Drouin via Noojee – 5^th October 2003

Tim Walker – ZX7R (Leader) Allan Zimmer – ZZ9R (Rear) ? – Blackbird (1^st ride)

Pete Weyermayr - CBR929 Liz Oliver - CBR954 Bart - CBR954

Rob Jones - CBR954 Kate Stewart - CBR600F4i  Tony Raditsis - TRX850 
Pete Pondeljak - CBR600F4i  Peter Rykenberg - TRX850  Ian Black - FZ1
Mark Easterbrook – Triumph 955 Dean - ZX6R (3^rd ride) Paul Southwell - CBR954

There was a fine looking crowd as I pulled into Yarra Glen. Tim was leading and gave us a brief rundown of our intended route. We travelled the Healesville-Yarra Glen road to Chum Creek. There was an amazing amount of traffic on this road – lots of rally cars. What was on? Up Chum Creek Road and I corner marked at the top for Myers Creek Road turnoff. The guy on the Blackbird turned up and told us he was leaving the ride - something about psychos and way too fast! I can’t understand where he was coming from. There was quite an extended wait for Allan the rear rider. It turns out that at Yarra Glen, Paul’s brake lever needed some TLC to refasten it back to his bike. Perhaps it’s a Honda thing – they all seem to lose bolts and parts at some stage.

Carrying on, we head down Myers Creek Road and onto the Black Spur. Halfway along the Spur a GSXR1000 slotted in behind me rather quickly. He wasn’t part of our ride and it was obvious that I was holding him up quite severely. So it was nice to see him pass on the back wheel, taking five cars in one go. (No, Ray, I still don’t want one).

A sedate cruise into Marysville and up over the hill to corner mark at the top of the Reefton Spur. After a time we got word that Mark had been hit by the bike behind him at the roundabout going into Marysville, his Triumph sustaining very minor scratches to the fairing. The other bike, the FZ1, broke his gear change lever and had to turn back. Paul showed up next, sporting fresh dirt on his shoulder and knee. Sure signs of an off, but his bike looked OK. It all became obvious when he stopped – left hand side again. The good news was that it was going to be repaired the next week so another claim wasn’t necessary. Good score! We stopped at Warburton for lunch. The weather was starting to look a bit dodgy during lunch and a few left the ride there.

After lunch we rode down the main road and turned off towards Powelltown. The roads were wet in a few places. Liz and I had corner marked before the Powelltown turnoff, so were at the back of the ride with Allan, the rear rider. When we arrived at the Drouin-Noojee intersection Liz mentioned that Allan had been right behind her at the turnoff, and had disappeared from view in her mirrors a few kilometres later. After a short wait we sent the corner markers on and went back to look for Allan, assuming a puncture or worse. We got as far as Powelltown without seeing him. It was rather confusing; he seemed to have disappeared completely. With no sign of him anywhere we assumed he had left the ride or turned off somewhere where there were no corner markers.

We carried on to Drouin, the break up point. Going through the roundabout at Neerim South it got interesting in a hurry. An extremely aggressive cop shot out from the car park and forced me into the gutter. I was certain that I hadn’t done anything wrong (this time), but your heart still misses a beat. It turns out that the cop was breath testing someone when a bike allegedly went through at double the speed limit and did a runner (go figure!). It took a fair amount of talking to convince him that I was not in a group but was riding with the missus who was running in her new bike. And right on queue Liz rides past backing up my story. After a quick bike inspection and licence check he reluctantly let me go – still in a huff. No more incidents to Drouin and no one there by the time we got there, so off home. Thanks to Tim and everyone else for an enjoyable ride.

Allan rang Liz later that night to ask what had happened to us. Apparently he had decided to turn off earlier and take a linking road, which unfortunately bypassed the corner markers. This explains why Liz and I couldn’t find him. Still it was a good excuse for us to have another go at the Noojee-Powelltown road.

Pete Weyermayr (CBR929RR)