Walhalla Sunday 15^th November, 2009

Tim Emons	Honda CBR1000	Tony Stegmar	Suzuki GSXR1000
Dave Ward	Honda CBR1000	Chris Pointon	Suzuki GSXR1000
Paul Southwell	Honda CBR1000	Cliff Peters	Kawasaki ZX10
John Rosseaux	Honda CBR1000	Ken Goederee	Ducati 999s
Brett Chambers	Honda CBR1000	Dave Chisma	BMW F800ST
Ron Johnston	Honda CBF1000	Stuart Forster	Triumph 675
Craig Morley	Honda VTR1000SP1	Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Ha Du	Honda CBR600
Ern Reeders	Honda CBR954		17 bikes, 17 people

Woke up scratching my bits with a yawn and banged the billy on. Caffeine is the gumption, backed by glucose as the sustenance. Coffee has been with mankind for thousands of years; truly an elixir of the gods. One of these gods had also decided to turn the good weather on. I fell to my knees, hands clenched, thanking them for the coffee and sunshine and applied the cowhide, because today, I’m going for a ride. Yes, I can ride even when it’s wet…

Tim is to lead the ride to Walhalla on the back of a ride day at Phillip Island, so I figured he would apply the salts. Yarra Glen has us all together for the run down and once again I raised my hand to be rear rider. I like this position, not because I’m a complete soft cock, but I enjoy having clean mirrors, and the dash of responsibility.

Off we went up Chum Creek Road and down Myers Creek Road, then across the dusty and gravely Don Road to Launching Place en-route to Powelltown with morning tea at Noojee. There was dangerous overtaking through this section…the flesh is soft, oh so soft…be careful out there please.

We progressed on dusty bikes through Hill End, planning to check out Thompsons Dam at the end of an absolutely fantastic road, as far as I could tell. We did enjoy a fair crack at it. On the side of the road there was a fine black CBR1000RR08 so I pulled over for a closer look. Dave gestured that there was a copper up the road. So off I toddled, with the firm belief Dave would catch-up, but not knowing in what form this copper was going to be, either a road side check or a radar in the bushes.

Next thing I knew there was a blaze of colour howling around a beautiful curve. Yellow, red, and green streaks whooshed past like cut rats. I eventually realised it was our group and thought for a moment they were high-tailing it out of there. Then Ben slipped by gesturing to follow. Apparently, Tim had caught up with a 4WD cop and followed him. The copper kept getting progressively slower, inviting to be overtaken. Tim was having none of this, and the possible consequences, so turned the team around. I would have liked to see the Dam.

Off to Walhalla for lunch. I noticed the road into Walhalla didn’t provide as much grip as we had been enjoying with a slight front-end slip, then a slight rear-end slip. Hmm, I thought, I must be getting on to the triangular edges of a worn tyre, and so was content to cruise into town.

Then the worst sight: a whole bunch of bikes stopped on a tight bend, Pina’s bike the centre of attention. I heard Ha say, who was following at the time, that the back-end of the bike came around and she saw Pina rolling with her bike. It was a low speed, low-side crash to the right. The oggy knobs had taken the brunt of the fall with only a couple of minor fairing scratches the result. Pina was soon on her way, pondering. Bless you Pina.

Lunch was at Walhalla. Last time I was here, Ben signed me up, took my money, and then I promptly lost the group somehow. Bloody new guy! As rear rider, I couldn’t get lost this time, I thought. And then they cried out “One second”…and we were off again.

Our last stretch was also a well worn route: down through Tyres for some fuel, Old Sale Road and Crossover to have our photo taken in front of the mural at Neerim South. At this point some riders dispersed due to logistics, and then the predictable… “One second!” was cried out. Longwarry here we come. And the day was done.

Nice ride, thanks Tim. The gods had already been thanked.  

John Rousseaux