Gary’s (drought breaking) Golden Triangle ride
a.k.a “Gary’s Thilly Thilver Thcooter Thsolstice Ride”
by Gary
This ride report was originally published in the July 2008 issue of the Motorcycle Tourers club magazine, ‘Chain Lube’.
Ah the joys of motorbicycling on the year’s shortest day!
As I looked out of the window at a streaming sky and an already sodden steed my ? rst thought was ‘None of these pussies will want to go out today. Must devise a Plan B’. I nonetheless suited up, saddled up, backed out of my friend’s yard and kickstarted the Beast. Dogs yelped and curtains were twitched aside as the delicious ruckus of 129kw of raw power reverberated through the alley. Ahem, yeah right.
……Nobody noticed as I thumbed the starter and just 29kw wafted me away through the rain.
At Domain Road I found Adam M., Michael VD and Tzup C on what had to have been their ? fth round of coffee. Geez, how can anyone look and sound so ‘pumped’ this early on a wet Sunday!
Fabian snuck up on his Suzuki 250 Across, an interesting bike with a very scooter-like feature. Nice to ?nd such adult taste in one so young and inexperienced. Then came Nigel – a vision in colour co-ordinated black and blue – the effort totally wasted on some nondescript pile of Limey junk. I thought ‘My God, I hope this thing lasts the day!’
Just as we were setting off Glenn McI arrived. Late. But I was in an unusually generous mood, so he was allowed to join the parade.
At Sunbury we found Peter Ha and Phil R mounted on two Italian beauties (bikes!!) and John M on yet another sensible scooter. Making an unexpected cameo was Dewy. He had just dropped by to wish us well before heading home to pull apart his new Tricolore. I think he muttered something about having to polish the camshafts.
Off we went through the wind and rain. Riddells Creek and New Gisborne were dispatched in short order and then it got more interesting. Barringo Reserve was slow work, as was the climb over and around the back of Mount Macedon to Woodend. Through the winding and beautiful Ashbourne road to Trentham, Musk and Daylesford for fuel and lunch at the Daylesford Hotel, where John’s other ‘arf joined us for coffee. The management had set us up with a large table by the heater, the bikes were under cover, prices were reasonable and the serving sizes were more than adequate (ask Tzup).
The afternoon sky was looking much more promising as we headed to Blampied, then hit some untraf?cked back roads through Kooroocheang, Werona, Yandoit and Franklinford. Back into civilization (more or less) at Hepburn, then back to Daylesford where John peeled off for home and on to Glenlyon, Spring Hill, Tylden and the Woodend Bakery – where we had a good 30-minute break before they turned out the lights and shooed us back outside.
Just after 4.00pm the main group headed back to Melbourne, while I went home to Chewton, Michael, bath, bangers and mash and a Jane Austen movie. There’s nothing poofy about that!
All up, around 360km for the day, mostly on good two lane B and C roads plus lots of narrow twisty bumpy stuff. Thanks guys for coming out on such a bleak day. Hope you got some sun on your backs for the last 70km. I would be happy to repeat this ride in the warmer months. Thanks too to Adam for riding tail, and congratulations Nigel on your truly beautiful new Tiger. To Jonas and his partner Scott – a damn shame about the ‘oops’ in Domain Road. Wet tram tracks and new bikes can be a prick of a combination.
Gary
Ride Photos:
