Oh Fuck! What time is it?! That was the rather panicky start to the day for me. My alarm didn’t go off and I was woken up by an sms from Dejan asking “Are we still riding mate?”, it was 6:42AM. God bless Dejan. I was supposed to update the forum with Go/No-Go at 6:30AM. There was no time to do a Met check so I said a quick prayer to the rain gods and posted the GO on the forum!
It was sprinkling lightly as I pulled into Sylvania Maccas, Dejan was already there. The boys started trickling in with ConRod being the last arrival, well past the go-live time of 8AM. He’s lucky I like him otherwise he would’ve found an empty maccas parking lot because as y’all know, time and Harry wait for no-one. Anyway, we pulled out and it came bucketing down as we got on the old princes hwy at waterfall. I pulled over to allow everyone to put their wets on. Of course there were the macho types who didn’t bring any wets and laughed at our softness. Well they probably weren’t laughing when they got back home and saw fungus growing in their crotches! I did a head count and realized MrWoo wasn’t with us anymore. He did mention we shudnt wait for him so I didn’t give it any more thought, except poor bugger, woke up early, got drenched, sat around in maccas, got drenched again and went home after riding 5 minutes! Anyway 5mins down the road the weather opened up and we were treated to blue skies as we motored down the freeway past Wollongong. After the traditional SR river crossing on the back road to MacPass, it was every man for himself as Pizza took off to make hay while the sun shone on MacPass. MacPass was bone dry much to everyone’s delight and lust gleamed in many a biker’s eyes on beholding those luscious curves . I followed Jugz all the way up, he in turn was held up by a BMW rider who was enjoying the curves in a rather leisurely fashion, much to Jugz’s frustration. It was entertaining to see Jugz right on the guy’s back wheel, waiting for the littlest opportunity to blast past but the guy was a tough nut and would close the door on every opening. Finally Jugz forced his way past on the first overtaking lane and i was expecting him to flash an angled hotham salute at the guy as he went past but he checked himself.
We said goodbye to the “softies” Jugz, Adrian & Ken who were turning around at the pie shop. The real men continued their brave march in the face of a light shower. I had, of course, brought out my wets again, which Dejan and “Pistol” Pete took as a sign that the rain would stop soon enough. And hey, the bloody rain DID stop 5 mins into the ride! We enjoyed some nice sweepers on the backroad to Marulan via Bundanoon before hitting the slab for a few minutes into Goulburn. After fuelling up both man & machine were raring to take on the best kept secret around Sydney, the Goulburn – Oberon road. Despite desperate pleading by the boys, I refused to put on my wets for this section as I was confident we had the rain gods firmly on our side now. Chrome had mysteriously lost a few pounds in the maccas dunny and his Sprint GT was enjoying the leaner & meaner load! I had just lead for the first few corners out of Goulburn when a single gunshot echoed in my helmet and I saw Pistol Pete streak past me effortlessly . I checked my mirrors coz I know where there is Pistol Pete, there’s bound to be a shadow, and sure enough BadR1 Dejan blew past me in the blink of an eye! I followed them for a couple of corners and then Poof! there was a puff of smoke and the duo disappeared from view, pulling one of their magic tricks. The Houdini brothers were gone!
Me & Robbo kept each other company and swapped leads a couple of times on the endlessly long open sweepers towards Taralga, it was blissful riding. It’s one of those roads that’s absolute heaven for bigger bikes as you can set them in 6th gear and just cruise along without requiring much throttle modulation at all and just enjoy the sweeping curves. OR, if you’re a mad fucker like the Houdinis, you can fang the fuck out of the fastest bikes available!
Me & Robbo pulled up at the T junction 30Ks short of Oberon to wait for the stragglers, Chrome Pizza & ConRod. After about 2 minutes Robbo ran out of patience and mumbled something about trying to catch up to the Houdinis and roared off. I sat down in the grass, played with some sticks, played with some rocks, played with the local dog, played with myself.. ! waited waited waited.. then I started getting worried, surely it couldn’t take this long, especially with BigPete around…I saddled up and went back to look for them. Thankfully 5 mins into the ride they all passed me flashing Hotham salutes. Bastards! I breathed a sigh of relief and turned around. BigPete, Conrod & I kicked tyres for a few minutes more, admiring BigPete’s bike and listening to his love struck phrases “Oh I luuoooveee this bike, Oh it’s so torquey, Oh it’s so stable in the corners…Oh I just want to make love to it… ”
Got into Oberon and got an earful from the Houdinis as they’d been waiting for 45mins for us stragglers to catch up. Serves you right for overtaking the ride leader ! Got out of Oberon and this time the Houdinis were taking it easy and I was able to keep them in sight. It’s just an amazing spectacle to follow these two trailblazers. So smooth, so composed and so fast, they flow together like a well-oiled machine. Chrome was really reaping the benefits of the afore-mentioned spot weight loss as he gunned the GT into the sweepers and was obviously enjoying the balance and composure of the tourer. The twisties between Oberon and Hartley are among my favourites and I revved the WPN hard enough to see glimpses of the beast that lives in the engine and comes out to play when the tacho needle goes past 10 clicks. He’s an ugly bastard that beast, scary yet hypnotic and I had to will myself not to fall under his spell!
It was raining again up at Mt Vic and some of us had had enough. The Houdinis, Conrod and myself split down the Great Western hwy on to home while Pizza, Robbo & Chrome sat around deciding what to do. Conrod, the crafty commuter, showed extraordinary Zeal in filtering and splitting through bumper traffic back in the big bad city. The most tiring part of the ride was crawling along the traffic back to home and I was done by the time I got off the bike in my parking lot.
A fantastic ride then, with a great bunch of guys. Thanks for the good cheer despite the sometimes damp conditions. Hold On! Don’t walk out yet, read the End Credits:
Best Male actor in a leading role = Harry, Yamaha R1
Best Female actor in a leading role = Pistol Pete, Yamaha R1 (she loves a big bang!)
Best Male actor in a supporting role = Dejan, Yamaha R1
Best Male actor in a comedic role = Chrome Nathan, Triumph Sprint 1050 GT
Last Action Hero – Jugz Jerry, Honda CBR1000RR
Action Assistant – Adrian, Honda CBR1000RR
Torque Expert – Ken KT750, KTM Duke 690
Special Effects expert – Robbo, Honda VFR800 (Red/Pink)
Big Guy Award – Big Pete (medium bike), Suzuki SV650S
Small Guy Award – Paul (PMC Dermo), Yamaha Zeal 250
Unsolicited Cameo appearance = MrWoo, Yamaha FZ1
It was sprinkling lightly as I pulled into Sylvania Maccas, Dejan was already there. The boys started trickling in with ConRod being the last arrival, well past the go-live time of 8AM. He’s lucky I like him otherwise he would’ve found an empty maccas parking lot because as y’all know, time and Harry wait for no-one. Anyway, we pulled out and it came bucketing down as we got on the old princes hwy at waterfall. I pulled over to allow everyone to put their wets on. Of course there were the macho types who didn’t bring any wets and laughed at our softness. Well they probably weren’t laughing when they got back home and saw fungus growing in their crotches! I did a head count and realized MrWoo wasn’t with us anymore. He did mention we shudnt wait for him so I didn’t give it any more thought, except poor bugger, woke up early, got drenched, sat around in maccas, got drenched again and went home after riding 5 minutes! Anyway 5mins down the road the weather opened up and we were treated to blue skies as we motored down the freeway past Wollongong. After the traditional SR river crossing on the back road to MacPass, it was every man for himself as Pizza took off to make hay while the sun shone on MacPass. MacPass was bone dry much to everyone’s delight and lust gleamed in many a biker’s eyes on beholding those luscious curves . I followed Jugz all the way up, he in turn was held up by a BMW rider who was enjoying the curves in a rather leisurely fashion, much to Jugz’s frustration. It was entertaining to see Jugz right on the guy’s back wheel, waiting for the littlest opportunity to blast past but the guy was a tough nut and would close the door on every opening. Finally Jugz forced his way past on the first overtaking lane and i was expecting him to flash an angled hotham salute at the guy as he went past but he checked himself.
We said goodbye to the “softies” Jugz, Adrian & Ken who were turning around at the pie shop. The real men continued their brave march in the face of a light shower. I had, of course, brought out my wets again, which Dejan and “Pistol” Pete took as a sign that the rain would stop soon enough. And hey, the bloody rain DID stop 5 mins into the ride! We enjoyed some nice sweepers on the backroad to Marulan via Bundanoon before hitting the slab for a few minutes into Goulburn. After fuelling up both man & machine were raring to take on the best kept secret around Sydney, the Goulburn – Oberon road. Despite desperate pleading by the boys, I refused to put on my wets for this section as I was confident we had the rain gods firmly on our side now. Chrome had mysteriously lost a few pounds in the maccas dunny and his Sprint GT was enjoying the leaner & meaner load! I had just lead for the first few corners out of Goulburn when a single gunshot echoed in my helmet and I saw Pistol Pete streak past me effortlessly . I checked my mirrors coz I know where there is Pistol Pete, there’s bound to be a shadow, and sure enough BadR1 Dejan blew past me in the blink of an eye! I followed them for a couple of corners and then Poof! there was a puff of smoke and the duo disappeared from view, pulling one of their magic tricks. The Houdini brothers were gone!
Me & Robbo kept each other company and swapped leads a couple of times on the endlessly long open sweepers towards Taralga, it was blissful riding. It’s one of those roads that’s absolute heaven for bigger bikes as you can set them in 6th gear and just cruise along without requiring much throttle modulation at all and just enjoy the sweeping curves. OR, if you’re a mad fucker like the Houdinis, you can fang the fuck out of the fastest bikes available!
Me & Robbo pulled up at the T junction 30Ks short of Oberon to wait for the stragglers, Chrome Pizza & ConRod. After about 2 minutes Robbo ran out of patience and mumbled something about trying to catch up to the Houdinis and roared off. I sat down in the grass, played with some sticks, played with some rocks, played with the local dog, played with myself.. ! waited waited waited.. then I started getting worried, surely it couldn’t take this long, especially with BigPete around…I saddled up and went back to look for them. Thankfully 5 mins into the ride they all passed me flashing Hotham salutes. Bastards! I breathed a sigh of relief and turned around. BigPete, Conrod & I kicked tyres for a few minutes more, admiring BigPete’s bike and listening to his love struck phrases “Oh I luuoooveee this bike, Oh it’s so torquey, Oh it’s so stable in the corners…Oh I just want to make love to it… ”
Got into Oberon and got an earful from the Houdinis as they’d been waiting for 45mins for us stragglers to catch up. Serves you right for overtaking the ride leader ! Got out of Oberon and this time the Houdinis were taking it easy and I was able to keep them in sight. It’s just an amazing spectacle to follow these two trailblazers. So smooth, so composed and so fast, they flow together like a well-oiled machine. Chrome was really reaping the benefits of the afore-mentioned spot weight loss as he gunned the GT into the sweepers and was obviously enjoying the balance and composure of the tourer. The twisties between Oberon and Hartley are among my favourites and I revved the WPN hard enough to see glimpses of the beast that lives in the engine and comes out to play when the tacho needle goes past 10 clicks. He’s an ugly bastard that beast, scary yet hypnotic and I had to will myself not to fall under his spell!
It was raining again up at Mt Vic and some of us had had enough. The Houdinis, Conrod and myself split down the Great Western hwy on to home while Pizza, Robbo & Chrome sat around deciding what to do. Conrod, the crafty commuter, showed extraordinary Zeal in filtering and splitting through bumper traffic back in the big bad city. The most tiring part of the ride was crawling along the traffic back to home and I was done by the time I got off the bike in my parking lot.
A fantastic ride then, with a great bunch of guys. Thanks for the good cheer despite the sometimes damp conditions. Hold On! Don’t walk out yet, read the End Credits:
Best Male actor in a leading role = Harry, Yamaha R1
Best Female actor in a leading role = Pistol Pete, Yamaha R1 (she loves a big bang!)
Best Male actor in a supporting role = Dejan, Yamaha R1
Best Male actor in a comedic role = Chrome Nathan, Triumph Sprint 1050 GT
Last Action Hero – Jugz Jerry, Honda CBR1000RR
Action Assistant – Adrian, Honda CBR1000RR
Torque Expert – Ken KT750, KTM Duke 690
Special Effects expert – Robbo, Honda VFR800 (Red/Pink)
Big Guy Award – Big Pete (medium bike), Suzuki SV650S
Small Guy Award – Paul (PMC Dermo), Yamaha Zeal 250
Unsolicited Cameo appearance = MrWoo, Yamaha FZ1