Mt Macedon (and Threshermans Bakery)         Monday 14th June 2010

Misho Zrakic/Pina Garasi

Honda CBR1000

Paul Sorenson (2nd ride)

Suzuki SV650

Ron Johnston

Honda CBF1000

Henry Wright

Triumph 675

Ben Warden (leader)

Honda CBR954

Jason Wilson

Kawasaki ZX9

Ha  Du

Honda CBR600

Shane Byrne (rear)

Hyosung GT650

 

 

 

8 bikes, 9 people

 

When leaving Whittlesea I asked Ben, “When do you think we will arrive at the bakery?” “About 1pm” was the reply. Wishful thinking, as it turned out.

I left my house at 7:45am planning to get a few extra corners in before the “One tank of fuel ride” promised. After some protesting from the Triumph to start in the bitterly cold dawn light (see my article on fuels later), and myself completely rugged up, I set off. The plan was to ride to Healesville, up Chum Creek Road and then across to Kinglake before meeting the group at the Whittlesea start point. But my troubles were just beginning as I had to choose between fogging up the visor or opening it, allowing the near freezing air in. Even with my heated grips set to BBQ the outside of my fingers were freezing.

Riding up the empty M3 with eyes glued to the speedo was not fun either. Needless to say, by the time I reached the windy roads north of Healesville I was so cold and so worried about cold tyres and wet (icy?) roads I didn’t have much fun. At one point I went through fog and amazingly saw the nosecone and visor frosting up!

Arriving at the Whittlesea servo with a horrid but hot cup of coffee, I was greeted by our recovering hero, Ern Reeders. I didn’t realise, at first, but this was his first ride in six months! His wrist is recovering slowly and he joined in the start of the ride until Eden Park on his very shiny 954. There was also a massive mob of kangaroo’s near Eden Park but I totally missed it.

The usual suspects arrive: Ha, Ben and Shane. Shane was nominated rear rider. We had started our engines and were just about to set off when Ron, then Misho and Pina arrived. Then Jason, followed 10 minutes later by Paul. The continuous tricking in of riders meant that we had to wait. At least it allowed the bright sun to warm up the road. The tone of the day (waiting, waiting) had been set!

First mistakes were Ha and myself going straight, thinking Ern was turning off on his own, causing some confusion for the following riders. A quick U-turn had things humming again! Then we blasted along, in the now warmer weather, towards Romsey and Woodend. But it wasn’t long before the next delay as Paul, in his enthusiasm not to delay the start of the ride, needed fuel. Unfortunately, we were only 20km from Woodend, so he could have filled up there but some misheard instructions over the sound of open exhausts made for a longer corner mark than normal with Ben, Ha and I.

Up Straws Lane and on to Woodend where we had a nice morning tea/lunch. Pina brought out the fighting gloves over my comments that the improvements made by 1/16th of a turn of compression damping might be a bit marginal. Ron also showed me that I was not the only one with freezing hands; you just need to watch the frostbite there, Ron!

We decided since ‘we had time’ we would go up Mt Macedon, even though it was pretty damp. Unfortunately, Ha missed us leaving as she was getting fuel. I was waiting with Shane and decided to go and look for her. We managed to somehow pass without either of us seeing the other. Then when I rode back to Shane he pointed down the road, which I took to mean – “She went down there.”  I took off after Ha but never saw her and the road joined up to the normal ride route so I continued on towards Macedon seeing Shane’s headlight in the distance behind me. Little did I know that he was actually tying to chase me because he thought I had gone the wrong way! So Ha, who had already met up with Shane, spent 30 minutes looking for me! Meanwhile I was on top of Mt Macedon admiring the view from The Cross while Misho and Paul were left corner marking the whole time at the bottom of the mountain!

A few phone calls, 30 minutes and three trips along the same road later and we were all back together again. We ran down towards the airport relishing the dry roads, warmer air and sunny sky. Along with the green fields and lack of traffic, it was one of the more enjoyable rides I have been on.

Misho and Pina peeled off at the Western Ring road to attend to a full suspension rebuild and tyre changing duties. Off the freeway we hit dense traffic heading towards Threshermans Bakery in Carlton. Despite the apparently ‘obvious’ corner marking by Ben on Grattan St, Paul, Jason and I were soon pretty lost and had to resort to using the GPS! Jason went home. When we got to the bakery we found Julie Warden, her mother Mavis Dwyer, Julie Johnston, Jacinta Thomas, Ha, Shane and Ben. Much chattering and discussion of the many mistakes of the day, not to mention the substandard bakery muffins!

Ah well, it does keep things interesting. And the actual arrival time? 2 pm! After 175km J

Henry Wright