Alexandra Poker Run Sunday 15^th June, 2008

Ben Warden (leader)	Honda CBR954	Nic Jacka	Honda CBR600
Willem Vandeveld	Honda ST1300	Dave Ward	Honda CBR600
Henry Wright (1^st ride)	Honda Spada 250	Randal Leacock	Kawasaki ZX9
Kurn Bridgeman	Honda CBR600	Geoff Jones	Yamaha R1
Richard Marek	Honda CBR1100XX	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Bronwyn Manifold	Kawasaki Z750	Misho Zrakic	Suzuki GSXR750
Cliff Peters	Suzuki GSXR1000	Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000
Ron Johnson (rear)	Honda CB400	Ken Goederee	Honda CBR1000
Peter Feistl & Kate Stewart	Honda CBR1100XX		17 bikes, 18 people

This was my first Club ride since selling my bike in 2005 and I was excited to be back riding with the Club, even as a pillion. There was a time when I had thought I would never want to be a pillion. How times change. Now I feel quite comfortable being ferried about on the back of Pete’s bike.

Until this ride, my pillion riding with Pete had basically been commutes through peak hour traffic to the city. On these short jaunts I discovered how fluently Pete manoeuvers the big Blackbird through gaps that would have an anorexic girl hold in her breath. It amazes me the ease at which he quickly flips back both mirrors and slips the bike through without hesitation, and how quickly he pulls the beast up when necessary, so I feel quite safe and relaxed seated behind him. Obviously this ride would be different, but I was ready and eager to experience the fun and thrill of a club ride once more. Especially as Pete had used the offer of joining him on a Club ride to entice me to go out with him in the first place, and we haven’t managed to attend one yet. We came close on Anzac day, but the bike let us down with electrical issues as we arrived at the starting point. You can’t imagine how disappointed I was. The sun was shining, there were lots of friendly faces and bikes lined up at Berwick and we had to jump off and push the Blackbird into the servo! Then work out how to get home, while you all were enjoying the great Gippsland roads. Since then, I’ve been asking Pete to take me on a ride, but with work demands and other commitments, finding a weekend that suited us both proved hard. Finally the day had arrived and we lined up at the West Gate Shell Servo for the Poker Run.

Ben, our trusty leader, explained the route and how this short stack poker game would work. The best hand at the end of the ride would win a club membership for one year. Geoff fanned the deck out for everyone to draw a card. Ron who had arrived late, was delegated the rear rider duties. He was on his small bike today, so seemed happy to oblige. Ben called for a scribe. Silence… he asked again… more silence… then… as I haven’t contributed much to the club for some time, I decided I would attempt to enthrall you, but more likely bore you with my pillion’s perspective.

Ben started off by leading us through the KFC drive through, much to the attendant’s surprise. Once out of the servo complex we wound our way through the confusing maze of roads under the freeway, across the Bolte Bridge and settled into cruise mode for the long freeway stint towards Tullamarine airport.

Past the airport we turned off the main drag, zoomed past many newish looking hobby farms, followed a narrow road that I didn’t know existed, in and out of a ravine, crossed a couple of wooden bridges before rejoining the main road near Clarkefield. This was my first stretch of fast pillion riding, and I enjoyed the feeling of speed and power the Blackbird produced. The road was quite bumpy and caused my feet to jump around on the pegs as I got used to the different seating position, weight distribution and level of grip necessary to stay on, but it was FUN. I discovered later that Pete was keeping the Blackbird reined in at stage allowing me to get used to the speedy style of a Club ride.

We turned off the main road at Bolinda and headed out past a couple of Victoria’s major thoroughbred studs, Eliza Park and Yallambee Stud. Nice country in the foothills of Mt Macedon, but very cold. As a pillion I can enjoy looking at the scenic winter countryside. The rows of Hawthorn hedges and deciduous trees without foliage, and mist settling into low areas added to the sense of cold. Once we got high enough the sun appeared and the promise of a great fine winter day had me close my eyes and dreamily smile enjoying the first sense of warmth the day had offered so far. This lasted but a second when I was suddenly shunted forward under hard braking as the narrow road descended into a forest with shadowy, damp, 40 km/h corners. The sudden deceleration gave me a similar sensation to sudden acceleration (that leaving your insides behind feeling) adding to the fun. I got a sense of how much effort Pete has to apply to wrestle the big bird through corners on this tight twisty section. However, what it lacks in nimbleness it makes up for with sheer roll on power. How I love that!

The Woodend bakery was a welcome first stop. Even though the Blackbird is a comfortable pillion bike, my knees were objecting to being bent without movement for long periods of time, and, after missing breakfast I was in need of a coffee and some sustenance.

Ron showed us his spanking new leathers and boots. He should be very well protected now. Geoff and Nic left the ride after the first leg. A shame… as they missed the best bits. The day just got better and better. And warmer too!

The sun was shining brightly as we crossed the freeway out of Woodend and headed past Hanging Rock. Pete timed it perfectly to be just behind Ben for the long run of speedy sweepers past the rock strewn hilltops between Lancefield and Pyalong. I couldn’t resist the urge to wave at Cliff and Paul pulling up at the corner as we sailed by in pursuit of our leader. Ben set a lovely pace giving me (and presumably Pete as he was controlling the bike) that fluent and fantastic feeling of great lean angle and centrifugal forces through the sweepers. Apart from the odd bump mid corner, this section was simply awesome. Alas, at the Pylong bypass, a corner needed marking and we were back at the end of the group again.

But not for long! That last section must have engaged Pete’s speed urge and now he seemed to relish passing others and upped the general pace we had been travelling. The section out of Pyalong is bumpier and has several tighter corners than the previous sweeper stretch. When we hit a headwind at a fair clip I thought I was going to be blown off the back. My enjoyment level dropped somewhat as I had to concentrate on hanging on tight. I mentioned this at our next stop so Pete pegged it back a little.

At Seymour we stopped for fuel, then food. We parked in the brilliant sunshine near the railway station and caught up on gossip and other news. Misho discovered I’m the self appointed anti-smoking officer and copped some crap as he tried to light up a cigarette. An elderly dude (no… not one of our riders!), proudly showed us his shiny blue electric bicycle. Cliff jumped on board and looked all set to take it for a spin. We all lined up for the obligatory photo shoot then it was off towards Highlands.

Pete started off quite sedately. Fair enough to mooch out of town, but once clear… come on. It’s just no good to get a girl addicted to a certain style of riding and stop delivering. I needn’t have worried, as the nice roads and seeing Dave, Paul and Misho fly by soon got Pete’s blood racing again.

I remember a time when I felt sorry for the pillions that I’d seen flying by me at great speed. I couldn’t imagine they enjoyed such riding. How wrong I might have been! Of course, not everyone likes fast riding. And I’m not sure how I’ll feel about zipping through a long stretch of tight twisties, but sweepers are the best.

Somewhere out past Caveat we corner marked with Randal. The stop was brief, and we were quickly on our way tracking Randal through a section of down hill twisties. This section tested my enjoyment slightly, and I’ll admit to hoping it would end soon. The gravitational forces of descending and braking pushed me hard up against Pete. Being wedged firmly between my thighs would have severely cramped his usual ‘hang off the seat’ style, but gentleman that he is, he continued on without complaint. Once the road opened up again, it was a buzz zooming along to Yarck.

A more sedate pace was adopted for the short well patrolled highway section and then a fairly conservative zoom on to Alexandra, our fourth card stop. My pleasure of drawing a 3rd King was short lived as Pete trumped me with 3 Aces. Ken copped a lecture on the evils of smoking, and Pina amused us by jumping on Ken’s back while he was doing push-ups. Richard departed the ride here and headed home. The rest of us saddled up for the last leg to Pheasant Creek via Yea.

Bronwyn in her white helmet and dark visor reminded me of ‘The Stig’ as she sat corner marking opposite us at the Molesworth Road intersection. After a quick blat down this narrow meandering road it was on to Yea via the highway. Willem left the ride at Yea to take a more direct route home.

At Yea, we caught up to another group of sports bikes, which also turned up towards Junction Hill. These riders looked seriously leathered up but turned out to be more looks than action. The way they passed us just leaving Yea made me think we wouldn’t see them for long. I was correct, however it was Pete who eventually got sick of being held up and left them in his wake, much to my delight! I love Junction Hill’s big wide grippy bends and was very keen for Pete to have free road ahead so we could enjoy its fast corners to the max. I trust Pete entirely, so I was really getting into this passenger experience aboard a bike with such grunt.

At Flowerdale we caught up to Randal and Pina negotiating several pesky cars impeding their path. Fortunately we caught up at the right spot and didn’t get held up much. Pete managing to get by with ease and we slotted in behind Randal for the final stretch of fun sweeping turns to Kinglake West and on to the new Flying Tart Bakery along the road to Kinglake. This is a big impressive establishment, new since I last travelled this road. The remaining riders lined up their bikes along the rustic wooden fence as they arrived. We said farewell to Bronwyn and Dave who were not going to stay for refreshments but head straight home.

The rest of us invaded the café for some warmth, hot beverages and the final card draw. Tension built as deciding the winner came down to the final card drawn. Misho had two pairs already, and needed a full house to beat Pete’s 3 Aces. Amazingly, Misho, after much deliberation, drew the right card and won the prize. (Perhaps the prize should have also included having to do the write up for the ride!)

I only saw Henry on his 250 for brief moments during the ride but he seemed to be doing a good job of keeping up a reasonable pace on his first club ride.

Ben deserves a big thank-you for organising and recording the poker game, and leading the ride so well (as he does), and thank-you to Ron for being rear rider. (A necessary task that most don’t want.)

If you hadn’t worked out by now… I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. It reminded me of how much fun I had when riding with the Club. It was nice to see those I know again and also meet some of the new faces attending the rides now. I’m very keen for Pete to take me on another asap. Hopefully I’ll see you soon.

Kate Stewart