April 18th Ride for Riverina-SWSlopes-NE Vic Riders

I'm organising a ride on Sunday 18th April for the guys I usually ride with (Redback Tourers) but you guys are more than welcome to join in for all or part of the ride.

The basic plan is to leave Wagga (Harley's Cafe Lake Albert Shopping Centre) at about 9:00am, we usually meet at about 8:30am, and ride to Holbrook via Pulletop/Westby Rd and the Hume Hwy. All things being equal (fat people use more soap) we should be in Holbrook (Servo on the Nth side of town) by about 10:00 maybe 10:30.

From Holbrook we'll be heading to Tumbarrumba via Jingellic (well not quite Jingellic). From Tumba it'll be on to Tarcutta. From Tarcutta we'll be going to Humula to meet with the Humula RFS at the Pub. From there back to Wagga.

The timings are dependent on who actually shows up. Basically we've got 3 types of riders in the group.

1. Those that can't read speed limit/speed advisory signs - they wait for the others.
2. Those that can but don't care - they also wait for the others
3. Those that can and have complete faith in them - they give the others good breaks for coffee and smokes.

So we had a HUUUUGE turn out for the ride. Four of us (5 including my pillion - 14yr old son). An 1125 Buell, GT1000 Ducati, M750 Ducati and my Bandit 1200s. The 1125 Buell rider and the GT1000 rider fall in to the first category above, my wife and I fall into the second category.

As planned we left Wagga just after 9 and had a relaxed but enjoyable ride along Pulletop rd to the Hume. This isn't a road that you can get to enthusiastic on as it's a wee tad bumpy and potholed, but better than riding in a straight line.

We had coffee at the Holbrook Bakery and topped of the tanks at the servo next door. Then we headed towards Jingellic. This was somewhat more enthusiastic, but still relatively relaxed. Well it was for me and my wife, we kind of lost sight of the other two for a while.
We had a quick stop at the Jingellic/Tumbarumba/Holbrook rd intersection where I was soundly abused by my pillion for not going quick enough.

So we headed off to Tumba. This was extremely enthusiastic and probably a bit too spirited. I was chasing my wife round some bends and forgot that my son was on the back. That was until I was fairly cranked over in a tightening up hill left hander doing some ***kph (I wasn't looking at the speedo) and scraped my foot and peg followed very closely by the distinct sound of metal grinding on tarmac. I sat the bike up a bit, and suddenly realised that my son was on the back. I decided that I should probably slow down a touch. The rest of the ride to Tumba was still enthusiastic but a bit less spirited. When we got to Tumba, I checked over the bike and found some scrape marks on the bottom of the centre stand, and checked my rear tyre to find that the chicken strip was almost non existent. My son wasn’t fazed by the experience, but did think it was better to actually hold on to the grab handle rather than just sit there.

After lunch at the 4 Bears Cafe, which I highly recommend, and being warned about a high police presence we headed to the Hume via the Tumba/Wagga road at a much more sedate pace. Saw one Hwy Patrol car going the other way with lights and siren, but that was it. Although I noticed a red car that looked like a Ford catch up and sit behind the last rider, so I backed it off just a bit more. After a few K's I figured that as the last rider (my wife) hadn't in fact dropped back I upped the pace again. It turned out that it was a red Falcon, but it wasn't a copper.

We then headed along the Hume towards Tarcutta and turned of at the Humula road. This again was done at a highly enthusiastic and spirited pace, minus the scrapping of feet, pegs and centre stands. After our meeting with the guys from Humula thanking them for their help with the Rally and giving them a cheque for the RFS we headed back to Tarcutta (at a good pace). My wife had one slight sphincter puckering moment when she hit a rather large lump of tarmac right on the apex of a corner, but all was well and she gathered it back together nicely. After a quick fuel stop in Tarcutta (cheaper fuel than Wagga) we headed home at a more sedate and sensible pace.

All in all a good day was had by all. A few things have come out of it though.

1. My wife WILL NOT sell her Ducati.
2. She WILL spend some money on making it breath in better, starting with a K&N Filter and then maybe some air box mods and re-jetting the carbies. She'll also spend some money on a 'gel seat' or Air Hawk type thing, just to make it a bit more comfortable on longer rides.
3. The Buell 1125 was the most economical bike there, which surprised all of us.
4. The ground clearance on the B12 isn’t as good with my son as it is without him.
5. Forgetting that you have a pillion is not a good thing.

Ps, I'll post up some group pics in the photo section later.

Thanks for the ride report, sounds like a good ride, some enthusiastic riding was had by us near Jindalic earlier in the year, I wish I was closer, I would enjoy a blast ahem careful, responsible ride with you guys.

I think it's actually better riding in a small group but a big group is better for the end-of-day socialising.

b12mick wrote:
5. Forgetting that you have a pillion is not a good thing.

I may have scared my pillion a little, recently, she seems to have been put off by my overtaking a cruiser who was overtaking other Harleys etc, go figure!

Oh I didn't scare him so much as I scared myself. He just thought it might be time to hold on for a change. The other thing that surprised me was that he was actually awake.

Yep, I prefer smaller groups myself. Any more than 10 bikes and it starts to get a bit hard to please everyone, not to mention harder to 'manage'.