Venus Bay 23^rd June, 2002

Ben Warden Honda CBR929RR (leader) Geoff Jones Yamaha R1

Dave Skitt Suzuki TL1000S Dianne Welsford Honda CBR600

Pete Weyermayr Honda CBR929RR Matt Clark Honda CBR250

Liz Oliver Honda CBR919RR Mal Chandler Honda CBR600

Trevor Harris Yamaha FJ1200 Frank Sibberas Kawasaki GPZ750

Renzo Cunico Yamaha R1 Rhys Williams Kawasaki ZX9

Anton Tzar Ducati Monster 750 (1^st ride) Darryl Chivers BMW R1100S

Ken Wright Aprilia RSV Mille (rear rider)

After a dodgy week weatherwise it was a relief to see that no rain was forecast for Sunday. “Ixcellent!” (for your Kiwi bashing benefit, Di). On with the thermals, rain jacket as a windbreak, tyre pressure check and all systems are go. It must have been almost 10 o’clock when Liz and I finally got our act together and were mobile. Lucky for us, the Hallam meeting point is only 15 minutes away.

A large group of bikes were already there. Fifteen in all. A great turnout. Trevor was there on his first Club ride since the Melbourne Cup weekend. He was on the FJ, my first sighting of this much loved and heavily personalised weapon. His leathers were worn with pride complete with cliff face scars and original Orbost bugs. Ben gave his usual detailed pre-ride briefing, explained the corner marking system and introduced the new guy Anton. Ken volunteered for rear riding duties.

As soon as we left Hallam on our way to Loch the group got split up due to the traffic lights. All strung out we travelled down the highway to Packenham and, apparently, past a speed camera (hmmm time will tell…). Turning off we travelled parallel to Princess Highway through to Bunyip, Longwarry and Drouin. We finally left the straight and boring stuff and headed south. Ahh, way more exciting roads. This is better. Fast sweepers slowly progressing to nice tight twisties. Left to Poowong via more high speed sweepers winding down through the hills to Loch for a rest and morning tea. With Di going overseas in a couple of weeks she wanted to shake the rust off her photography skills and try out her new camera, so we were herded into our first group pose of the day. CHEESE!

Onwards to Tarwin Lower, 115 km running along the ridge. Great road surface, awesome views and wind gusts making me homesick for Windy Wellington. We went the back way into Wonthaggi avoiding the highway and headed out of town on the Cape Patterson road. Corner marking was a little longer this time with Anton erring on safety and filling up the Monster with petrol. I found the Cape Patterson road hard to ride with my attention being wrestled away by the stunning scenery. I wondered what the fishing would be like there? Time to cruise through Inverloch on to Venus Bay via Tarwin Lower. Ben, our fearless leader, must have got lost (and I thought that he knew all the roads), as he u-turned when the road ran out at the beach, and then again, when the road just plain ran out. Ben claims these were deliberate. A swift back track to Tarwin Lower for fuel and lunch.

Geoff obviously has too much time on his hands and has been improving his crankcase breather on the R1. We spent some time admiring the curvature of the hoses lovingly handcrafted by Geoff to resemble certain parts of the female body. Kind of goes with the low cleavage screen, aye Geoff.

After lunch we must have done about 20 km of dead straight road into Leongatha. Yech! (possibly another missed turn off?). I thought Gippsland was supposed to be twisty. But the corners were a comin’, beginning with the road to Mirboo North, then west on the Arawata Rd, followed by a short stint on a very easy dirt road. We had a quick regroup, visor clean, and more photos by Di. Somewhere along the way Anton’s backpack had opened, resulting in a lost shirt sailing off into Ken’s bike. One way for the Pirelli Corsa patterned look. No harm done. Resaddling we headed on to the Warragul to Korumburra Rd through Ranceby. Good surface, great road. I think Rhys likes this road, as he was all grins at the next corner mark. Left at Ellinbank to Bull Swamp, swooping up and down through the farms to Larder, arriving at Drouin for our break up around 2:30 ish. Another great Sunday ride, approx 320 kms. No known incidents to report – however we will wait to see what the mailman delivers I guess. Thanks to everyone who turned up.

Pete Weyermayr (Honda CBR929RR)