Pyalong Sunday 25^th May, 2008

Willem Vandeveld	Honda ST1300	Marty Thompson (1/2 rear)	Kawasaki ZRX1200
Ken Goederee	Honda CBR1000	Paul Walkley	Kawasaki Z1000
Paul Southwell (leader)	Honda CBR1000	Michael Canny	Kawasaki ZX9
Ian Payne	Honda CBR1000	Randal Leacock	Kawasaki ZX9
Ben Warden	Honda CBR954	Chris Pointon	Suzuki GSXR1000
Simon Trubiano	Honda CXBR929	Clint Prytula (1^st ride)	Suzuki SV1000
Dennis Lindemann	Honda CBR600	Misho Zrakic	Suzuki GSXR750
Geoff Jones (1/2 rear)	Yamaha R1	Dave Chisma (2^nd ride)	BMW R1150GS
Pina Garasi	Yamaha R6	Geoff Ross (3^rd ride)	Triumph 675
Cameron Stevens	Yamaha FZ6		19 bikes, 19 people

Leg 1: Whittlesea, Kinglake West, Flowerdale, Yea, Highlands, Seymour bakery in old main street opposite station.

Leg 2: Seymour, Glenaroua, Pyalong, Emu Flat, Baynton, Burke and Wills Track back to Lancefield for fuel and lunch opposite milkbar under tree. Spoke to a rider about passing in the dirt, what rider etiquette is expected, and why. That is, fairings on road bikes are expensive and easily stone chipped. Unlike dirt bikes, passing under full acceleration with rear wheel spinning and kicking stones everywhere is not expected, appreciated or necessary.

Leg3: Lancefield, diagonal road back to Pyalong, retraced a bit of Pyalong Seymour Road till Broadford turnoff, Broadford, Strath Creek, Kinglake West, Pheasant Creek Bakery break-up.

Dave Ward turned up on 1098 after ride. Booked for mono in St Andrews: 4 points, $300, 1 month walking. Lucky to keep bike as police wanted to impound it under hoon law. Kid enticed him into doing mono on edge of town in 60 zone. A salutary lesson for all.

Above are the notes I made to assist in helping the designated scribe who was unable to meet the deadline due to other commitments. My memory is a bit hazy but here are a few more thoughts:

The ride followed on from the highly successful pillion ride the day before which saw 15 people – mainly different to today’s crowd other than the hard core of Ben, Pina, Misho and Randal. Throw in another 19 riders today with another batch of prospective members and it was a most successful club weekend in terms of numbers, lack of incidents, and different style of ride and participants.

I signed up Geoff Ross who also works at Melbourne Uni, but we never see each other. That may come as a surprise, but with 6,500 effective full time staff and 40,000 + students spread across 80 buildings on the Parkville campus alone, it starts to make sense. He works in Maintenance, I work in IT. But we share a common interest – motorcycling! He is pretty impressed by the Club setup.

I also got talking to Dave Chisma on the BMW R1150GS, back for his second ride. Originally from Canada, married an Aussie, has been a local for 9 years. An expert rider, harassing the sports bikes all day. I suggested back home he probably only rode 6 months of the year due to the snow and cold weather. Not him. All year round, no matter how deep the snow. It shows in his confidence on the warm bitumen.

Marty just made the start after having ridden from Albury that morning, on his way back from Sydney and work. He was all loaded up with hard panniers and a top box. The bike and body are all back together now after his spill on the black ice over Hotham a month ago. The bike looks massively wide from the rear but he said it handles well enough with the panniers carrying the weight low down and forward of the rear axle.

I played around with Simon’s blown tail light. It looks like one of the globes went high resistance producing enough heat to melt the globe housing. Swapping the globes proved the globe was at fault, not the housing. Mental note to check if I have any spare globes for Simon as the 954 runs diodes. Also check if I have a spare right hand side mirror.

General feeling about the ride was that it reminded me of pre-radar days and how rides used to be. There was plenty of sustained, exuberant, yet safe riding. The roads and conditions were perfect, all the stars aligning. Barely a car in the road, the upside to sky rocketing petrol prices. Also heartening was to see the steady and now dramatic improvement in Pina’s riding, confidence high. “I just love those high speed sweepers” is now her mantra. Brings a tear to the eye. Thanks go to Paul for leading and the shared rear rider duties performed by Geoff Jones and Marty Thompson.

Ben Warden