Loch  Sunday 14th March, 2004

 

Honda CBR929RR      Ben Warden (leader)                BMW R1100S             Darryl Chivers

Honda CBR954RR      Paul Southwell              Suzuki GSXR750         Matt Clarke

Honda CBR929RR      Ian Payne                                 Suzuki GSXR750         Andrew Symes

Honda CBR600F4i      Peter Pondeljak                        Kawasaki ZX750         Cameron Burgess

Honda CBR600F4i      Kate Stewart                            Kawasaki ZX12R        Paul Grosser

Kawasaki                     Adam Wright (1st ride)  Yamaha YZF-R1         Geoff Jones (rear rider)

Honda VFR800           Patrick Davies              Yamaha YZF-R6         Joel Haley

                                    & Shannon Cunningham            Total 14 bikes, 15 people.

 

6 Hondas, 3 Kawasakis, 2 Suzukis, 2 Yamahas and 1 BMW. Honda wins most popular club bike by a street... again !

 

What better way to spend a beautiful mild sunny day than to go riding with 'THE club'. Peter and I arrived at the Hallam meeting place early in plenty of time to rave about the previous weekend's sensational ride to Harrietville to those who hadn’t attended. There were a couple of new faces amongst the gathering riders and Ian informed us that another rider (a past member from several years ago), was on his way down from Ballarat and would be arriving any minute.

 

Ben got on with the day's ride plan and called for a rear rider whilst looking in my direction. Silence... I'm not always going to volunteer! However, this meant later on I couldn’t fend off the request that I do the write up. It seems to be an either/or situation at times. Come on people, let’s share the responsibilities! Geoff raised his hand to be rear rider just as Patrick, with Shannon on the back, arrived. He quickly fueled up to join us as we headed down the Princes Hwy towards Pakenham.

 

At Pakenham we did the usual right turn past the racecourse and on to Bald Hill Road to run roughly parallel with the main Highway to Drouin. Plenty of chances to clear away the cobwebs and as many corner marking opportunities. The ride passed through Drouin in close formation, no doubt sounding intimidating to some and impressive to others as the vibrations bounced off the buildings lining the street. I certainly found the noise very loud through my helmet and earplugs!

 

The succession of corners continued as we turned left just out of Drouin and zoomed through the undulating farmland, then a couple of right turns out Lardner way and on through Ellinbank. Very few cars on the roads enabled the ride to flow fairly smoothly to Ranceby where we turned right. If I remember correctly, it was Paul and Matt corner marking once again, the pair being seen corner marking quite frequently throughout the day.

 

We traveled straight through Poowong, then approximately two kilometres before Nyora, turned left and traveled south for a few more kms of speedy sweepers and straights before easing up as we approached the residential area surrounding Loch. We turned right, wound our way down the hill and crossed the new bypass to the township of Loch, assembling outside the milkbar for our first food and fuel stop. Most people elected to top up their tanks. However, I decided I should be able to make it to the next stop at Mirboo North.

 

According to Ben, his route would take 120 kms. It is only 54 km the direct route along the main roads, so it wasn’t surprising to see signs pointing to Mirboo North at almost every intersection we encountered and often we went the very opposite direction!

 

From Loch we headed directly to Poowong turning right at the main street and retracing our route back to Ranceby. We then turned right and traveled further south up Cooke Hill and the big sweepers to the Arawata turn off. From traveling reasonably fast along a large, well made, open road, I now slowed down considerably along this narrow, changeable bitumen surface that I knew turned to gravel somewhere soon. It did so after about 8 kms. Geoff displayed great patience as I slowed to a crawl (and I really do mean a crawl!) for the three kilometres of nasty, undesirable road... OK... it’s not that bad, but I really hate gravel. Throw in corrugations, several velodrome-like sloped corners and a couple oncoming cars and it’s pretty undesirable!

 

Straight over the crossroad at Fairbank and back on the smooth black stuff. I zipped along to the double junction of corners turning right and right again down the Strzelecki Highway, the most major of all the roads we were on in the area.

 

A rather surprised semi-trailer stock truck driver rapidly corrected his lazy line around a tight corner when confronted with a line of bikes heading towards him. I guess he was used to vacant roads in the area too. Two kilometers along, we turned left off the Strzelecki Highway and traveled south-eastish, then northish up and down the rolling hills and twisting along the creeks through Dumbalk and Mirboo ending up at Limonite where we turned right. I knew my fuel was low and I probably should have turned left and headed the seven kilometres directly to Mirboo North but I was having way too much fun and chose to continue with the ride, trusting Ben's calculations and trying to ignore the fact that I'd probably been using more than the usual amount of juice per kilometre.

 

Hmmmmm... The flashing of my reserve indicator had me more than a little worried as I approached Boolara. I noticed Peter had cut his pace dramatically and as his bike usually guzzles more fuel I'm sure his reserve had been flashing longer than mine. He stopped to let Geoff know of his predicament. I continued on, unwilling to waste a drop more fuel than necessary as I really feared we both may not make it to the next fuel station. I sat behind a small car on the twisty road out of Boolara, not daring to pass it. Instead I traveled as smoothly as I could, keeping my revs as low as possible. Images of Ian rolling and pushing his bike the last few hundred metres to the Chewton servo on a ride last year flashed through my mind. I hoped this wouldn’t be my fate. The riders behind me probably wondered why I was going so slowly, before flying past. Eventually the car became so psyched out that it pulled off the road and I continued at my slow and steady pace unhindered. It was the first time I'd been on this stretch of road and was very disappointed that I was unable to really 'enjoy' these twisties. Never mind, there is always next time. I was very relieved to roll into Mirboo North with Peter and Geoff behind me.

 

The day had become quite warm and we all gathered in the available shade for the lunch break. After such a lively ride, a rest was definitely welcome, though the accompanying European wasps were a nuisance. It seems they have taken over everywhere and like to try and share your food.

 

Our odyssey around the nice roads of the Mirboo North district was not yet over. After lunch we mounted up and followed Ben south through Marden, then west before retracing our tracks along the two kilometers of the Strzelecki Highway and on to Wooreen, Hallston and Allambee South in a clockwise loop back to Mirboo North. From there we turned left off the main street and took the road through Thorpdale to Trafalgar where we regrouped at the Shell fuel station. Several people, including myself, opted to finish the ride at this point and head back home, while the remaining riders crossed the Highway and continued to Yarra Junction via Willow Grove, Hill End, Noojee, and Powelltown.

 

Riding back along the Freeway I noticed a large plume of smoke coming from the general direction of Powelltown and hoped the fire would not interfere with the Club ride. I didn’t hear any stories about it, so I presume it didn’t.

 

Overall, the ride was lively, fun, and as far as I'm aware, incident free. Gippsland riding at its best... great roads, great weather, and no sign of Mr Plod. Thankyou to Ben for finding all those terrific roads and mapping out an interesting route. Thanks Geoff for taking on the rear rider duty.

 

 

 

Kate Stewart (Honda CBR600 F4i)