Yarram Sunday 4^th December, 2005

Honda CBR 929	Ben Warden	Triumph 955i	Ern Reeders
Kawasaki ZX12R	Cliff Peters	Suzuki GSXR 750	Danny Hawker
Honda VFR 800	Mark Rigsby	Suzuki GSXR 1000	Lyn Duncan
Yamaha TRX850	Tony Raditsis	Honda CBR954RR	Breht Emmerson
Yamaha R1	Geoff Jones	Suzuki Bandit 1200	Ron Johnston
MV Brutalle	Dave Ward	Kawasaki ZX6R	Darryn Webster

Berwick departure. A good turn out of people, 12 bikes, 12 people, was nice to see. Cliff and Danny rode up from Portland on Saturday. Cliff was riding Jason’s ZX12R, (Cliff’s his old bike) and lamented that it is was big and heavy compared to the GSXR 1000. Danny was keen to see how his new GSXR 750 would go. It’s a lot different to the ZX10R. Parked side by side the 10 is lower in seat height, narrower and shorter than the 750.

Ben gathered us all around like chooks at feeding time and explained to us where we were going and how far it would be. Then it was time to mount up and head of down the highway towards Pakenham where we would turn off and go through Nar Nar Goon, Garfield, (not the pussy cat) and Longwarry. There were people every where, Market Day, sights for sore eyes, both sides.

After weaving our way through the traffic there was a short sprint to the next turn which took us to Drouin. Once through Drouin it was on for young and old. Lardners Track to Ellinbank where I did some corner marking. While waiting I adjusted the rebound on my rear shocker from 2 to1. What a difference it made. After the Towong weekend I had to wait a couple of weeks before Rod Sharp could revalve the shocker. He took out the bottom end damping and slowed down the midway to top end. For me it works a treat and it has improved rear tyre wear considerably. I said to Cliff and Danny that I would cut the tyre out on this ride, but it hardly made any difference. I have since done a ride 2 up with my daughter and it still has another ride left in it. I am excited…So I will certainly be cutting down on tyre usage.

From here we hit the main road to Korumburra. Again it’s all on. The wind is blowing a gale in some places. Up and down, round and round, through cuttings, over hills and down in the gullies. We were getting it everywhere, bloody gusts of wind. You would be hanging on for dear life, as well as leaning at strange angles, just to stay upright. I followed Darryn on the ZX6R for the last half of the ride into Korumburra, sitting up his exhaust most of the time. He probably wasn’t going that fast, but I was pleased with the handling of my bike.

On the way through the twisty bits there was a road works sign, and when you got around the right hand corner someone had cleaned up about 20 to 30 feet of Armco on the right hand side, and disappeared down the embankment. It looked messy. We passed Lyn, which was unusual. Still following Darryn, we arrive at Korumburra for petrol first and then up to the car park. We park the bikes and wander across the road to Kellys Bakery to get some food and drink. Then sit at the tables outside the shop and talk the talk.

After the break Dave and Darryn headed back to Melbourne. We head south to Outtrim. As we follow the road you can see where the railway used to go. Outtrim to Leongatha South, Koonwarra, Tarwin to Fish Creek and on to Foster. The road from Leongatha South to Fish Creek was a bit boring, but the roads were good, fast and flowing. Fish Creek to Foster is really good; everybody sort of hooks into it. Foster to Port Franklin and onto Toora. This piece of road ain’t bad. We all get fired up through here, “The heat is on …No holds barred.”

Toora. We wind our way through and go up Silcock Hill and stop at the Silcock Reserve Lookout, halfway up on our right. A welcome break, but hanging out for something to drink. It was a warm day.

Lots of gossip, some visor cleaning due to insects, a photo shoot and then it was off up to the top and stopping at the wind farm viewing area. More photos and gossip. The road was a bit rough. They had been doing road works and there was a lot of loose chip on the road. Some of the others had a bit of trouble.

We leave Toora Wind Farm across the top, through Hazel Park to Woorarra where we came to a stop at a “T” intersection. Ben was undecided on which way to go but decided we would go right and there wouldn’t be any problems. Off we go again and a couple of clicks down the road there is a Y intersection, we turn left, but there is some major reconstruction going on. A nice twisty road to Welshpool.

I corner mark and we carry on to Yarram down the main drag. It was a long boring road, but I keep my speed in check. Finally we arrive in Yarram. This place looks pretty good with its wide street, four lane black top, two each way with a wide nature strip down the centre with palm trees. We go down one side and come back the other, because we had gone to far.

Where we parked, Danny rode parallel to the kerb and Cliff backed into him and put a mark on his fairing with the muffler. Damaga was minor cosmetic, but annoying all the same. Like some of the others, I couldn’t get my leathers off quick enough. It was like sitting in a bloody sauna. Then we rushed across the road to the shop to get something to eat and drink. I had been hanging out since Korumburra.

Ern and Tony had gone and got fuel before they got lunch, and whilst sitting at the table Ern said the bloke at the servo wouldn’t serve him until he took his helmet off, for obvious reasons. Tony had been watching all this and decided he would takes his helmet off when the time came to pay the man, saving somebody some grief and aggravation. All was well.

As we left Yarram my bike turned over 70,000 kms . We headed down the Hyland Highway to North Gormandale, pass Loy Yang Power Station to Churchill. It’s not a road we travel often but its worth it for the view. We passed Hazelwood Power Station as well, another site worth looking at. Heading from Boolarra to Mirboo North, the pace was on and I was really hooking into it. Then we had a sudden down pour and that put a damper on things. I had to slow up, but it had stopped raining by the time we got to Mirboo North. Another stop thank god; I get really dehydrated when wearing my leathers.

From Mirboo North we ride to Thorpdale and Trafalgar. On the down hill run into Trafalgar I was following Cliff when Tony on the TRX goes past the pair of us like there’s no tomorrow. He’s gone, see you at Trafalgar. At Trafalgar we cross the rail line and turn left and follow it to Darnum where we turn into Shady Creek road. This is an interesting little road. Nice and twisty with three kilometres of dirt thrown in which isn’t bad. You do half of it and come across a sealed section and you say to yourself, “Bens wrong”, so you gas it around the corner and then you are back on the dirt again. It is only sealed where the house is. You keep cruising down the road and all of a sudden you come across a T intersection, which in turn takes you onto the Old Sale Road.

While riding down this road past the Shady Creek sign there was a property on the left which had some machinery scattered around the front yard. I noticed two or three Bren gun carrier bodies lying around, and a couple of old trucks from World War II lying under a tree or two. The Bren gun carriers were powered by Ford flat head V8 engines. I might have to go back and check it out.

On the Old Sale Road it’s full on. I am going flat out passing everything in sight trying to catch up, and all of a sudden the T intersection at Buln Buln is there. It’s all hands on deck. I stopped in time, thankfully. From here it’s on to Drouin West, Robin Hood and Longwarry North where we break up. Coming through Robin Hood there was a Commodore on the other side of the road, (Kojak with a Kodak). (ie A speed camera …Ed.) Everyone is roaring past this thing and it was just like passing a strobe light, it was going flat out, but it wasn’t booking anyone because we were all going the other way.

I would like to thank Ben for leading the ride. There were no incidents. The weather was great and everyone had smiles on their faces. Cliff and Danny followed me home, had a cuppa and a bit of a rest and then went home themselves, Cliff back to the farm and Danny to Mortlake for another week of shearing sheep.

Ron Johnston Bandit 1200.