Willow Grove              Sunday 3rd March, 2002

Rob Langer - Blue & white BMW ????                        Geoff Jones - R1

Adam Roberts - GSXR 600 (1st ride)                          Kate Stewart - CBR 250RR

Rhys Williams - ZX9-R                                                Liz Oliver - CBR 919RR

Aaron Melgalvis - CBR 250RR (1st ride)                     Jamie ? - CBR 250RR

Pete Weyermayr - CBR 929RR                                   Tony Grande - R1

Cam Burgess - GPZ 900R                                            Mal Chandler - CBR 600F3

Chris Kornow - CBR 250RR (1st ride)

 

Its 10.30 am at Yarra Glen and no sign of our leader Rob Langer. Rhys and Geoff had begun working out a route and we were thinking about setting off when Rob arrived in a flurry. A few new riders were present so after a very quick introduction and explanation of the corner marking we headed off towards Healesville. Pete volunteered as rear rider when no one else seemed willing, good on you Pete. With the number of 250s present corner marking was going to be interesting. As it turned out the 250s (other than myself) seemed to be rather fast and managed to keep up/catch up and so adopted the corner marking along with everyone else.

 

From Healesville we headed up the Black Spur and down Reefton to stop for coffee, fuel and food at Warburton. The road was wet although no rain fell and the traffic was minimal. I found the loose gravel still a nuisance up to the Lake Mountain turn off and took it pretty quietly, actually... very slowly!

 

Tony left the ride at Warburton. The rest of the group must have been slow to get going because I found myself sticking close..ish to Rob with no other riders in sight for most of the way to the Noojee turn off. (Thanks for going slowlish Rob) However once Liz appeared the pace quickened and I was on my own again, until the next corner only a couple kilometres away.

 

At Noojee, Rob found us an interesting goat track complete with speed humps, or were they jumps?…. not sure about that - to take us back to the road to Warragul.

 

After a quick stop for lunch we left Warragul and took off towards Poowong. Unfortunately Mr Plod was on duty down the road in his red SS VT and took a shine to Pete, keeping him busy for some time while the rest of us made our escape. (Most of us were oblivious to his plight !)

 

I cringed when I saw the road works signs indicating about 3 kilometres of road reconstruction, but was surprised and relieved to find it hard packed and smooth after recent rain. Thanks Geoff for patiently rear riding in the absence of Pete through that.

 

From Poowong we headed back towards Drouin through Athlone and waited at the Lang Lang road for the ride to reassemble. This took some time! The ride broke up at that point and Rhys and Geoff headed home via Lang Lang. A few of us took the highway to Melbourne, while Rob led those still keen for more, back to Yarra Junction via Powelltown.

 

It was a fun day with only the one incident (Pete's ticket), and although overcast we managed not to get wet. (We didn’t end up anywhere near Willow Grove either!)

 

 

Kate Stewart (Honda CBR250RR)