Strathbogie Ranges Sunday 13^th August, 2006

Honda CBR1000	Joel Haley	Triumph 955 ST	Ern Reeders (lead #1)
Honda CBR1000	Ian Payne	Suzuki GSXR1000	Lyn Duncan
Honda CBR1000	Paul Southwell	Suzuki GSXR1000	Chris Pointon
Honda CBR954	Breht Emmerson	Yamaha TRX850	Tony Raditsis
Honda CBR929	Ben Warden (lead #2)	MV SPR750	Dave Ward (rear rider)
Honda VTR1000	Dean von Schill	Kawasaki ZX9	Cameron Stevens

The roads north of Melbourne are great fun to ride so I was looking forward to catching up with the crew and heading up to Highlands. What I also like is the stretch between Merton and Gooram and we usually get to run it both ways!

The ride up to Whittlesea through Warrandyte, Kangaroo Ground and Hurstbridge is a nice warm up as I roll into the Caltex servo with a comfortable 10 minutes to spare to fuel up. After a quick hello to a few regulars, I give Ben and Ern a hand counting the number of bikes which I figure was 11. Ben said 12 but I counted twice and was sure it was 11 only to be told he counted 12 heads and pointed out Dave Ward’s MV tucked away in the back corner in the shade. I had to look twice as the “dark” paint job in the sunny morning light almost made the bike invisible amongst the bright coloured “plastic fantastics”.

Ern briefed us on the route with a warning to watch out for sand on corners and confirmed that the rear rider was to be Dave on the MV. “Yeah, right”, I thought. Turns out he was running in the bike after an engine rebuild ($8500 of new parts after a shim bucket disintegrated at a ride day a couple of months ago. New pistons, rings and complete head - under warranty).

Usual high speed freight train up through Kinglake West, and the fast sweepers to Flowerdale. Turning toward Strath Creek and into fog cooled the pace down a touch as misted visors cut down visibility. Joel, however, had no problems seeing the road and had obviously well and truly run in Fireblade II as he rocketed past, head down, bum up. The down side, of course, was that he spent a fair bit of time cooling his heels corner marking.

North from Strath Creek to Kerrisdale, then back toward Yea with the sun trying to break through. North toward Highlands and the climb up the hills onto the plateau had us back into clear weather. The single lane roads sweeping up and down the hills kept the concentration levels up as we made our way through Caveat. The climb down through the tight twisties near Yarck was pretty challenging as damp patches often appeared where you needed to brake so you couldn’t really attack the corners. Ben had a headlight catch him pretty quickly as he came down the tight corners only to have it disappear (no one owned up to a “moment”).

Rather than continue on to Yarck for a break, we turned left towards Gobur for a pleasant meander along a quiet back road in brilliant sunny weather. Back on to the Maroondah Highway for a short run to Merton for our first stop.

After the usual photo session (I wonder if Ben ever appears in a photo) and a brief discussion of Sol’s efforts at Telstra we are back to business and onto another of my favourite roads, the section between Merton and Gooram. Smooth, mid-speed sweepers, undulating and with good camber. I was following Chris on the GSXR1000, watching him overtake a Hyundai on the outside of the first, tight, left hander. While marvelling at his daring riding, I failed to look where I was going until I ran out of road! I rolled off the brakes as the TRX ran on to the gravel shoulder. After washing off a bit of speed, I rejoined the road before grabbing the brakes to tip into the corner. Phew!

Just before Gooram, we turned back towards Strathbogie. With Ern’s warning of sand on the corners and with the narrow roads, I cautiously dropped down into Polly McQuinns where they have constructed a new bridge. Just on the other side of the bridge I saw Ern’s silver Triumph being hauled out of the shallow ditch on the outside of the turn. Ern was OK but very annoyed with himself. A little too quick with little traction as the front topped out and no braking power. It’s debatable as to whether the crash Oggy knobs saved the bike from serious damage or caused more. The bike was surprisingly intact apart from a bit of missing upper fairing. Ern decided to retire from his leading duties as his thumb was a little swollen and the visor too scratched to safely continue (rhs side thumb swollen, wrist x-rayed, no scaphoid damage, rode home ok, Ian accompanied till Whittlesea). Ben decided to capture the moment digitally, so we lined up behind Ern and the damaged 955. I thought it was a bit cruel asking Ern to smile for the camera.

Ben now leading, we continue on to Euroa for lunch, stopping at the BP servo. While everyone was fuelling up, Paul did a reconnoitre of the town. Then we are informed we are moving to the Caltex up the road as the food is much better. I had just started my coffee as everyone disappeared. I didn’t feel like hanging about so wedged the cup between the triple clamp and clutch cable and slowly cruised up the road. I watched the negative air pressure behind the screen suck the coffee back out of the lid, thinking, I should slow down. The food may have been better but it wasn’t quick. Someone ended up with a cold hot chocolate while waiting.

North up the Doom Freeway towards Violet Town and Harry’s Creek Road. Again, another great road, typical of the country up here. Being second last, it wasn’t long (first corner) before the MV SPR was large in the mirrors. I put my head down and moved up behind Lyn on the big Suzuki. The high speed snake of bikes made its way back to Strathbogie, back over Ern’s bridge, on to Merton, Yarck and finally Alexandra for a break. It was on this section that I noticed Breht alternating between going really fast and really slow. While discussing this phenomenon, we concluded it had to do with the type of music he was listening to on his MP3 player. Must be those romantic love songs that had him cruising along! Mind you, he must have had techno rock blasting through the earphones when he shot past me on the Molesworth Road where everyone let loose.

It turns out I performed the last corner marking at Yea as we turned towards Flowerdale and Kinglake West. I waited for Dave on the MV to fuel up and then followed him as he shadowed the Fireblades of Paul and Joel towards Junction Hill. Not having much of a chance keeping up with that lot, I had a lonesome ride to the finishing point at Kinglake West, just in time to catch Lyn quietly slip a couple of Bundy and Cokes into the duck tail of the Suzuki. Apparently she’s had a can explode due to the vibration and there’s still a fair way to go before she can put her feet up and celebrate another great ride.

Tony Raditsis