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Flip’s Tit Bits – 23 September 2007 - The Sutton Pub
Peter Arday Yamaha XVZ
Mark (thy honoured Secretary) Delf – Yamaha T-Max
Jen (the Prez) Woods – Yamaha XVS650
Mick (Pop) and Kyla (Granny) Harvey FJR 1300
Garry (Magnum) McCurley – VFR800
Gordon White – Hyosung GT650S
Darren Beauchamp – VFR750
Steve and Trish Adams – GL 1500 (Great to see you up in the big smoke guys!)
Bob Jogensen – GL1800 (membership for two years $40, Number of rides with the club – 2, having a great day – Priceless)
Warren Lipton – V2K
Gary Pitt – Yamaha XV650
Mick and Kipper (the Border Collie) – R1150R
Andrew Campbell – GL1800
Neil Goldfinch – CBR1000F
Jim Wadsworth – Tiger
Flip – the Lovely 750 Virago
Cathy and Mark Walker – Vulcan
Todd Vencoe - sdfhs (You will learn to write more neatly Todd)
Nick Hicks – M109R
Suzy Ansley – R1150R (it’s so great to have another girl rider in the club – Jen, Judy and I are getting tired of having all the attention!)
Greg Ansley – Speed Master (is that a bike? it sounds more like something unmentionable with batteries)
Adrian Selkirk – Harley Davison
Bruce Black – CBR1100
Chas and Jen (Poss) Towie – GTR1000
Judy – the oh so reliable 535 Virago
Terry Fenton – Honda Blackbird
Bryson and Maxine Holden – FJR 1300
Justin Bourke – ST1300A
Duncan and Sue Stephen – Nomad
James Stephen – VTR1010F
Cassy Stephen – GS500F
Richard Clark – Goldwing 1500
Adrian and Kristine Bader (who joined up at Goulburn after dealing with a flat battery)
Most of you know by now that I like sleeping. A lot. So it will come as a big surprise to you to find out that lately I’ve been getting up VERY early (around 5:30am) to climb Mt Ainslie before I go to work. Believe me; nobody is more surprised than I am. What has this got to do with this ride report? Well, once you start changing your sleeping patterns, it doesn’t take long for your brain and body to get used to the new regime. So this morning finds me bright eyed and bushy tailed at an incredible 6AM!!! Just by peeking out of the window I knew the weather was going to be fantastic, and I couldn’t wait for the day to start. So please, would somebody get a gun and shoot me. I can’t let this kind of thing happen – imagine what the neighbours would say. Imagine my poor hapless mother. Oh the shame, the shame! The newspapers will be running headlines like “Flip seen up and dressed at 7am” or “Flip finishes housework before 9am”. This is bigger than global warming!
So there I am, on time, feeling great, and ready for a fantastic ride. I turn the corner at the back of the servo and I can hardly believe my eyes! There’s an incredible amount of bikes and riders! We ended up with a total of 33 bikes and 39 riders and pillions – 40 if you count Kipper. I made sure I had a full tank, and an empty bladder and then I heard a holy voice calling to me from the distance……..
It was Brother Peter, calling his disciples to him from up high on the mountain giving us instruction on the 10 commandments:
·I am the Gourd, thy ride leader
·Thou shalt have no other leaders before me
·Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol of me (even though I’d like that)
·Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of thy ride leader (or call him rude names for that matter)
·Remember the Sabbath and keep it only for riding
·Honour thy Father and Mother (for they are babysitting the kids)
·Thou shalt not murder (unless someone has a better bike than you do)
·Thou shalt not commit bike adultery (unless you’re sure you won’t get caught)
·Thou shalt not steal thy mate’s lunch
·Thou shalt not bear false witness (we want ALL the gossip please!)
·Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s bike
·Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife (unless she has a nicer bike than you do)
Anyway, after that little bit of religious enlightenment, and the usual stuff about Tail-end Charlie (thanks Justin) and Corner markers, we sent forth into the day. I only got just past the first round about when I had to pull over and fix the visor on my helmet. I have learnt a valuable lesson about quality when I bought my two current helmets. One is fantastic, very quiet, fits perfectly, works every time, it was expensive, but the colour doesn’t match my jacket! The other one, while it is the right colour, is noisy, the visor has broken and is generally cheap and nasty. What’s a girl to do? Look right or feel right? Should I just go and buy a third one that is both, with the right colour, right feel, and blow another $700?
The ride was great, but I had overestimated the warmth of the sun, it may be out, but it’s not enough to keep you warm when you’ve taken the winter liner out of your jacket (which I did because the sun was out!) so I was fairly chilly for most of the of the ride, and from the complaints I heard when we stopped in Goulburn, I was not the only one. As there were so many of us we split up once we stopped and found our own coffees etc and had a longer than usual break, which was really rather pleasant. There was much conversation about the beauty of the day and the great ride that is to be had between Bungendore and Goulburn by coming through Tarago and Lake Bathurst. It really is a superb ride on a day like today.
We headed off towards Bundanoon, which was our original destination, but because of the large number of riders and pillions, we were going to go straight through and stop for lunch at the Sutton Pub. This was because there were some rumours that the designated stop was under new management and wouldn’t cope with all of us in one hit. However, after Mark Delf had to wait well over an hour for his mixed grill I wasn’t sure that the Pub was any better equipped. Perhaps I am being a little harsh however. The mixed grill was seriously worth the wait!
Trevor, who was the first to arrive and had ordered his OWN lunch before we’d even ridden into the car park, had told the staff that there was a party of 39 about to arrive. “Oh thankyou” they said “we have the table for the Garden Society already set up”. You can imagine their faces when they were informed that we were indeed NOT the Garden Society and we would need a further 39 places and meals! As if WE look like we belong to a bloody GARDEN society! (Actually I did try and blend it with the old dears as they were getting fed quicker than we were, and I told them my name was Hyacinth, but for some strange reason they didn’t believe me and sent me outside on my ear quick smart!) So yes, the service was slow, but I heard no complaints about the meals and really, we couldn’t expect anything else given we hadn’t made a reservation.
Quite of few of us had to refuel, so we set off down the road to Exeter. About half the bikes had left when Judy, on her (now) reliable 535 Virago, decided she needed a little after-lunch Nanny nap, and instead of going AROUND the potholes in the drive way (like everyone else), headed straight for them and lost her footing, laying herself and the bike down, mumbling something from an old song by Talking Heads “Once in a Lifetime”, of which the chorus goes something like this:
And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful pub?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ...am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!...what have I done?
Anyway, easy down, easy up, she was on her way with only her ego bruised. Once we’d had a quick stop at Exeter, most riders headed off down the highway (I heard a rumour there was a bike race on TV), but a couple of us didn’t fancy a boring ride back so opted to head back the same way we had come. Somehow, and I’m not sure how this happened, I ended up leading the small group of 6. Having never been a ‘ride leader’, I was a little concerned about the speed I should take – if I go too fast would I lose someone? If I go to slow will they hate me for ever?….the pressure was almost too much to bear. I just went straight back, no stops, despite my sore butt and runny nose. Just after the Watson Servo I pulled over, and Suzy, my new second best friend, in what I imagine was a reference the a mother duck and her little ducklings, told me I was an excellent “Mutha Ducka” … at least I thought that’s what she said……. Last thing I saw were my riding companions heading off down the highway headed for home…..
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