HRC Ride Day

Phillip Island Monday 22^nd September, 2008

Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000RR	Ian Payne	Honda CBR1000RR
Ken Goederee	Honda CBR1000RR	Cliff Peters	Suzuki GSXR1000
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	Misho Zrakic/Pina Garasi	SuzukiGSXR750

Honda Ride Days are always good fun with a well organized format, no race bikes and the chance to ride the latest Honda road bikes. So with too much annual leave, it was an easy choice to join other MSR members on this day.

Sunday morning. As I lowered the bike off the race stand in preparation for the Brisbane Ranges ride, I noticed how much ‘lower’ the bike was to the ground! Oh no, flat rear tyre. This just wasn’t fair! A 50 mm pop rivet was the culprit. So foregoing the Club ride, I changed clothes, plugged the tyre and hoped that it would hold air! It did. But how would scrutineering go? Would I be allowed on the track?

The tyres were only 2000 kilometres old so still very good. Fortunately, the plug was in the thread groove and if I positioned the bike with that part of the tyre on the ground, no one would be the wiser! But just in case that plan unraveled, Paul bought a spare tyre and Cliff had the changing equipment.

Monday. The plan was to meet at 8.30 am at the track but on the way down I met up with Paul and Cliff, so we travelled together for the rest of the way. On a weekend, this is a very easy run. But the Monday morning peak hour traffic certainly slowed the trip somewhat.

The others were already at the track so we slotted into their ‘Green’ group. (Dennis had to change out of Blue.) We waited for the first session. It was quite warm, but windy. Although the forecast was for rain, it appeared it may hold off. Still, no guarantee as this is Phillip Island on Bass Straight. To reinforce the changeable conditions, the guy parked beside us arrived with a set of ‘wets’ for his R6!

The first session was dry and a hoot. For the next session I was on the 2008 CBR1000…just as the rain started. The Honda rep gave us the spiel - $2000 excess if you damage the bike. It was the worst conditions for a tryout. Don’t pass the marshal, etc, etc. My bike had not been used so the tyres were cold and I spent the first lap doodling around. On the second lap, just as I got the hang of it – red flags. Someone had crashed and we were sent in! After 1½ laps my impression was the 2008 was easy to ride though the position of the exhaust outlet made it sound as though another bike was about to pass you, every time you opened the throttle!

For the next session it was really wet and windy; not much fun at all. Still, most of us were out circulating. Unfortunately, Dennis tried a bit too hard exiting Honda Corner, lost the rear and ended up in the grass! Not much damage, considering, but without a front brake lever it would be an ‘interesting’ ride home.

We had a break for lunch. The wet weather settled in, so not many of us ventured out again, except Misho and Pina who did every pillion session!

Dennis headed home while the rest of us waited for the rain to ease. Waited, and waited. Despite the conditions, only three bikes crashed with the most spectacular and expensive being a HRC marshal on his own Ducati 1098S!

At this stage we all decided to call it quits and head home.

Ian Payne