An overcast morning and a damp start of a couple of light showers were a concern for some. However they needn’t have worried as the rest of the run was rain free, a little cool and quite fresh. For me ideal riding weather. Graham led thirteen of us out and down to Packenham Upper via  Gembrook then looped  through Mnt Burnett back to the Cockatoo area and then up to Emerald. We then skirted around the southern end of the Cardinia Reservoir to Narre Warren East via the Dewhurst area where we stopped briefly at the painted rocks for a group photo.

From Narre Warren East we rode to Belgrave South then on to Belgrave and then to Menzies Creek and riding around the Sherbrook Forest over to Kallista and up to Monbulk. Thus far we had a photo stop, a couple of re-groups and a toilet stop

It was after Monbulk that things for two of us went a little awry.  Travelling north up the Monbulk Road with the Silvan Reservoir on our left, a rider ahead of me (Richard Haughton) and I somehow missed a marshal on the Monbulk- Seville road turn off.   We rode on until we reached the traffic lights at Clegg Road. Here Richard rode on. However now suspecting we were on our own, I decided to wait at this intersection to see if anyone caught up or maybe for Richard to come back. After waiting quite a while neither happened so I then decided to make my own way back the only way I knew: down Cleggs Road and back to Polly’s via the Warbuton Highway.

However from this point on things got a little more interesting for me as the old Beezer converted itself from a twin to a single by failing to fire on the left hand cylinder. I quick check on the run found the HT plug cap in place so knowing I had no back-up trailer behind me I decided to keep going. I got back slowly, a total distance of about 18 kays….. all on one cylinder!  Richard turned up sometime later not really knowing which way he got back until he got on to a familiar road.
From that Seville turn off that Richard and I had missed, the main group rode down the Monbulk-Seville road to Seville East then crossed over to Yellingbo and back to Polly’s down the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road.

Now in sunshine and with the conclusion of the run we had a very pleasant barbecue and natter with Polly looking after us magnificently as usual.Thank you once again Polly for your hospitality, Graham Boulter for the excellent run and Colin and Julie Sullivan performing back up trailer duties.

Reg Hammond

Footnote:    None firing cylinder problem solved.
I had trailered the bike down and before leaving had a bit of a look to see what was ailing the Beezer. Plug OK but no current from the HT lead. Plenty of help and opinions all around me but no answers.  I decided to pack up and sort it out when I got home.  Doing nothing other than using a torch I immediately found the problem. The plastic cap holding the HT lead had loosened itself away from the magneto. Why was that so?  A few weeks ago I had replaced the carbon brushes in both caps and on the left cap (which is situated low down at the rear of the mag) I must have missed settling the dimple of the retaining metal swing over clip into its locking recess in the cap. Vibration did the rest by rotating the clip away from the top of the cap. That also explained the difficulty I had starting up on the last re-group of the day. It must have been starting to loosen off then.  Murphy’s Law decreed that it finally came right away from the mag only when I found myself out of the group with no back-up trailer behind me. However we can’t blame Murphy for the cause or for the reason a bunch of us missed the bleeding obvious when we were messing about back at Polly’s!     
Old farts with classics are such fun aren’t they?

PARTICIPANTS:
Alan Kelly   Velocette MSS                          1955
Bruce Ferrier  AJS  16 S                                1957
Wayne Killingsworth   AJS 16MS               1956
John Killingsworth   Honda VTR 1000       2004
Ted Lhuede    Sunbeam/M                          1955
Richard Haughton  Guzzi  Nevada             2003
Derek and Barbara Pickard    MZ 250       1984
Mike Walker  Triumph  T150                     1971
Janet Walker  Honda  250 VTR                  2004
Paul Keam (guest rider) Suzuki DL 650    2009
Phil McArdle  Honda Deauville                 2007
Graham Boulter  Triumph T140               1974
Ray Isles  BMW  R80                                   1995
Paul Cain  Triumph   T150                         1973
Peter Cullen  BMW R60/5                         1971
Back-up trailer Colin and Julie Sullivan
Apologies from; Tom Myers and Vern Dalton
Non Riders present; Ian and Jan Kennedy, Ross Patrick
(apologies to any missed)