Dargo (Day 2) Sunday 13^th April, 2008

Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Misho Zrakic	Suzuki GXSR750
Ian Payne	Honda CBR1000	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Marty Thompson	Kawasaki ZRX1200
Dave Ward	Honda CBR600	Bronwyn Manifold (rear)	Kawasaki Z750
Paul Walkley	Kawasaki Z1000		9 bikes, 9 people

Matt and Suzie, owner managers of the Dargo Inn, started our morning with a massive cooked breakfast including hash browns, farm fresh poached eggs, tomatoes, bacon, and toast – preceded by a bowl of cereal if you wanted. This meal set us up for the day so that lunch around 2 pm was fine – except for Dave Ward with his fast (young) metabolic rate who was starving by this time.

Paul Walkley had spent the night with Dan and Maggie at the General Store cum motorcycle repair workshop. They have a long history, and the more I hear, the more incestuous and close the motorcycle fraternity is. Everyone knows everyone. While I was getting the tour of the workshop from Dan, Grant dropped around for a visit. He had flown in – by helicopter. Then there is Rick, also a helicopter pilot, who owns hotel accommodation on Phillip Island that regularly accommodates Team Suzuki World Superbikes which coincidentally Paul W was the Team Manager for, for three years. He knows his stuff.

Speaking of Paul, I asked him if he had sorted out his Power Commander issues. He has oxygen sensors on each of the headers on his Z1000 which flagged to me some serious tuning was happening. Yes, he has been playing with the Power Commander box, modifying the mixture to his liking, much like you would using a dyno. You need a PC and some additional software to customise it. But then the Power Commander unit failed and he sent it back to the Queensland distributors, out of warranty, but they fixed it. It came back running on 2 cylinders only, so sent it back again. In the interim he just used the standard Kawasaki settings as per the original blackbox because the Power Commander is installed in-line using the standard plugs. Remove it and it becomes a standard bike again. The second time it came back fixed.

The weather was overcast with misty rain threatening. It was also cool, though the night had been very mild with a warm northerly blowing.

It was agreed over breakfast that I would lead the ride back to Briagolong and then next 85 km to Tyers avoiding as much of the highway as possible. Cresting the first hill at the end of a long uphill straight leaving Dargo, roads wet, tyres cold, I was immediately confronted by a kangaroo jumping down the road, thankfully just far enough ahead for me to brake in time. While I am pondering the possibilities of hitting kangaroos in the next 150 km of tree lined road Paul W comes sweeping by. I wobble my way around the first set of corners on race tyres, not knowing what state of temperature or grip they are at.

The steering definitely feels heavier with second hand Pilot Race front and rear but not sure whether it is the 190/50 on the back (as distinct from my normal 180/55) or the additional side grip of the front tyre that makes it feel very heavy. I suspect the rear tyre is the major culprit and will try a 190/55 Pilot Race next time. (Yes, Dave Ward as uncovered a very good source of second hand tyres crated in from WA. Have a chat to him. I bought three.) Anyway, with the front not wanting to steer at low speed (and tipping alarmingly fast at 3/4 lean due to the triangular profile) it took me a while to get up to speed.

Marty left before the pack, intending to head for Bairnsdale, Omeo, Tallangatta and Young en-route to Sydney and work. But now here he was, riding very conservatively. Probably conducting a phone conversation which he earlier claimed was crystal clear up until 200 km/h.

With Paul W. clearing a path through the kangaroos with his noisy exhaust system I felt more confident the further we went, my mind accepting the excellent grippy surface despite it being totally wet, though luckily the rain generally held off.

We regrouped after 60 km at the Fernbank turnoff. Dave had come by 10 km back and I sat on his tail being towed along, a little out of my comfort zone, but worth the effort.

Soon enough the rest arrived, the ladies not far behind at all, Bron’s confidence on the new bike improving with every outing and Pina now riding much better with a bike that doesn’t try and pitch her over the bars at the first bump, a softer (than the previous soft) rear spring and a change of fork oil doing the trick. It is all about confidence, whether just getting back into bikes, or old stagers.

I resumed leading. At Fernbank I swept around the corner only to catch a joey and mother with nowhere to go other than to hop down the road in front of me, fences either side. Eventually the mother got jack of this game and jumped the fence stranding the little one who head butted the fence giving me enough time to slip past. The mother bounded away across the open paddock. I presume they would reunite at some later time.

Everyone was pretty much on the gas now with the roads starting to dry. Briagolong arrived in quick time and we had a leisurely fuel stop.

My good “old” RACV map didn’t quite match up with reality. It seems they are turning right angle T junctions into sweeping bends with priority given to the more popular route. Now it was time to put my map reading skills and memory to the test as I hadn’t ever quite strung these roads together in this direction. In my head I remembered 10, 8, 10: 10 km to the Boisdale crossroad, then 8 km turn right to Upper Maffra West, then 10 km turn left back towards Glenmaggie Weir – and then I would be back on familiar territory, retracing Ian’s route to Cowwarr but remembering to pick up the Toongabbie back road leaving only 18 km of highway in total to Tyers – which would certainly reduces the stress of leading, given the frequency of mobile radar enabled police vehicles these days.

The plan worked until I hit an intersection at 6 km (not 10). A check of the map showed the route to be on track, my short term memory the real problem. A good sign that people were lost was that some tried to anticipate turning left and I went right. Ha! Or maybe it was the milk tanker bearing down on them from behind which prompted them to move – anywhere off the road. The tanker turned into a house 20 metres before the intersection raising some ironical laughs.

The roads got very interesting from this point with a couple of tricky, low speed spiralling uphill corners followed by a steep downhill switchback – all bitumen of course. Then there was the vast amount of flood delivered sand spread across the road just before the new bridge – washed out the last time I tried to head this way from the other direction. Paul and Paul had some fun trying to pull up before the Armco and the signed 30 km/h right hand turn onto the bridge. Paul W. had the big Zed locked up, front, now back, now front again. He pulled up 0.5 metres before the Armco, his racing skills probably saving him from some expensive cosmetic repairs. This was the only incident for the day (apart from kangaroos and wallabies, which others encountered.)

Around Glenmaggie Dam again and the sweepers heading towards Seaton. Then on to Cowwarr picking up the alternative route to Toongabbie and then the highway to Tyers where we regrouped again, with only a minute or so separating first and last bike. Good fun.

Tyers is no longer a good place to stop for salad rolls as they now import them from Traralgon instead of making them on the premises – the owners decision according to the woman serving. She couldn’t figure it out either. Of course, they had run out by the time we arrived.

Paul took up leading for the first time this weekend and we charged off towards Walhalla and Rawson before turning right to Thompson’s Dam. The roads were wet after a brief but heavy shower, the temperature cold in this hilly, misty country. But everyone was riding well and doing it easily. Paul S. suggested a photo – which was just as well because I had forgotten completely. Then back to the bikes and back to Moe.

The roads were all of a sudden dry and the heart and pace quickened accordingly. It was only 2 pm and we were only 75 km from the finish. I parked outside Subway – it normally is the only eatery open on a Sunday afternoon, but today the Chinese bakery was open and the bakery down the street was still open – just. Consequently people scattered everywhere but reformed outside Subway taking advantage of the footpath chairs and tables.

My tail light had stopped working completely now. It had been intermittent all weekend and that night after the ride I traced it to a disconnected plug that had been making intermittent contact on Saturday causing the tail light to flicker mercilessly, driving the following onlookers to distraction. The plug had become disconnected as a result of work done a week earlier. I had replaced a 5 mm Hallmark rack mounting bolt with an 8 mm one after the thread stripped resulting in the rack flexing. This required drilling through the frame, installing the much larger bolt with a nut and locknut, effectively over engineering it so that it would never happen again. With no access for pudgy fingers, it was a major operation removing the rear duct tail – or removing enough mounting bolts to allow judicious bending – and running amok with the power tools. A lazy three hours in the garage one night. Shed time, as Geoff would say.

Of course, when I tested the brake/tail light Saturday night in the last of the light at Dargo, it worked faultlessly. Fifty kilometres into Sunday and it was dead as a door nail. I am very aware how much other riders gauge corners by the brake light of the leading bike and can be caught out if it doesn’t appear appropriately. Marty had already indicated as much as he was forced to brake hard, late.

In the process of testing Saturday night I forgot to plug the three headlights back in (with a view of conserving the battery which, though fine, doesn’t have an abundance of excess energy – listen to any CBR1000 start and it only just cranks over). At least that was easily solved.

Final stage was back along the Old Sale Road to Buln Buln, right through the Crossover sweepers to Neerim, then around through Jindivick to break up at Longwarry north after 595 km according to my trip meter. It was along here that I confirmed beyond reasonable doubt that my front wheel was out of balance, a strong pulsing felt through the bars rising in frequency with road speed. I had only balanced the wheel a week earlier – either there was grit on the axle stopping it rotating smoothly, or the tyre had worn off the race bits over the course of the weekend. I’ll never know. Monday night proved the wheel was out of balance – weight right, 90 degrees wrong. Unusually, the weight was required at the valve point, nominally the heaviest part of the wheel. Riding to work the next day it felt smooth as a button.

The ride had taken its toll on the bikes leaving some work in the shed. Paul Southwell had blown a fork seal, the first in 70,000 km which typically is about when they go. Much better than my Kawasaki ZXR days – every 30,000 km. And Ian’s rear sub-frame was jiggling up and down all weekend. Initially I thought it was his pillion seat small bag moving over the bumps but a closer inspection prompted me to grab his rear section and try move it (when we reached Dargo). It must have moved 3-4 cm. Apparently one (of 4) sub-frame mounting bolts has a stripped thread. Unlike my 954 which has a bolt with nut arrangement, the CBR1000 taps directly into the main frame. Saves the weight of a couple of nuts! Providing a bit more usable space which is immediately absorbed such that there is no room to drill out and put a replacement bolt and nut in. Ian’s plan is to use a helicoil. If that fails, sell the bike!

Thanks to Pina and Bronwyn for rear riding over the weekend at various times, Ian for leading Saturday at short notice, Paul for booking excellent value grand accommodation and the rest of the members who participated making the event worth repeating as soon as the weather comes warm again.

Dave reckons all my problems are because I ride a Honda (with tongue in cheek I assume given what he is riding in preference to anything else). But at 115,000 km it seems to be going really well, fork oil, engine oil/filter and steering head bearings due for replacement when I get around to it.

Ben Warden