced proceedings by leaving Whittlesea with a stand up mono that didn’t see the front wheel re-enter the atmosphere until fifth gear. The fun and games didn’t last for long though as we rode into pea soup fog coming into Kinglake West.

 

The fog cleared shortly after to make way for glorious sunshine coming into Flowerdale. We turned left to head to Strath Creek where we met another group of riders all wearing fluoro vests. It was as if every member of the group was either a rider leader or rear rider of a Ulysses club ride. No wonder they all looked confused.

 

Lunch and fuel were obtained at Yarck. As Ben said at the time, “You know you’re in the country when you have to ask the local store owner for the key to unlock the pump.”

 

Heading back out of Yarck towards Gobur we came across a few cows on the road. In fact they were stacked up to five deep. This brought the group to a crawl as we experienced a close encounter with a cow. I was one of the last through after completing corner marker duties and by that time the cows were looking very frisky and not very intelligent. The last thing my Gixxer needed was a cow as a hood ornament.

 

We had a first time rider with us, Dave, who was Corbin’s cousin. Dave rode a Harley Dyna TC88 which shuffled along pretty well considering it only had a five degree head angle. It all came to an abrupt halt at Merton when the Harley suffered a primary chain failure (later rumoured to be a burnt valve …Ed.) Kerbside repair quotes were given in the vicinity of two to three grand. Rumour has it that the bike was just out of warranty. L I’ll just quietly note the score here: MSTCV one, Harley Davidson zero.

 

We passed over the Polly McQuinn’s bridge on the way to Strathbogie where Ern Reeder’s Triumph Sprint ST quietly made its way to heaven. The group stopped at the burial site for one minute’s silence before laying a wreath. Dave Ward reported a loud crack from within the bowls of his Gixxer 600 as he started the crossing of the same bridge, but couldn’t find the source of the cracking sounding at the lunch break, so all is probably well.

 

No Geoff Jones’ ride would be complete without a few long straights for our airbox’s inhale and Geoff didn’t let us down. Coming into Euora we had a couple of 10 km long straights, prelude to our second lunch stop. After lunch we headed back towards Strathbogie and retraced our steps back to Merton. Then jumped on the highway back to Yarck and Alexandra, onto the Molesworth Road where a large part of the group’s rear tyres seemed to mysteriously go missing before heading into Yea for our final rest stop. Leaving Yea I bumped into Dave Ward and we had quite a wonderful ride through the hills to our final break up point at Kinglake West.

 

Ben signed up Roger Cowie as a new member. Ian, Dave, Rodger and I headed on together as a smaller group stopping at Kinglake to replenish the Gixxer 600’s 16.5 litre tank, then heading down to St Andrews with the group dissipating coming into Kangaroo Ground. The ride was about 420 km all up.

 

Thanks for leading, Geoff. Looking forward to your return, Ern.

 

Cameron Stevens