Lavers Hill almost! (Glenaire Café)
Suzuki
GSXR1000 Lyn Duncan Suzuki GSXR1000 Ron Solomon
Honda
VF1000FII Simon Henderson Honda Blackbird Mark Hooper (3rd rear rider, 3rd
ride)
Suzuki
GF1200 Ron Johnston Suzuki GF1200 Pete Cunneen
and Terri Watson (1st)
Yamaha
R6 Joel Haley Yamaha R1 Scott Waite (1st
ride)
Honda VFR800 Anders Plenge Honda CBR900 Shane Hindle
Pulled off the freeway
through Werribee, skirted around
This leaves us needing a new backmarker
and I volunteered reluctantly. Ben had been doing it up till then. Rob and I
were a few minutes later leaving than the others, and were playing bit of catch
up. I backed off the instant I noticed a silver car stationary on the right
side of the road, cop. I’m sure he looked ready to do a Uey.
He’s still not coming, and I’m still trying to catch up to the pack. I’ll slip
in amongst the other bikes if need be. Maybe I was mistaken. Nup. Joel tells us over lunch he was the reason
the cop pulled over in the first place. Joel was thinking the opposite, that he would slow down and slip back in amongst
the pack, but he didn’t need to.
Through Deans Marsh and Diamond Hill we were riding
in a nice group, but not for long. I had Simon on the VF1000 in front of me.
Everyone else had disappeared as soon as the road started tightening up. When I
saw how Simon was riding off the bitumen a tad on the first couple of bends, I
backed off, only to find him in the bushes around the next corner. No damage
done. We had to drag a few branches out of the way from the bike to free him
up. Then we were on our way. Anders, Pete and Terri had already come back
looking for us. Simon’s idea of going home was probably a good one.
At the GO road T intersection there were cars and
bikes getting in each other’s way. While they messed about, I got impatient and
passed the lot and waited with Joel who was corner marking. Joel rubbed it in,
saying he slowed down waiting for me, wanting someone to play with, and then
remembered I was tail rider.
The combination of Joel’s words repeating in my
head, Anders talking Simon into continuing with us (which I thought was a bad
idea), and the fact that there was no real need to have a rear rider seeing
that there were no more intersections requiring corner markers, saw me itching
to get going. So, the second I saw Anders sitting in a turn-out waiting to
check on Simon, I mutinied, and took off to chase Joel. But I didn’t catch him, though it was fun
trying. I would have to wait till
Simon had done the wise thing by now and called it a
day. We had picked up Ron Solomon’s mate Scott on an R1 doing the laps of the
GO road who joined in the fun. Ron Johnston was not really enthusiastic about
going to Lavers Hill so Balls suggested a café he knew about half way between
Great fun here, Joel, Rob and I riding this section together, damp patches through some of it, but
it was all over too quickly. I certainly didn’t want to stop when I saw the two
Ronnies marking the driveway to our lunch stop.
It would be good to stop somewhere different I
guess. Boy, did this place and the guy running it have character. Someone
mentioned he looked like Russell Crowe, and I imagine he had his personality
too. He said lately more people said he looked like Oliver Reed. What a great
laid back attitude he had. We all knew we were going to spend a bit of time
here this arvo. It was nice outside in the seating
area. Rob Langer had settled down with the newspaper which suited him fine,
ordering a gourmet seafood dish. There was no menu, but Russell
asked us what we felt like eating and he would come up with it. Which seemed unusual but no complaints. Lots
of conversation over lunch especially with four first-timers along.
Pete and Terri left the group after lunch for
sightseeing. Mark took on the rear rider duties. I took a few minutes to warm
my tyres up and could feel the difference. No-one
else seemed to worry.
Enough! Time to shake Shane off.
Just a bit further up the road Balls was sitting, waiting. Grouse! He’ll catch
up and, if he’s good to me, I’ll slot in behind him. We rounded up a couple of
the others, Scott being one of them, complaining later about something wrong
with his back wheel when we regrouped at
Leader Ron was going to turn off at the Skenes Creek turnoff. With the GO road now down to 80km/h,
and the cop factor, the route we took was fantastic, twisty all the way to
Forrest and in great condition. Shame we had the sun in our eyes and, at this
time of year, those damp patches. But it was a howl. Through
Deans Marsh stopping in Moriac again. Shane
splits soon after, heading home to
After saying goodbye on the fringes of Werribee, I was back in
Lyn Duncan (Suzuki GSXR1000)