Twelve riders met at the Caltex Plus Servo in Diamond Creek Rd Diamond Creek. How lucky were we as it was a lovely winter sunny morning with not a cloud in the sky….and that’s how the weather remained for the rest of the day. Twelve riders is an excellent turn up for a winter midweek run and almost doubles the amount of riders on the previous Sunday run to Marong. The Servo was a hive of activity as fuel was down to $1:18 a litre on Safeway coupon discount.

Click HERE for video of this ride. See photos in the Gallery.

After Ed’s briefing we weaved our way out of the servo through the barrage of cars with John Best as Tail rider looking resplendent in his bright fluorescent safety vest. John, that vest was very smart and brilliant (excuse the pun) and it was very easy spotting the tail rider early when marshalling also in the rear mirrors when riding.

From the start point we rode down through the Diamond creek township to Wattle Glen before heading over to Kangaroo Ground. Then a left on the C728 through Panton Hill, Smiths gully and on to St Andrews. What a glorious and elevated winding road for bikes this is as it meanders through very pretty, unspoiled and spring green countryside. However this was soon to change as this area was untouched by the February bushfires. At St Andrews we headed up the C746 through St Andrews and up the steep and very winding Rd to Kinglake. The northern end of St Andrews and the whole length of this Heidelburg-Kinglake road to Kinglake received the full brunt of the ‘Black Saturday’ bushfire and even now eight months later, except for green shoots up some of the tree trunks, the trees still have no significant vegetation. Subsequently you could say it’s somewhat ‘safer’ as with this loss of vegetation vision ahead has now been dramatically increased. However with this loss of thick vegetation the very steep drops close to the edge of the road is now glaringly exposed and you can see more clearly the steepness of the terrain. As there are no safety barriers on this narrow road this exposure of the steep drops makes it a bit scary when close to the edge.

Once reaching the Kinglake Township we stopped for a brief re-group near the almost completed bushfire relief village made up of well built on site cabins (not transportables).  From Kinglake we rode down Mnt Slide Rd (C724) to the Melba Hwy then on to Glenburn (B300) and then turned left at the site of the burned down Glenburn pub and came out on the Whittlesea-Yea Rd. Turned right here and rode over Junction Hill for a direct run to Yea and a pleasant morning tea at the bakery. After the break we then headed west along the Goulburn Hwy for approx. 4 klms where we turned north on the Gin Gin turn off and rode up the mountain to Highlands. Here we travelled down the narrow twisty but recently upgraded road back off the mountain to Seymour. Here we regrouped on the old Hume Hwy riding south and headed west out on the Glenoura road. The country over here opens up and is strewn with magnificent granite rocks. After crossing the Northern Hwy in the High Camp area we stopped for a group photo shoot in a picturesque valley with some of these more spectacular rock formations as a back drop.  The quiet traffic free winding roads up in this area very well sealed and just beg to be ridden. From the High Camp district we then skirted north of Mount William for a run down to Lancefield for lunch at our favourite bakery. We then rode our final leg down the Melbourne- Lancefield road (C325) before turning left south of Clarkefield to ride the last twisty roads in the Konagaderra area taking us across through Wildwood and down onto the split up point at Oaklands.

Another great ride, nice variety of country roads, hardly any traffic and all ridden on a lovely sunny day. And yes, because we had Cameron with his single pot Vincent in our group I was more than once was quite happy to work my way behind the Comet, particularly on hills, to enjoy that classic sound. 
Thanks again Ed for a great run.

Reg Hammond

Participants:

Cameron McMahon    Vincent Comet series 3     1950

Tony Border         Laverda SF1 750                           1973

Peter Cullen         BMW   R60/5                                 1971

Adrian Nash         Kawasaki   250                               1982

Ray Isles               BMW   R80                                       1995

Reg Hammond    Honda Transalp   650                     2006

Ian Ruddock         Yamaha  FJR  1300                         2007

Ed Sleightholm    Triumph Bonny T100                     2005

Richard Haughton   Moto Guzzi  Nevada                  2003

Colin Borthwick      Triumph Sprint                            1996

John Best            Suzuki  Bandit 1250                          2008