Coal Creek Korumburra Sunday 8^th June, 2008

Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Gary Smith (1^st ride)	Suzuki GSXR1000
Ken Goederee	Honda CBR1000	Misho Zrakic	Suzuki GSXR750
Ben Warden (leader)	Honda CBR954	Tim Walker	Kawasaki ZX7R
Dave Ward	Honda CBR600	Rick Whitehead	Yamaha R1
Nic Jacka	Honda CBR600	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Richard Marek	Honda CBR1100XX	Ron Johnston (rear)	Honda CB400F

Ben’s ride down and around Korumburra is all about corners and usually attracts a good number of members. By the time Ben had finished his pre-ride instructions there were a merry dozen of us; not bad considering the time of the year.

We headed down to Drouin the usual way then cut across to the Warragul Korumburra Road. This is a good way to get the mind focused, as this piece of road offers some very nice open and normally dry sweepers. From here on it will be bumpy, tight and twisty most of the way.

Arriving in Loch for our first break was very interesting. There was nowhere in the main street to park a first (for me anyway). We’ve been here in the past when there was a local market/festival on, but this time the locals had really pulled out all stops and there were blow-ins everywhere.

Back on the road, we started to head roughly south towards Wonthaggi only to end up at Korumburra. To get there we zigzagged across this very scenic part of south Gippsland. Following Ben uphill and downhill along some of the narrowest, windiest “roads” in the area can be both a challenge and scary at the same time. Only Ben (the “stig” of Gippsland) knows the exact route, so all I can do is rattle off some of the place names we passed through; Almurta, Kernot, Glen Forbes, Archies Creek and Kilcunda.

Back at Korumburra we pull in for some much needed fuel. Just prior to this fuel stop I heard some concerned mutterings about running out of fuel. Most large bore sports bikes have a tank capacity of 18 litres with a reserve of 4 litres (common one’s like Honda, etc); even chasing Ben around Gippsland you will average 13 km/litre (some better) therefore you will get 180 km before you hit reserve. On these rides I normally see 195 km – 200km before reserve.

While we were at the Korumburra bakery (second lunch) it was decided to give the Coal Creek Village tour a miss, postponed to another day. We also meet up with a couple who had been trying to come out on a ride with us. I’m all for new people riding with us as long as they can maintain the speed limit, have the appropriate riding gear and a road worthy machine. Only one rider in this pair came close to meeting these basic requirements. Calling the Katana a rat bike is being a little kind. In all honesty this bike needed a ‘make over’ from the ground up.

After (second) lunch it was back up the Warragul Korumburra road through Nilma on to another set of excellent sweepers (Crossover) around to Jackson’s track. This route is the usual way we finish of the ride when in the area; it takes you through Jindivick and on the break up point at Longwarry North.

Thanks Ben for the (usual) high standard Gippsland ride.

Paul Southwell