Marysville 2006 Ride Report

It was a great weekend for a ride and that was planned, to Marysville. We met at Maccas in Laverton at <10.00am> on the Sunday. At this stage I was a bit nervous as this was my first ride and it was on my bike I just recently bought. There was Dave P, Brian with his daughter as pillion, Helen, Sylvain, Tony. Peter came along to Maccas to see us off as he had prior commitments.

We all headed off with Dave Post as the ride leader and Brian as tail end Charlie. We headed up the Westgate freeway and over the <<Westgate> <Bridge>>. We then exited via the <<Bolty> <Bridge>>. The ride along the freeways were quite interesting as it was a bit windy. We stopped off at a petrol station to fill up and to have break.

We had our break and hit the road again to Healesville where we were going to meet up with Sonia. On the way I experienced winding roads and tight corners. When we made it to Healesville we met Sonia and had lunch at a café. We ordered pizzas, fish and chips, nachos and we all had a cappuccino. Lunch was very enjoyable and the company was great. We sat there talking for a while when Dave rang the five minute warning for all of us to go to the loo and pay for the meal.

We hopped on our bikes and headed for the petrol station across the road. There we filled up again and headed off. He headed for the winding roads over the spur. This was a lot of fun and it gave the experienced riders time to enjoy themselves while the rest of us took it easy. We then got to the stage of the ride where we had to ride along a dirt road. I was wary of this and Dave gave me a few tips on how to ride on the dirt. We rode along the dirt and Helen and myself experience car drivers who where speeding and decided to take up the whole road leaving us riding in the water rut. We finally made it to bitumen and we continued our ride up the mountain.

We made it to the top of the mountain where we parked our bikes had a smoke and decided to go up to the lookout. While we where at the lookout Sylvain decided to go down the mountain and ride up it again, twice. We then rode down the mountain where Sonia departed for her way home. The rest of us headed for <<Melbourne>>.

The ride home was then split up as some riders wanted to takes different routes. It was a great day organised by Dave Post.

I wish to thank all the riders for an enjoyable first ride and for their patience as they catered for my riding ability. I don’t think I could have completed the 300km ride without the help of everyone on the ride. I wish to thank Dave Post for organising the ride and for his constant advice along the way, it was muchly appreciated. We had covered freeway riding, dirt road riding winding roads and corners, riding in the hills and emergency braking on my first ride.

Id like to thank Sonia for also sending the message after the ride saying that I had ridden well and there will be plenty more fun rides to look forward to.

All in all it was a fun day enjoyed by all.

Brendan Micallef