Lavers Hill Sunday 8^th March, 2009

Cameron Stevens	Yamaha FZ6	David Chisma	BMW 800ST
Geoff Jones (leader)	Yamaha R1	Geoff Shugg	BMW K1200RS
Willem Vandeveld	Honda ST1300	Daryl Lyons	Kawasaki ZX6R
Stephane Bouchard	Suzuki GSXR750	Geoff Ross	Triumph 675 (rear)
Ivan Radywonik	KTM 990	Jared Wade	Triumph 955

Route: West Gate, Little River, Lara, Lovely Banks, Batesford, Ceres. Moriac (first break), Bambra, Deans Marsh, Pennyroyal, Barwon, Forrest, Tanybryn, Skenes Creek (KTM off), Apollo Bay (Fuel), Horden Vale, Lavers Hill (lunch), Horden Vale, Apollo Bay, Skenes Creek, Wye River, Lorne (fuel), Deans Marsh, Bambra, Moriac (regroup, ride end), Ceres, Batesford, Lovely Banks, Lara, M1 freeway

Distance: 500 kms West Gate to finish at Lara

Maybe I was being a bit optimistic with the weather forecast which I think, if my fading memory serves me correctly, was for clouds, clearing and a top of 23. I left home only wearing a t-shirt under my leathers and the ride to the meet point was a little bit cold but OK due to its short distance.

There may have been some confusion at the meet point as to what time we were supposed to leave. I read a 9:30am start on the Club’s web site but others were saying10am start was published else where. We split the difference and headed south to GOR at 9:45am.

It was the usual pedestrian affair tip toeing past the greed cameras well under the speed limit along the freeway until the Little River turn off. Then on to Lara for the morning tea break at Moriac. By now I was frozen to the core and while Dave had the option of converting his long sleeved visor wiper top back to the manufactures intended purpose I had to think of something else. The old newspaper down the front trick is something I haven’t tried for sometime and I forked out $1.80 for a copy of the Herald Scum, ditched all the boring sections and stuffed the rest down my front under my jacket. Given the cost effectiveness of the solution it worked admirably well as we headed off to our next planned stop at Apollo Bay.

Ivan’s thoughts about where the next stop should be weren’t quite in line with the ride leader’s plans. The group stopped half way down the hill coming into Skenes Creek for a rest after Ivan had decided to test his KTM’s off road capabilities. Some minor repairs were in order to get the KTM back into a rideable condition. What the actual fixes were I don’t know but I heard cable ties and duct tape were called for. Ivan turned back to Melbourne at the bottom of the hill while the group travelled the 6 km from Skenes Creek into Apollo Bay for fuel and refreshments.

At the servo we met a couple of Tasmanians who were doing a road rip around Victoria after going to the World Superbikes at Phillip Island. One of the chaps riding a KTM Super Duke ran out of fuel about one kilometre out of town. His mate went on ahead to get and return with fuel. When I asked him what container he used to carry one litre of fuel back to his mate he said he pulled a discarded oil container out of the bin and filled it fuel which I thought was a pretty good improvised idea. I also learnt that KTM Super Dukes do 91 km on reserve before running completely dry. J

Lunch was at Lavers Hill which was packed due to it being a long weekend but the food and drink didn’t take too long to arrive. After a quick lunch we re-traced our steps back to Apollo Bay, past Skenes Creek and into Lorne for another break and fuel stop. By now it was warm enough to ditch the newspaper down my front.

We headed home via Deans Marsh and had a semi-formal break up at Moriac. Geoff lead the ride back to Lara and then onto the Freeway where riders peeled off at there respective turn offs on the way home.

Thanks to Geoff for leading the ride, particularly as he filled in for Peter Jones who was unable to lead due to work commitments.

Cameron Stevens