Brisbane Ranges Sunday 10^th August, 2008

Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Geoff Jones	Yamaha R1 Leader
Tony Saccuzo	Kawasaki ZX7R	Randal Leacock	Kawasaki ZX9
Clifford Peters	Kawasaki ZX10		5 bikes, 5 people, 285 km

The Jones clan had very generously offered to once again open their home and provide lunch for the participants on the day's ride. The Club is very grateful for such hospitality.

Historically this family relationship goes back to the Mt Wallace (near Ballan) Hill Climb days where we used to (illegally) have timed runs up this particularly treacherous piece of road littered with pot holes and sandy corners. Geoff and family consisting of wife Val, daughter Melissa and now husband Andrew, and son Ben would organise the time keeping, and the refreshments at the top. Everyone was allowed 2 or 3 runs, the best time wins. Coordinating the start and finish times was the real challenge.

Walkie talkies eventually gave way to mobile phones, the times dropped dramatically every year (it was an annual event for 5 or 6 years). Eventually surfacing the road at the top allowed much more through traffic, making racing up a narrow, effectively one way road with lots of partially obscured corners, made the event even more dangerous. Combine this fact with the site being a recognised eagle watching vantage point and the bird watchers were not exactly enamoured with bikes roaring up and down the hill, the concept of 1800hoon, and the development of our written risk management policy ultimately killed it. What didn’t change was the quality of the food and drink at the end, thanks mainly to Val.

History over, back to the ride. It was a freezing day with lots of snow falling on Mt Macedon. The destination was Gisbourne – at the foot of Mt Macedon. Melbourne’s forecast temperature was 11 degrees, but out where we were it was more likely 5 or 6 degrees.

Geoff gave the pre-ride talk indicating that the route would be through the Brisbane Ranges, similar to previous rides with the first stop at Meredith after negotiating Werribee, Anakie and the west side of the Brisbane Ranges. We set off in misty rain and everything went to plan other than Tony Saccuzzo retiring his bike near Balliang, about 25 km south of Bacchus Marsh. His ZX7 was exhibiting the classic symptoms of carbies icing up resulting in the bike not idling and often running on only 2 or 3 cylinders. Rather than risking engine damage, it was deemed prudent to retire home and sort out the problem. It was unclear whether the de-icing kit – plumb hot water through the carbies – had been fitted.

After morning tea the plan was to scoot out the Durdidwarrah road and back down the east side of the Brisbane ranges to Anakie completing a loop before heading north to Bacchus Marsh and on to Gisbourne. About 38 km out of Meredith Randal caught up to me and indicated that my rear pillion seat bag was open and he has been picking up things along the route including a glove. This bag is like a woman’s large handbag and has tons of stuff- wallet, spare gloves, phone, camera, maps, Mr Sheen, chain lube, siphon, ear plugs, visor rags, water bottle, home made raisin bread, beanie, cap and probably more. The wallet was missing. Suffice to say it had everything in it as well including the work corporate card, Carlton membership card, Medicare card, cash, credit cards, etc.

It was worth the trip back to see what we could find – in the bitterly cold and driving rain. So we all back-tracked to Meredith via Anakie. I found my beanie blown across the road right back in Meredith, but not the wallet. We retraced our footsteps again to the Ballan turnoff where I convinced Geoff to lead the others back to warmth, food and civilisation while I continued looking a little longer, sitting on 43 km/h for over 40 minutes, to no avail. I eventually caught up with the party and enjoyed fabulous hot soup and plenty of pastries. By this time Ron and Julie Johnston had joined the gathering.

The ride finished up here as the weather had not improved – snow down to 500 m - and the hour was quite late. Thanks once again to all the cooks and commiserations to those members who missed out on a great function.

Two weeks later I got a call from Werribee Police Station. Someone had handed in a few cards. By this stage I had already replaced all the credit cards and jumped through all the hoops, got a new licence etc.

Ben Warden