Eildon                          Sunday 31st July 2005

 

Honda CBR XX 1100                        Hartin Hastie (leader)             Honda VFR800          Anders Plenge

Honda CBR XX 1100                        Peter Feistl                              Honda VFR750          Renzo Cunico

Honda CBR XX 1100                        Mark Hooper                           Kawasaki ZX12R       Jason Peters

Honda CBR XX 1100                        Alistair Thompson                   Kawasaki ZX9            Rick Dani (2nd ride)

Honda CBR1000                    Paul Southwell                        Yamaha YZF1000      Trevor Harris

Honda CBR929                      Ian Payne (rear)                       Yamaha YZF600        Joel Haley

Honda CBR929                      Ben Warden                            Triumph 955ST           Ern Reeders

Honda CBR929                      Simon Trubiano                       Suzuki GSXR1000     Lyn Duncan

Honda CBR929                      Breht Emmerson                     17 bikes, 17 people

 

As I awoke in the early hours of another Sunday morning I was surprised to see the sun shining through the curtains, even though the weather man promised otherwise.

 

I arrived at Whittlesea feeling eager to get going after seeing 17 bikes lined up at the Caltex servo glimmering in the sun light. The group departed around 10.15am with Martin Hastie leading the way on a CBRXX1100. This wasn’t the only Blackbird in the group which was blue, so it didn’t take long before a group of riders overtook Martin within the first five minutes of departing! Martin then gave the Blackbird a few more RPMs and made his way back up to the front.

 

The road conditions were good at first and the pace up front wasn’t slow. As the ride got further north, the daylight seemed to get duller until about 20 kilometres from Yea we were struck by some early morning fog. All of a sudden I couldn’t see the bike in front of me, or my speedo for that matter, though that may have had something to do with my visor being fogged up. After arriving in Yea for morning tea, I was glad to hear that several other riders mentioned that it was a bit fresh and that they also had trouble seeing in the heavy fog.

 

Whilst chatting to Ben he noticed that out of the 17 bikes in the group, 11 were HONDAS!

 

A short break had everyone thawed out. It was time to make a mile and head towards Molesworth, Alexandra and Eildon. We headed off as a group, maybe a little hesitantly, but with no signs of fog or Mr Plod, the pace quickly picked up again. After making it to Alexandra it was decided that it was a little too early for lunch so we made our way up to the Fraser National Park lookout. The views were fantastic with fine weather making it good for a photo shoot.  Ben, our ever reliable camera man, lined us up for a quick snap. As the photos were being taken, a group of Ulysses riders rode by and our group suddenly got bigger as a couple of their back markers mistook us for their group. They soon moved on! We had been playing cat and mouse with them all day, passing them just outside of Whittlesea and beating them to Yea, even after our detour to Strath Creek and Trawool.

 

Ben thought that everyone was smiling for the camera but they were really smiling at his bike boots that are held together with electrical tape. It’s harder to tell who has done the harder miles, him or his boots.

 

The ride from here was a little slower due to the road having just been resurfaced and there were a lot of loose stones. Thankfully, no bike radiators were damaged! The road came good again but the general consensus was to take it easy! There were some patches of horrible green stuff (moss). Coming out of the shade, the road turned good again and we all had a good time through the twisty bits, forgetting to look at the views that surrounded us.

 

After Eildon we headed for Jamieson via the Torbreck River Road. About 14 km in  I came across (rather quickly) another rider waving me down. To my horror, I saw a Blackbird lying in the middle of the road. Martin was standing beside the bike, hands on hips, not happy Jan! Apparently he had struck some loose gravel on the bend! Except for the oil leak from the crank case, the bike could have been ridden. A special thanks to the riders for their quick actions warning the rest of the group and for lending assistance. Thank God for CDMA phones (Ern) for ringing the local tow truck from Thorton.

 

The ride continued on the remaining 19 km of twisties to the normal regrouping point at the Big River bridge. After gathering our thoughts, we then proceeded to pick on Peter Feristl’s Burgundy CBRXX which had the slickest of slick back tyre, so much so that it had 6 inches of canvas showing through! To our amazement, he later used electrical tape to patch it up to get him home! Who would ever have thought that one of the quicker riders in the group would hold up traffic all the way back to Melb, sitting on 60-70 km/h, stopping every half hour to reapply a fresh coat of tape.

 

As usual, the Black Spur needs no mention. It was great, with a lot of bikes still going the other way. The Club ride took us through some great sights via good twisty roads which were mainly in good condition. The trip was approx 350 kms long,  the weather very kind to us the entire day.

 

Thanks to all that came along for the day! Special thanks to rear rider Ian Payne. And I hope all works out for Martin and his Bird!

 

 

Mark Hooper (CBRXX1100)