Mt Macedon Ride - Sunday
April 30th, 2006
|
Who |
Bike |
Role |
|
Trevor Harris |
Yamaha YZF1000R |
Leader + Scribe |
|
Ben Warden |
Honda CBR929 |
Corner Marker |
|
Lyn Duncan |
Suzuki GSXR1000 |
Rear Rider |
|
3 people |
3 bikes |
No clues |
Yep. Another ride that I lead AND do the write-up for. So once again this is a View from the Front perspective. At least I get three points for the day…
After a
glorious Thursday and Friday, the forecast for the weekend wasn’t too good:
Saturday cool/showers/17°,
Sunday more showers and 16°. After early
morning showers the pre-ride on Saturday was actually fine with dry roads and
the occasional damp patch.
Sunday morning. The deck at home was wet – not a good sign
for a day’s ride in the hills. On with
the DriRider jacket and waterproof pants and head to Whittlesea for the 10 am
start. I follow a red VTR1000 with a RedWing Honda numberplate
surround most of the way and wonder if it is someone new that is coming. Nope, he pulls over opposite the old meeting
point and joins someone on a CBR1100XX.
I carry on to the Caltex where Ben is
waiting. I fill the tank, and Lyn arrives
and does the same.
So we had three of us. A bit of a change to last year where on a hot March day I led 22
others. Some people just don’t
like to get out and check things themselves after hearing the weather forecast,
I decide. At least it was quick and easy
to get everyone’s contact details. A
very quick rundown on the corner marking system, rules, etc and I give the
attentive twosome a brief rundown on the intended route. This came in handy later. On hearing the words “1.5 km of dirt after Emu Flat” Lyn is not a happy girl. I tell her that it was great on Tuesday and
not too bad yesterday – even though it looks to have had some work done on it
during the week. She is still not a
happy girl. I ask for a volunteer for
rear rider and Lyn puts her hand up. Ben
then is nominated to be corner marker for the day. We head off at 10:05, heading north.
Up the road
towards Kinglake West. Up the
road into the fog, as it turns out, which started as we climbed up the
right-hander from the Toorourrong Reservoir turnoff
(where the road becomes two lanes uphill).
This made for an interesting and sedate journey, with the fog lasting
until after Kinglake West. Ben was right behind, and Lyn was somewhere
back there in the white murk. Once it
lifted, we had clear air and a damp road – not a bad combination. The usual route of Flowerdale,
turn left to Strath Creek on a dry road (great!) and
left again to Broadford, was taken. My original plan was to stop for a break at Broadford, but with the small group we had decided to continue
on and have the first stop (and lunch) at Lancefield.
Strangely enough, when we head off
and turn right at the big road sign, the
group of three managed to get disorganised and become
a group of two (leader plus corner marker) and a missing rear rider. Ben and I pull over about 60 metres up the road – in plain view of the main road – and I
see what I assume to be Lyn ride past.
Ben heads back to look for her, without realising
that she has gone past. A few minutes
later he is back – no Lyn. We decide
that she has probably gone straight on to Lancefield
so as to avoid the dirt section.
Ben and I carry on towards Pyalong where it’s left onto the highway followed by a
right about 100 metres later, and onto the road that
leads to Emu Flat.
Good road, with some damp areas.
Get to the end and turn right, then left on the gravelly-strewn
corner. A few k’s
up this road and the unsealed stretch is encountered. A little wet after the overnight rain, but
not too bad. In fact it got better as we
got further along – the up-hill stretch pretty good. This road leads to Baynton,
an intersection on the Burke and Wills track (the one with the mobile phone
tower and accompanying brick building). Bumpy and a good workout for the suspension. And the kidneys. The weather/road was still good along here,
allowing some decent cornering to be had.
Right at the Baynton
intersection and we head down a road that we normally head up (Burke and Wills
track). The trees mean there are some
damp areas to be careful of, but still allows us to make good time to the
highway. Right to Lancefield
where I pull into the service station for Ben to get fuel; the YZF would make
it comfortably to Woodend. I leave Ben and head for the bakery, to find
Lyn on the corner by the sandwich shop waving at me. It seems that she had not done her jacket up
after the stop back at Broadford and was expecting to
see the corner marker - which she didn’t because he thought that she was right
behind him and so didn’t stop at the corner.
So she continued on along the
Meat and salad rolls for lunch, then
the three of us (with Lyn once again being rear rider) head north out of
town. This time I lead us to go up a road that we
normally ride down – the one that leads to Pyalong. Lyn had told me that she thought that Ben and
I would have come down it and was pissed off because it’s “one of my favourite roads”. So
she got to ride it after all. Again, the
weather was generally good, with a couple of light showers along here. We get to the end and turn right heading
along the ‘Pyalong Bypass’. About 1 km later it’s a left turn onto the
same road that Ben and I have already been on – the one to Emu
Flat. Looks like Lyn is going to have to
ride the dirt section after all.
We bump our way to Baynton, with me trying the old stand on the pegs trick to
save my back/kidneys from some of the beating.
This is obviously one of the roads you can use to test the effectiveness
of your suspension, especially the rear.
(But one road that Ian Payne found by mistake out west a year or two
back is the ‘winner’ for this.
Unbelievably bumpy it was.) We
cross the Burke and Wills track and take the road to/through Pastoria East. This
eventually gets us to Kyneton. No stop here, just carry straight through
town once we hit the highway. Across the
rail line, up the hill and right we go towards the Upper Coliban
Reservoir. The road in lets you get up a
bit of speed – if you wanted to do that sort of thing. I pull into the car park so that we can have
a stretch as it’s been a while since we left Lancefield. A walk up to the spillway to see that there is
bugger all water in there; a rough estimate is it’s down about 10 metres from full.
And the adjacent Lauriston Reservoir is
looking even lower. Ben takes a few
happy snaps and it’s back onto the road.
Spring Hill is the next major
intersection. In other words we turn
left at the plant nursery towards Tylden, where the
local speed camera is parked on the side of the road. A wave to the nice folks who flashed their
lights at us and we cruise comfortably past. Eleven kilometers later it’s into the BP
station at Woodend, where the monthly market is
taking place. Unusually for a woman, Lyn
is not interested in having a look. The
YZF and GSXR get filled up, and Lyn tells us that she is pleased with her new
contacts. Something about being able to
make out the lights on top of oncoming vehicles from a safer distance….
The car park at Mt Macedon is only
14 km away, but it looks likely to be similar conditions today as for yesterday
when completing the pre-ride: inside a wet cloud. We decide not to go up there and head straight to Romsey and then Wallan. Pity, as this year I’d worked out how to get
onto the Mt Macedon road from Woodend, something that
a number of people wanted me to do last year.
The road was wet/damp along here, and the weather closed in on us. Not bad considering that our day had being
almost entirely dry with the roads in pretty good
shape. Straws Lane to get down to the
road to Romsey, with the bike slipping a couple of
times on rather wet bits. On some more to Wallan where we break up. I pass up Bens offer
of a hot drink at his place and we all head for home. Early!
Around 3:30pm.
Thanks to the corner marker and rear
rider. I’ll have to do this on a better
day next time.
Stats: 304 km covered; 97.6 km/h average speed; 3 hours and 7 minutes rolling time. I filled the YZF after 253 km where it took just under 15 litres, giving me 17 km/litre.
Trevor
Harris