CBR929RR Ben Warden R1100S Rob Langer

ZX7 Geoff Barton Bandit 1200 Ron and Daniel Johnston

VFR750 Steve Bailey Hayabusa Wayne and Joanne Nimmo

CBR900RR Ian Payne (rear rider) CBR900RR Nathan Brown

TL1000S Bradley Cain ZZR600 Geoff Jones (leader)

I guess this ride will be remembered as the "Drought Breaker" for up until this weekend we had been blessed with exceptionally fine weather.

As I prepared to head for the Shell Westgate servo it was quite warm. In fact it was only after listening to the latest weather forecast that I decided to take my ‘wet-weathers’ just in case! Considering the forecast of wet weather it was quite a turnout. No doubt the warm morning had lulled many into a false sense of a fine day. Even Steve Bailey had made the long trek down from Seymour to join us for a good day’s ride!

Geoff gave the spiel, I took down the names and also volunteered for the rear rider. Then we were off over the Westgate and down the freeway. Geoff had informed us he would break up the highway monotony be diverging at Laverton and taking us around Point Cook and the market gardens of South Werribee. We did. Then we continued on through Werribee taking the back roads to Anakie. As we rode along the dark forbidding clouds of the impending weather change became more and more prominent. The look of this front was so intimidating that on the first drop of rain most stopped and those that had them put on their wet-weather gear. Ron and Daniel and Bradley decided to give the rest of the ride a miss and head straight along to Geelong and home.

We continued on through Steiglitz and Meredith where a stop was made. Although not raining too hard at this time the wind had picked up considerably which made riding quite uncomfortable. Still the roadhouse made for a pleasant stop and warm food/coffee.

Off again and this time we headed for Mt. Mercer. Just out of town Steve stopped and informed me that he would be heading for home! Too cold and wet.

As we descended down to the Leigh River bridge the road turned to sandy dirt. Quite good dirt but today very ‘sticky’ for, as I slowed down to avoid the dirt being flung off Ben’s back wheel, I noticed that the dirt coming off my front wheel was flying almost vertically, covering the instruments, top triple clamp and all the inside of the fairing. Very weird! I quickly put the thought out of my mind of what it would be doing to the radiator and continued on.

Just before Dereel, Geoff Barton cried enough and headed home. It was then that you realised just how bad the conditions were as Geoff is a South. Gippsland dairy farmer and used to a drop or two of rain! Across to Happy Valley, which, given the conditions, was anything but happy. After a short stretch we stopped at Linton.

We all crowded under the General Store verandah and tried to take off our soaked jackets and wring out our gloves. Rob quickly proceeded inside to be close to the food-warmer! Although we where quite close to our goal of Snake Valley, the general consensus was that due to the adverse weather conditions we would proceed directly to Ballarat and home via the Western Highway! The decision was unanimous so we rode quickly through Smythesdale and Sebastopol to the large service station at East Ballarat for fuel etc. The ride effectively broke up here with most heading home individually although the lure of a hot shower at Wayne and Joanne’s home in Melton was tempting! Thanks to Geoff for leading in these trying conditions and perhaps some time in the future we can complete this interesting ride.