Adventurous Ride to The Red Plate Café in Yea

Ok Guys so this is my first ride report, it turned out too be a bit of an adventure. 

It was a beautiful day last Sunday. 25 degrees no wind and no clouds, perfect riding weather. So Mad Max and I jumped on the bikes and headed to a little café I had heard about in Yea. 
The ride started off from Carrum Downs Victoria and we headed up through Berwick and into the twisties.

The sun was out, the roads were clean and the traffic was light as we headed up past Cardinia reservoir and made our way north meeting up with the Maroondah Hwy just before Healesville.
Looking back now this is where the adventures began! 

We turned right out of Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road into Maroondah Highway and Mad Max hit some stones on his Bandit as he accelerated across the intersection resulting in an unintended but spectacular power slide as the back of the bike stepped out. Luckily He caught it and we continued on.
 
We stopped for a stretch around the corner in Old Lilydale road before continuing on to Healesville-Kinglake Road where Mad Max was almost cut off by a woman who pulled out in front of him. He hit the brakes and the horn and she swerved back into the oncoming traffic where a Porsche Boxster had to slam on the brakes and stop to avoid a head on with her!

We continued on along Healesville-Kinglake Road having a great time until around a blind hairpin corner we came across some fresh resurfacing with loose stones over the road. How we both stayed up I will never know. There were no warning signs, THANKS Vic Roads!
 
Then it was my turn for trouble. Another few kilometres up the road I hit some loose gravel. The front wheel washed out and I did everything I could to keep the bike upright but I crossed the centreline and headed into the muddy shoulder on the right side of the road. Luckily nothing was coming the other way. I ended up in the ditch against a muddy cutting.
 
The R&G crash knobs certainly paid for themselves saving both sides of the bike from any damage.  Try as I might there was no way I was going to get the bike out on my own. Every time I tried it just ploughed a deeper groove. As Mad Max was out in front he hadn’t seen it happen. I figured he’d soon notice I wasn’t behind and come back. It was disappointing to see two other motorcyclists ride on by without stopping. Then an older couple in a 4X4 stopped and helped me get it out of the mud and back onto the bitumen, just as Mad Max returns, typical after all the work was done!

With both tyres and the brakes now caked in slippery wet mud I gingerly road it out through the rest of the twisties slowly building up speed as the tyres cleared. Once onto the Melba highway It was good to see Mad Max pull into a servo and head straight for a fire hose. With the bike now cleaned of the mud we headed into Yea for a late lunch.

The Red Plate Café doesn’t look like much from the outside but its well worth a stop if you’re passing through Yea. The owner has themed the place for motorists and motorcyclist alike with some old motorcycles on display inside. The food was also pretty good.

Leaving Yea we head east towards Alexandra, turning off down Whanregarwen Rd, another good bike road with lots of fast sweepers, then onto Buxton. After Buxton of what must have been the slowest ride through the black spur ever! Probably just as well too as the boys in blue were out in their camo gear hiding in the bushes radioing ahead to a waiting patrol car. We returned to Healesville to refuel.

Now heading home we chose the route through Don Valley, Launching Place, passing through the Kurth Kiln Regional Park - another awesome stretch of road. Then onto Gembrook, Cockatoo and back through Berwick and onto home.

Map of our route




More photos to follow,

Nice write up, love the last pic

Great write up and pics. How lucky were you ?

ps. You'll want more ponies soon.  

Great report , & anything but a boring trip by the sounds 

Yea! Great report.

PS nice work on photoshop.

Thanks for the ride-along!  Sounds and looks like a great route,  well, except for the dirty bits.

Gee thats an adventure. Glad you made it home in 1 piece.
All that drama and no mention of a caravan

I hope you complained to Vicroads about the lack of signage.
Thumbs down to the riders who rode past you in your time of need!

I'm sure there was a caravan involved somewhere

Quite the wordsmith Mike you should write more ride reports. No need to throw it in a ditch to spice it up though, interesting read without the muddy bits. Thanks