Adam’s AAA ride

AAA ride

by Adam M

This ride report was originally published in the May 2009 issue of the Motorcycle Tourers club magazine, ‘Chain Lube’.


What a fantastic day!!!

The ride started with a lot more people than I thought as it looked as though it would turn nasty and firstly a big welcome to the various “newbies” that came for the adventure. Adz may have gained a speeding ticket when he overtook the lead rider #:-((

Ok it was on the way to the start, but hey…

Extra scooters…but more on that later and Dee had a partner in crime, Rachel who was also on a very nice Triumph triple.

So off we went, leaving on time…and again sorry about that folks…a few guys were still coming up Domain road as I headed off. Speaking of which, I think I may have been a bit too excited as I ended up corner marking the second corner….and that was St Kilda Rd turning into Park St.

We were all soon threading our way down to the bay via South Melbourne and cruising along past a lot of lycra clad cyclists… (Brett you owe me a bottle of red). Justin S had headed off to get fuel and was going to reconnect along the way.

It all seemed to be going quite well with Adz zipping ahead a few times to snap some shots and we trekked down to Frankston, Justin S was beautifully placed to snap some shots when we rejoined the Nepean and Mordialloc…many thanks.

So we pull into the Shell at Frankston to see more bikes and scooters… WOOHOO, seems I ended up with two girls and 19 guys busting my “lead rider” cherry!

I, along with a few other filled up and a couple of people headed off to the “Pubic amenities” across the road.

It was at that point that we got an SMS saying that Rolf’s Ducati had run out of fuel and it may be 30 minutes before they arrived.

Rolf has always had a nice dig at Automatic bikes, but on this day, he was more than happy that John M was rear rider, on a scooter and having the ability to store a jerry can of fuel to get him going…So from what I can gather, a Majesty 400 takes about 14 litres of fuel giving a range of about 320km, Rolf’s Ducati managed less than 66km with what was supposedly the same amount of fuel.

Ok enough payback. It was great that it seemed to be a simple oops, very similar to the one I put the Tassie group on day 2.

Due to the fact that we had been joined by another maroon Majesty, 400 I asked Gary D to act as rear rider so as to avoid confusion.

There were now more scooters on the ride than Triumphs.

We then headed off to Mornington to cruise down the bay, yes, again…. Until we got to Dromana, zipped under the freeway and headed up Arthur’s Seat.

From what I can gather there was a lot of fun for some people as they had never been up such a slow twisted road before, so well done all.

After a comfort stop and Brett yet again embarrassing himself around lycra-clad cyclists… (Make that two bottles of red), followed by some very funny Dee and Adz make-out shots, where Brett got into the frame… oh well he spends most of his time on the other side of the camera, we must forgive him… LOL

Next it was a quicker run down Purves Rd, no I didn’t rename it, and across to the road leading down to Flinders. We then headed across to the bottom of the peninsula down thru St Andrew’s beach, up thru the bottom of Blairgowrie and wove our way up into the back of Sorrento.

I had decided that Fish and chips was the go and so we took over the carpark at The Baths and all queued up for our tucker. I think everybody ate more than enough as I heard some groans when we were leaving.

After lunch, some people headed back directly up the coast road as they had other commitments, whilst the two “Junior scooters” were running on empty. We drove along the coast until there was a servo for them and then I took the remainder of the group back up thru some of the roads that we had pretty much ridden completely around.

Eventually we stopped just near the beginning of the freeway where I declared the ride “Officially Over”. I started to head back and then realized that I could probably have taken everyone for even more laps of the peninsula roads.

It wasn’t until I got home I discovered that some people had decided to do some more Arthur’s Seat mileage.

So please accept my apologies for maybe not being as well organised for the arvo section as I could have been.

Hopefully there will be some “additional” ride report from those who carried on.


Addendum

by Brett F
OK, well here’s my little addendum to Adam Mofflehoffs ride report for his ‘AAA’ ride. I take it that everyone who was on the ride was aware of what the ‘AAA’ represents, or just didn’t bother to find out on the day, so here are some thoughts that I was considering for what it could mean:

Adam’s Alarmingly Alternative Accelerated Ride
Adam’s Autumn Adrenalin Adventure Ride
Adam’s Aussie Atypical Abound Ride
Adam’s Astute Adrenalin Adventure Ride

Anyway, with my ZZR slightly out of commission due to rego expiring, I was contemplating riding my old Kawasaki GPX250 for the day. When I raised my idea with John, a sudden look of concern shadowed his face, and a suggestive tip to take his Suzuki SV650S. OK, obviously it wasn’t a tough decision for me to make. 250… 650… 250… 650… You get my point!

Naturally, John had a few concerns with me on his bike for the day though, as he knows I am not shy to give the wrist a bit of a twist, which a few comments were made about me blowing some cobwebs out of the exhaust. But, above this concern, was John’s main worry, and Juz will identify with this one also. I was ordered to give the SV650S a wash before I was allowed to leave for the ride. Anyone who knows me, and has seen my ZZR on many rides, will know that I consider a bit of dust build-up on the shiny bits the least of my concerns when showing up for a ride.

Right, so I got too the meeting point in South Yarra, had a quick yak with a few people and then it was time to saddle up and head off. Mofflehoff led us through South Melbourne down too the bay, where I squealed with joy, as I knew the next 50 minutes or so I would be in 7th heaven as I passed flashes of tight lycra. I am amazed that I didn’t detour away from the group at any point.

We arrived in Franga (Frankston) and found out that Rolf ran out of juice. There’s a line here that I could say, especially after all that lycra I had before me on the way down, but I won’t as I am not that crass!

So, after a slight delay, we were back on our way following the bay down to Arthurs Seat. A few good twisties as we climbed our way too the top, and naturally, plenty of photo opportunities. There was a little sex education on the seat, but lucky for us we are homos so the interest between Dee and Adz was lost very quickly. Also, as you will notice in Mofflehoffs report, I have included a few yummy photos of a cyclist who appeared before me. I initially thought I was hallucinating from all the cyclists previously, so I thought I should do something I always wished I had the courage to do. Take some photos of him. Stuff it I decided, held the camera up in front of him and started taking the photos. I can’t believe I did that, but have no regrets that I did!

Anyway, soon enough we were back on our way down the other side of Arthurs Seat and toured around the Peninsula with our destination as Sorrento for greasy fish’n’chips at the old Baths House. Juz and I noticed a cute jet skier in a wetsuit (Juz was lucky enough to get a photo of him with his shirt off, but I got him when he went onto the grassed area to strip the wetsuit off completely).

After lunch, and a quick group shot, it was announced that the ride was pretty much over, and a few people needed to head straight back to Melbourne. Adz and I wanted to head back over to Arthurs Seat to get some photos of us going through the twisties. As the main photographers, we tend to rarely get into action shots. H also joined us as we got a few good shots, before we to headed back to Melbourne.

Thanks Adam for a great ride… Shorter rides are good on these colder shorter days around winter.

Brettski.

Ride Photos:

Skills

Posted on

19 April 2009

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