Coalville Sunday 15^th August, 2010

Misho Zrakic / Pina Garasi	Honda CBR1000	Cliff Peters (leader)	Kawasaki ZX12
Tim Emons	Honda CBR1000	Jason Wilson	Kawasaki ZX9
Ben Warden (rear)	Honda CBR954	Geoff Shugg	Suzuki DL650
		14 deg.	6 bikes, 7 people

After a tough week spent exploring the structural properties of various multi-level sandcastle designs on a beach in Noosa with the kids, I was back home and itching to get out for a good ride. I headed out Friday morning with no particular destination in mind. The sky looked clearest in the east, so I headed that way. Before I knew it, I was tucking into a juicy hamburger in the sunshine, chatting to Dan and Maggie at the Dargo Store! Conditions were so good I decided to throw in a detour to Licola on the way back home. 730km later I was physically and mentally spent, but you couldn’t wipe the smile from my face!

I recalled mental images of those dry roads and clear weather on several occasions the following Sunday on Cliff’s “Coalville” ride.

I pulled in at the Berwick servo and was surprised to find only two other bikes waiting – sure, the forecast was predicting wind, rain and not much else, but they don’t often get it right... do they? I filled up and tried to park partially out of the drizzle. Cliff rolled in on a 2002 ZX12 (green of course) instead of one of his regular 1000s, claiming that the extra weight and milder power curve would result in better traction for the day’s conditions. Ben was next to arrive, commenting that he shouldn’t have bothered to wash his bike. We gathered around and placed bets on how long we’d have to wait for Misho and Pina to arrive. Sure enough, soon after 10 they rolled in. Then we waited while Pina took her time flicking through some of the magazines in the servo...

Cliff filled us in on the adventures that lay ahead, called for a scribe, rear rider and first aider. Unusually, all three positions were filled without hesitation.

Onto the freeway heading east in light rain, I was still feeling positive about the weather, focussing on several small patches of blue between the clouds.

We took the Nar Nar Goon exit, rounding up the series of roundabouts at a cautious pace in the wet, then along the back road to Longwarry. Over the freeway I noticed Misho’s Ventura bag teetering closer to the road than usual – something to do with the front wheel pointing skywards. Then onto drying roads through Jindivick. By the time we reached the Crossover sweepers and the Old Sale Road, conditions were dry and we wound up the fun dial. I was having a blast through here, and it was clear ahead that Cliff and Jason were too.

I knew I was right about the weather; the sky had cleared and the sun was shining. Clear views of snow on Mt Baw Baw to the North.

Cliff opted for the Wilkes Road / Balfours Road detour. Hard on the brakes for the sharp U turn at the bottom of the hill, winding through farmland, past the lady on the ride-on mower, left at the T, looking out for the invisible gravel, and into Willow Grove. We kept a good pace into the sweepers through Tanjil South, though not as quick as in years gone by when the road was smoother. Still, a fun bit of road, even if it is like riding a bucking bronco leaned on its side.

We pulled into Moe for morning tea where we borrowed the furniture from Subway and set it up outside on the footpath. Pina explained that she has a special arrangement with the staff allowing us to take their furniture out as long as we bring it back in before the bored local kids vandalise it! I snacked on a twin pack of Oreo’s I’d pinched from the kids stash that had been transformed into a pack of little Oreo bits during the ride, while Cliff pulled a completely brown banana from his bag – it looked like the one that lived in the bottom of my school bag for some years.

I glanced across at Misho’s bike expecting to see the custom silver tape pillion mudguard as seen on previous rides, but instead saw a beautifully made black plastic mudguard neatly clipped in around the tail. A discussion revealed its origin to be a louvre from inside a traffic light!

Jason emerged from the bakery carrying enough food for the group, and then ate it all himself. He said he needed to fuel up to keep up the pace. Geoff called it a day here.

After the break we meandered down through Coalville and Narracan, briefly tailing an old Ford pickup that had been lowered so far I was surprised there weren’t sparks coming off it. Then on to McDonalds Track. I hadn’t been down here before and enjoyed the ride, being buffeted by a gusty cross wind on the open ridgetop sections, noting the distant views on both sides fading to thick grey.

We emerged just South of Thorpdale where I expected us to turn left towards Mirboo North, but Cliff took us straight ahead instead. I thought we must be going to work our way to Hallston via the dirt, but then we took a right at Chute Road, and wound our way back into Thorpedale. Nice work Cliff! We took off south, past McDonalds Track again, and into the esses before arriving at Mirboo North.

Cliff then led us on to the Grand Ridge Road and through Hallston. I’ve been on this road plenty of times with the Club now, but never in this direction, so it felt like unknown territory. After Hallston things got a bit slippery; I was trying to convince myself that it was just the strong gusty wind catching the bag on the back making the bike move around and was no reason to back off.

I caught up to Misho and Pina and figured something must be wrong – you don’t often catch up to Misho on a road like this, even two up in the wet. He motioned me to check his rear tyre. Yep. Flat. We pulled over and Ben caught up, commenting that he had convinced himself he must have a flat tyre as his bike had been sliding around as well, but no, it actually was slippery. Pina went pillion with Ben as Misho limped into Leongatha where we extracted a chain joining link circlip from the rear tyre and plugged it.

Ben led us up the twisty Wild Dog Valley Road to return to the originally intended route, and then Cliff took the lead again onto the Arawata gravel. The rain had well and truly returned by now, and the gravel seemed to be longer in this direction. We rolled into Korumburra with my fuel light flashing, and I filled up with my helmet on to keep my head dry from the sideways rain, the roof over the pumps proving useless shelter in the wild wind.

Of course, in these conditions we still sat outside at the bakery, copping the occasional spray of rain blowing around the awnings that were belting themselves into oblivion in the wind. Ben and I were having fresh rolls made up when we were interrupted by another patron giving the sandwich girl a serve for not making the coffee that they’d ordered! Still, the roll was excellent as usual, so it obviously didn’t put her off the task at hand.

Jason asked Cliff where we were headed next and in reply Cliff offered Ben his spare tea bag...!?

We rugged up and headed out into the weather again, heading for Kongwak. I was starting to get cold sitting at the bakery, but was feeling better now with gloves and helmet back on, heated handgrips set to “toast” and moving around on the bike to generate warmth. Then we scored a brief window of sunshine in the eye of the storm. We completed the Archie’s Creek, Glen Forbes, Almurta route in the opposite direction to usual. I backed off at the sweeping right hander on the Loch road near the lookout expecting the usual lines of gravel at the entry / exit, but the corner had been resurfaced and appeared to be clean.

As we pulled into Loch for afternoon tea, the shop staff prepared to load up the pie warmer with hot food in anticipation of our orders, but they didn’t realise we were the MSR – too hardcore for that. Ice creams were the biggest seller on this visit! Discussion centred around the mailbox on the front of Cliff’s ZX12, and trying to ignore the black sky to the west that slowly crept around to the north and east as well. Time to admit defeat – we were going to get substantially wetter before ride’s end.

The rain grew from a light mist, finally giving way to proper rain getting heavier as we passed through Poowong, up the Warragul-Korumburra Road, Lardner and Drouin, and then onto the freeway to finish at the servo in Longwarry North, a mirror image of the one on the other side of the freeway.

After a break watching the downpour we made our farewells and hit the freeway for Melbourne, trying to keep the bunny in sight cutting through the heavy traffic in appalling conditions (not quite hooning thoughJ).

Thanks Cliff for an interesting and challenging ride, thanks to Ben for looking after our rears – only incident was one flat tyre. Official ride length was 388 km.

Tim Emons