Loch Sunday 6^th August, 2006

Ben Warden (leader)	Honda ’01 929 Blade	Stoimen Stojanov	Yamaha ’01 R1
Paul Southwell	Honda ’05 1000 Blade	Arpad (2^nd ride)	Suzuki ’05 GSXR1000
Geoff Jones (2^nd r/rider)	Yamaha ’98 R1	Joel Haley	Honda ’05 1000 Blade
Cameron Stevens	Kawasaki ZX9	Ron Solomon	Yamaha ’06 R1
Ian Payne (1^st r/rider)	Honda ’05 1000 Blade	Brett Moore	Kawasaki ZZR600
Breht Emmerson	Honda 954 Blade		11 bikes, 11 people

Well the limbs and extremities have finally got back to normal today (Tuesday 8^th of August). Time to click up a bit of a write-up from Sunday. I don’t know how the hard core, every weekend riders do it. My joints in the wrists ache, the thigh muscles are a bit stiff, even the bike seems a little more reluctant to start. Half the riders have at least another 10 years on me! Must be all that medication Geoff and Paul, or was that Ian? mentioned at the morning tea break. I’m sure someone mentioned Viagra in there somewhere.

The breaks seemed quite civilised, nice and long: morning mist at the Loch cafe, sunshine at lunch in Korumburra and finally more sunshine at Powelltown. I think it was Powelltown. Like most rides, I take no notice of where we are and simply enjoy the scenery and roads!

The conversation at these breaks was very entertaining. Most of us just laughed while Ron and Arpad provided the banter. All of us were in pretty good form today; that’s probably why we had such long breaks. Distances were covered briskly and even though the guide might say 320 km’s, the R1’s trip meter read 552km’s door to door from Brunswick.

As most of you know, I like my ageing R1. It’s still pretty quick and pumps out around 149 bhp. Paul was proudly showing off his power curve (No, nothing to do with Viagra.) of his much newer machine: 152 bhp. Not time for me to update just yet. Although, before the ride started, Ron was telling us all about how good the new R1 is: smoother gearbox than a GSXR, lots of ponies and it looked pretty menacing in black. Later that day, I was most surprised when I found I was gaining on Ron along a straight stretch of road; got along beside him and began to go past, taps were wide open. The Stojanov R1 was actually pulling away from him. We went for another gear... there wasn’t one! My opinion of the Stojanov R1 rises further!

Ron soon got me back to earth, his fire breathing 170-180 bhp “Over Racing” equipped, “Balls” tuned beast is exactly that. However, Ron can’t actually see once speeds are…let’s just say, pretty quick. (Whoah! If Ron isn’t 30 kg heavier than you, I’ll go he. And he’s built like the proverbial parachute rather than a dart. Power to weight ratios and aerodynamics play a big part in top end speeds. Swap bikes and no doubt all of a sudden his bike would be faster than yours. I thought you worked in the engineering department, not sales! …Ed.)

The final ride from Powelltown, through Launching Place, Healesville, Yarra Glen, Christmas Hills, Diamond Creek and the Ring Road was a bit tedious. For roads that are quite nice normally, just the added Sunday traffic and the beauty of what we’d ridden on earlier really made going home a bit of a chore. Can’t wait for the next one!

Big thanks to Ben (as usual) for not only being the fill-in leader but also for those magnificent Gippsland Roads. Love your work. Thanks also to Ian for initial rear rider duties and Geoff for the second half. Thanks to Ron and Arpad for your interesting use of the English language and to the others for your company.

See you next ride,

Stoimen Stojanov