Highlands Sunday 13^th July, 2008

Paul Southwell (Leader)	Honda CBR1000	Misho Zrakic/Pina Garasi	Suzuki GSXR750
Cameron Stevens	Yamaha FZ6	Renzo Cunico	Ducati 916
Geoff Jones (1/3^rd Rear)	Yamaha R1	Henry Wright (3^rd ride)	Honda Spada 250
Nic Jacka (2/3^rd rear)	Honda CBR600	Bernie Foley	Suzuki SV1000
Ron Johnston	Honda CB400F	Ken Goederee	Honda CBR1000
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	Theo Kalkandis	Suzuki RGV250
Cliff Peters	Suzuki GSXR1000	Randal Leacock	Kawasaki ZX9

The day started off with a beautiful pre-ride trip to Whittlesea hinting at cool temperatures with dry roads and sun. Sadly, as is often the case with thoughts in an early morning caffeine-deficient state, they were misguided and deliriously optimistic.

As Paul gave the pre-ride brief, a few stragglers turned up, making 14 bikes and 15 people. Lesser people would mention them by name but I’ll call them Misho and Pina. Geoff volunteered for rear-rider duties until Lancefield where he would depart from the ride. I foolishly identified a need to someone to write the article and quickly found myself responsible.

Pre-ride brief over and with Cameron circling the group on his FZ6, it was time to head off. As we left the Caltex light rain started falling, drifting down like snow. The combination of the light rain and bright sunlight produced a blinding barrier as we climbed up the hill towards Kinglake. It may have been the beauty of the snow-like rain or the 2-stroke fumes from Theo’s RGV250 but I found myself happily cruising along the sweeping curves out of Kinglake daydreaming and thinking about what a great ride this was. That was until my front tyre found a chunk missing from the road near the white line on a corner and rudely shook me awake and back to concentrating on every bump and bit of debris on the road.

It was a nice run down to Flowerdale and onwards to Strath Creek. The rain was not too heavy but it did make the road noticeably slippery and the ride slowed a little.

The ride progressed up the hill towards Broadford and again I found myself inhaling lung-fulls of two-stroke fumes. We cruised through Broadford and up the hill for a left hand turn to Pyalong. After picking up a narrow road north of Pyalong we arrived at Lancefield, cold and cold. Our rear rider disappeared at Lancefield and I took over rear rider duties.

After a break in the warm Lancefield bakery and a fuel stop (for some of us) we tracked our way back across the hills northeast of Lancefield back to Pyalong were we lost Renzo and Dennis, who headed back towards Melbourne. Onwards from Pyalong we made our way, uneventfully, to Seymour. Three TMU cars sat quietly outside the Seymour Police station, their owners at lunch, leaving us with clear roads to Highlands. Again, uneventful, great roads

Turning right at the top of the hill in Highlands I came upon a scene out of the bush mechanics. Randal was pulled over on the right hand ride of the road and Henry and Cameron were on the left. Henry was having some fuel problems and thought he might run out. As I waited for Ron to catch up from a brief nature stop, I learned that Randal was losing gears and his muffler was trying to escape. The Green Beast was down to the top two gears and the muffler mount had cracked and was swinging wildly. Ron arrived and attached the muffler with an ocky-strap and Randal found neutral. After firing the Kwaka up, he was off towards Yea. Mechanical dramas temporarily over, Misho let me know he had a hose in case anyone ran out of fuel and with that, we were off again.

Minutes later Ron pulled over in front of me and signalled for me to stop. He was out of fuel. Luckily Misho had seen this too and waited down the road to see what was going on. Pina found it very entertaining when I asked Misho to get his hose out. With Misho’s hose and my tank of fuel, Ron’s bike gained enough juice to get to Yea.

The run down to Yea was smooth. I kept a look out for a stranded Spada 250 but it made it all the way into Yea. The remaining bikes at this point (10 of 14) filled up at Yea and the group congregated in the centre of the town. Our leader departed and, after a group photo, the remaining survivors (7 bikes) headed to the bakery at Kinglake West lead by Cameron. Randal and Ken headed back with the single geared (4^th) Kawasaki down the highway.

We stopped for coffee and Spaghetti Pie (had to try this, it was on the menu board at the door). The softer members of the group (me) headed home leaving the harder members of the group discussing a run up the Black Spur.

Great ride. Thanks Paul.

Nic Jacka