Eildon May 12thRide Report By Paul Smith
By now most of you lot must be getting sick of reading yet another of my stories. But as you will not write any yourselves I'll keep on giving the paying members something to else to do while they are on the can enjoying their 15 minutes of peace.
What, with winter finally starting to take hold and some decent rains for the first time that I could remember in ages it looked like the Eildon ride this weekend was going to be a must do. But I had yet to service the bike and make sure everything was in tip top shape. A week full of late nights at work had really left me behind the eight ball and if I was going riding I'd be servicing on Friday night and skipping the new tyre I'd promised myself.
I was tired and worn out but when I got home on Friday night and noticed the green long green lawn on the nature strip (for the first time in 6 months) I knew I'd be in the shed late again - and be happy to do it!
A flurry of phone calls started to come in from mates wanting to know if I was doing the AMTRA ride tomorrow. Every reply was yes if you get off the phone so I can service my bike! I didn't get the new tyre or new brake fluid that I'd promised myself - and didn't really care.
I left home at 8.00 thinking an hour an a half would be enough. After a petrol stop and another stop to put some lunch in the car I found out it wasn't. I got there just on 9.30am after having set what I think must have been a speed record for a 82kw car through up the Eildon to Jamo road.
After gearing up and getting the bike off I looked around to see everybody was really looking forward to the days ride. We took off south down 15 mile road and I managed to get the first corner at homestead track. And I waited. And waited. And waited. Until finally I heard the sound of bikes coming so I put the lid on and started the bike only to find that the bikes that came down the track were not ours !
Bugger - I did learn that there was a breakdown though a bit further back up the track. No poo Sherlock - I thought to myself. And thanked the guys for their insight. And waited. And waited. Eventually the guys turned up telling me that Craig's carb float got jammed and left him with no go until a trackside fix provided the remedy.
Ken used the time to adjust the bars a bit and get them just tickety boo.
The others used the time to catch up on some bench racing/having a chat.
The waiting over and we were off with Craig not looking happy to be up and running but nowhere near as comfortable on his new 300 as he was on the old 360. Still, it was great to see him back on the dirt after an experimental stint on dual purpose bikes. After watching Craig from a few corners I worked it out. The first owner had set the thing up with a peaky as hell power curve. The thing was a light switch !
What was a shock was the pace of his son Cam who inherited all of his Dad's pace and skills and then some.
So after a quick turn off down Paddock track we went across the shortcut to Gillets then back up to 15mile. I think we did Ridge and the northern end of Second Creek then maybe Eildon Warby Rd and Snobs Link Tk. Before we grouped up for some snakes & a chat.
I think we did Royston Range then had a bit of a blurt across the creek and up the other side through the post acpocalyptic scene that is a harvested pine forrest.
Nathan showed us one way to get up the hill....
And Peter showed us another....
And Ken, Wade and Nathan posed for a happy snap.
We had another group up and again talked more sh.. ahem... about riding skills while we waited for a few stragglers to get across the creek and up the hill.
As we headed through and then around the (leftovers of) plantation we kept an eye out for a track that was there on the right - somewhere. As I was eager I got the corner and waited for about 30 seconds for Wade to go up the hill and do a U-turn and say whoops ! So we all headed back around the other way and found the track (A sharp and rocky left) that Wade was looking for.
This was a lumpy bugger with a lopt of rock and I was being gentle so as not to rip the last couple of knobs off my rear tyre when my chain jumped off and jammed between the front sprockets and the frame. Bugger. I held up the guys for about 20 minutes with that one...
The rest of the guys didn't seem to mind and some weren't much help! Tip of the day don't ask a guy who is trying to perform a chain-ectomy to many complex questions. Even if he is capable of complex multi variate differential or integral calculus he's more likely to answer bugger off when he's got a spanner in his hand !
About 100m down the track we came across a tree laying at odd angles across the track some carried their bikes and a supremely talented few mono'ed over it.
We then went down a lovely greasy loamy track down the side of a levelled plantation that was just outrageously good fun to ride. I even managed to pass Peter on that one. The best excuse he could manage was I have to go to work on Monday! It's a cruel twist of fate that the self employed can afford better quality gear but can't "afford" to use it.
Maybe we did Dry Creek and Torbreck Rd but I'm not too sure. Anyway it was all good. Cold but great fun. Then we went back up the road to the cars. Now this was going to be fun as I'd hit the road in front of Ken and thought wahoo ! If I keep up a good pace the longer legs of the 650 would keep me in front of the old..... Bugger how did he do that - out of nowhere around the outside and still well and truly in our lane. Fast, neat and controlled. Beautiful to watch even if it is pulling away from you while you are drifting the rear into and out of every corner !
When we got back to the cars the men had their lunch and the ladies packed up and left to go home and wash their hair and do their nails. Hey it was a Saturday night - what do you expect ?
After lunch I think Wade decided that my whinging an whining about getting a run down Second Creek Tk was worth a look so we headed up there managing to weave a few interesting singles into the mix. Second Creek Tk is one of those bizarre tracks that is good in one direction but absolutely heaven in the other. So we went down it then up Bull Range and back up to 15 mile for about 10km to Dray track where we grouped up again for more bench racing and tales of BS.
Somebody even managed to pull a thoroughly mature gesture for the camera. I thought I'd highlight this for you all and see if you could guess who it is :?:
We crossed over Dray and continued up 15 mile until I got stuck on a corner at Kevins track. This was without doubt the highlight of my day. The combination of 10 inches of leaf litter and a reasonable slope that seemed to go on and on more than one of my stories meant I actually got to use the full power of the 650. Think 90-100km/h sliding sideways up hill with the back wheel doing 130km/h. Awsome.
That was so good that it was a bit of an anticlimax to get back to Dray track. As it was starting to get dark we pushed on until we got to the other end of Second Creek Tk. Where we grouped up. I'd kept an eye on Phil and made sure he got through the creek an up the short snotty climb out of it before basting off and letting him have a dust free run.
Since he'd got back from WA Phil was just not quite his usual self and today he was feeling pretty average. He still managed to keep a reasonable pace and get the ride done while carrying the bum bag.
After that group up at 15 mile and Second Creek is was starting to get dark and as is customary on any ride or section of ride that Peter leads the headlights got switched on. We got back to the cars just in time for darkness to fall and only the last back loaded their bikes in the dark.
Thanks go to Wade, Peter and Phil and all the others who attended. But especially to Phil who nagged me into going when initially my heart wasn't in it.
Cam,Chris,Craig,Ken,Luke,Nathan,Paul,Peter,Phil,Rob,Wade and a few others that I don't remember !
