Daylesford - Sunday June 8^th, 2003

Geoff Jones (leader)	Yamaha R1	Ben Warden	Honda CBR929RR
Trevor Harris	Yamaha YZF1000R	Paul Southwell	Honda CBR954RR
Matt Clark	Suzuki GSXR750	Robert Taggart 1^st Ride	Kawasaki ZX-9R
Martin Hastie (rear)	Honda CBR1100XX	Greg Hales	Suzuki TL1000S

A cold grey morning, with a hint of rain. The forecast sounded OK, so off I went. Clear when I left home with a few blue patches trying to make their presence known. For once I was there before the designated departure time: Whittlesea at 10:15. A few others rolled up, until we had eight of us eyeing the clouds sitting over the roads to the north.

Geoff gave us a rundown on the route for the day, did the corner-marking / leader / rear rider routine and renamed a few of the roads: Radar Road, Speed-Camera Straight and Booking Boulevard. I remember being concerned about this – had the cops taken an unhealthy interest in covering one of our favourite areas?

The first leg was up the damp-in-places road to Kinglake West; Ben had warned us that the cops had a new hidey hole at the top of the sweepers, impossible to see from our direction. I managed to get stuck behind some traffic where the road is reduced to one lane. Approaching Flowerdale, I slowed for the 80 km/h zone, and was surprised to have a roadside speed camera display my speed as 86. Off the throttle, and it read 73. Interesting device, it didn’t seem to have any revenue-raising attachments. It appears that there are a few of these popping up around the suburbs, that display a happy J or sad L face depending on if you are under or over the speed limit – to a maximum of 20 km/h over.

Left at Flowerdale towards Strath Creek, then a right at the T-intersection which saw us heading along King Parrot Road towards the Goulbourn Valley Highway. I gassed it along the open stretch along here, and found that I was not catching up to the bike in front. Left onto the highway towards Seymour. We passed the Trawool Resort and I checked out the car park to see if they had anyone in today – numbers seemed similar to what Les reported on Mothers Day ie bugger all. Next it was off the highway at Trawool, heading for Tallarook. David, on the ZX-9R, seemed to be enjoying himself, as he passed me along here, something that he would do a number of times during the day. Damp roads make me uneasy and I ride accordingly. But I’m more comfortable in these conditions than I was ten years ago – the Club has something to do with this.

The weather had not improved, but nor had it deteriorated: in other words it was still cold and overcast. Everyone was getting along at a reasonable clip and I was losing track of who was in front or behind me – it’s confusing when you get passed by someone that you think is ahead of you. Under the Freeway and along ‘the usual roads’ to Pyalong for morning tea and bladder relief. There’s nothing quite like riding along bumpy roads on a cold day...

Lancefield was the next major town, where we turned onto the Glenhope road – this leads toward Lake Eppalock if you follow it far enough. Tight, damp in places, and the odd car to pass. The plan was to try a new road to get to Kyneton but we discovered that it was not sealed, and due to the overnight rain, no-one was eager to try it out. No stop at Kyneton, just ride through town and then hang a right to the reservoirs. I was behind Geoff at this stage, and found that he took the role of Leader seriously - getting along at fair rate of knots on the R1.

Things were getting familiar now – this is where I led the Mt Macedon ride earlier this year. Geoff led us through Lauriston and Spring Hill on narrow back roads, thankfully with little traffic. The crossroads at Spring Hill are likely to catch someone at some time: a stop sign just around a corner, and the surface is covered in loose crap. But no problems for our group today. On to Glenlyon and then the highway into Daylesford for lunch.

The joint was jumping – it’s a bloody popular place at the weekend. Our initial parking spot was identified as a 15-minute spot, so we split into two groups and parked safely away from the parking inspectors. Lunch for most was at the bakery next to the Vegetarian shop. While we waited for everyone to be served, a few of us sat at the (empty) table’s outs the vegetarian shop. This soon had the owner objecting to our presence on two counts: we had not purchased our food from him, AND we were eating meat pies. Two strikes – we were out. So we moved to a now-available table in front of the bakery, ate our animal-based food and chatted for a while.

I left the ride here with instructions to ‘make up the rest’ so here goes: Geoff led the others on a merry ride around that part of the world, and they all had a gay time. No-one got wet, and no-one got booked. Thanks to Geoff and the rest for a cool days ride.

Trevor Harris (YZF1000R)

That’s a fair summary. We did in fact work our way south from Daylesford down to Spargo Creek where we turned right and toured around Moorabool Reservoir heading for Wallace and Gordon on the Western Highway. I remember one particularly tricky corner – a sharp left hander at the top of crest at the end of a long straight, unsign-posted, requiring heavy braking. The fact it was covered in green algae didn’t help.

On through Ballan, Greendale and the Myrniong open sweepers rejoining the Highway to exit at Bacchus Marsh for a splash of fuel. A quick blat up the hill, letting some of the neddies run free. Then final break-up point at Diggers Rest via the straight roads through Toolern Vale, though look out for the 45 km/h dip over the bridge. I also echo Trevor’s favourable comments about the ride and company. …Ed.