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Club Ride to Marysville July09 |
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 Very enjoyable run this one. How could it not be? We had plenty of sunshine, an 80% turn up of classics and a well planned route thanks to lead rider Ross Patrick. Eleven of us turned up at the servo near the “apple peel” in Fitzsimons Rd Templestowe, ten riders and Phil McArdle on back up trailer duty. We all turned up fairly early, (even Burger Drake, who had ridden well over 100 klms on his Vincent) for the 10:00 am start. That gave Richard with his flash video camera a bit of time filming and ‘interviewing’ us with our bikes before the off. A couple of days later Richard kindly dropped a disc of the film into my letter box and told me later that he has made another copy for the club. Good on you Richard. See photos in the Gallery. Click HERE to view the video. Thanks to Richard Haughton.
Don’t you just love the sound of three Vincents starting up? Almost as good as my Beeza A10! We all enjoy the sight and sounds of classic bike engines. For me that goes for any veteran, vintage or classic engine. Even a steam train engine or a small inboard putt putt run-a-bout boat is music to my ears. A couple of years ago I sold two stationary engines I’d had for years. I now regret not keeping one of them, a big single pot Bamfield sporting not one, but two whopping ‘take off’ fly-wheels at each end of the crankshaft. When warmed up, I could throttle it right back to give out that lovely slow, deep melodious boomp-boomp-boomp……pure music! It used to power a wood cutter at a saw mill in Fairfield. It was always easy to start on the crank handle and ran as good as the day it was made, but I digress. All the classic machines on the run today didn’t disappoint in the sound department. . My favourite lurk on our runs is to get behind say, a rorty 350 or 500 single to take in the sound of the motor pulling up a hill with the rider changing up and down through the gears. Great stuff! Keep saying to myself I’ll bottle that sound on a tape or cam recorder one day. First leg was a nice steady run to Warrandyte then turning north over the Yarra and up the hill to Kangaroo Ground before looping over onto the Yarra Glen Rd. At Yarra Glen we rode around the back of town passing the race course then on to Healesville. Here we again slipped around the back of town and onwards over the Black Spur to Marysville for a break after at the small park and toilet block at Dom Dom. It had been a most enjoyable steady run up the very smooth and winding spur road with some traffic ahead keeping us in check. Lovely sounds from the bikes on this steady climb with third gear on my Beeza always perfect for a slow climb. On the run down into the valley there was plenty of fire damage evident around Narbethong and they’ve lost their once busy service station. Marysville now doesn’t quite look like the war zone it did when blackened destroyed homes were laying in ruins everywhere and only brick chimneys standing starkly out of the debri. Now all the properties have been cleared. From outside the bakery looking down the main street at what was once the bustling town centre, there’s not a building standing! Pub, supermarket, shops, police station, tourist information centre etc all gone, just nothing left! All that’s left standing in the main street are a few large badly burnt trees. There is now hardly anything to see except empty cleared blocks surrounded by security fencing. Amazingly an old style guest house down the bottom of the main street survived. The large brick building that used to house a motor museum is still intact although scorched at one end. Along with the cars it was sold some years ago. The bakery certainly had a very close call as the shops immediately behind it were severely fire damaged.
The only business operating at the moment is the bakery and their looking for more staff! Also someone just up the road from the bakery has started a café but operating out of temporary windowless building huts, not too inviting but good on them for having a go.
After lunch we rode back over the Black Spur and I found Stan Mucha’s flying Egi framed Vincent in front of me and enjoyed its exhaust note up and over the Spur including up and over the other hill approaching Healesville.
A few of us topped up at the first servo on the left just near the ‘Beechworth’ bakery and then headed up the Toolangi road. This time I was behind Ross Dickson’s Norton. The Norton’s exhaust note is similar to my Beeza, a nice muted growl. Can’t get enough of it! Some of you will be familiar with this road that winds up through the forest to Toolangi, it’s yet another road just made for bike riding.
At Toolangi the three Vincents parted company from us to go visiting, the rest of us turning down onto the Melba Highway for the run back down to Yarra Glen. Have always liked riding down this smooth sweeping section of the Melba and today was even better with a gentle breeze and afternoon sun at our backs and we enjoyed a spirited run down to Yarra Glen. The last leg was the 20 klm run back up through Christmas Hills and onto Kangaroo Ground where we all split up for home. A delightful Sunday run, thanks Ross. Thanks also to Phil McArdle who, still recovering from recent major back surgery gave us peace of mind with his back up trailer. Thankfully the trailer remained empty.
Reg Hammond
Participants
ROSS PATRICK NORTON ES2 1956
ROSS DICKSON NORTON 650 SS 1965
REG HAMMOND BSA GOLD FLASH 1957
NEAL VIDEAN VINCENT HRD 1949
BURGER DRAKE VINCENT SHADOW 1950
STAN MUCHA VINCENT EGI 1953
TOM MYERS BMW R100 CS 1981
RICHARD HAUGHTON HONDA FT 500 1982
JACK YOUDAN YAMAHA V MAX 1996
PETER JONES MOTO GUZZI T5 1986
PHIL McArdle BACK UP TRAILER
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