Sunday 25 July 2010

On Any Given Sunday


A week earlier the 7 had developed a “gremlin”.  Something somewhere was shorting out and blowing the ignition fuse.  The Kwaka Whisperer had been around to take a look, some wires were wiggled, the tank came on and off and without really doing anything much the 7 he was fixed.  For now.
I had meant to take him out for a good run on Saturday but just never got around to it, so Sunday it was to be.  Saturday night I saw a post from Yedi that he was going to do a ride out on Sunday, so I decided to join him.
As the meet point was at Maccas I left home at 9:30am to make sure I had plenty of time to get some breakfast before we left.  Diana on her ZZR250 pulled in just after I did so we got to chatting over coffee/breakfast and eventually others started rolling in - Sean on his baby Ninja, Nik on his yellow firestorm, the ’support vehicle’ and driver (sorry dude, I can’t remember your name!).  Glen and Cas turned up in the car just to say gidday to everyone… but still no sign of Yedi!  Eventually a motard rocked up with a black mohawk on the helmet and we’re all like nah that’s not Yedi, no red mohawk and firestorm.  But Yedi tricked us all, the motard was the reason for his rush trip to Melbourne on Friday night.  Awesome.  Lee also turned up on her R1 and eventually we were all ready to roll.
So somewhat later than anticipated we all left maccas Qbn and headed up the Kings to Bungendore.  I was last and was behind Lee who was behind Dianna (who has only had her L’s for 3 weeks).  I was expecting Lee to take off at the first overtaking bit but she didn’t, so I did :) Felt good to stretch the legs on the 7 but only for a bit as I was a bit worried about Constable Care being out and about so I backed off.  Regroup at Bungendore while we waited for Lee and Diana to catch up then Yedi took off, then Sean had to wait for a bit of a break before he could go and meanwhile two Ducatis came by which confused poor Sean because then he started following them for lattes…. realised his mistake so I passed him and we headed off for Tarago.  Before long we came across Yedi who had pulled over when he realised no one was behind him and then he showed us what the mighty DR650 can do (not that much in a straight line lol) it was nice though, for once I could keep up with him :D
We pulled in at Tarago for a regroup/smoko and soon enough everyone was there.  Diana had planned to just go home from there but we managed to convince her that Wakefield really wasn’t that far away now so she might as well come out there with us, so she did.
Tarago regroup
Tarago regroup
So we headed off to Wakefield where we checked out the track day that Yedi and I were supposed to be doing.  We hung out there for quite a while, ran into Macca and Bogan and also Avartie and Rider1.
Wakefield
Wakefield
Eventually Lee, Diana, Bogan and Macca all headed back for Canberra and the rest of us headed for Goulburn to top up the fuel before heading out to Crookwell.
I had never been to Crookwell on the bike before, Avartie led us down some goat track and as someone hadn’t gone for a toilet break at Goulburn, the bumpy road was very painful.  I was following Sean who is also on his L’s and he was doing pretty well :) I was very glad to get to Crookwell and luckily they pulled up across the road from some public toilets.  Yay.
Coffees were had and we warmed up by the fire for a bit before heading back to Canberra.  I sat behind Sean again and quickly everyone else was out of sight but that was OK, we just cruised through the countryside and it was very nice, so pretty out there :)  We rolled through Gunning, with Avartie and Nik going the other way as they were both low on fuel (shoulda fuelled at Goulburn boys :P ) and then we stopped in Gundaroo for one last smoke and to say our goodbyes.
There must have been a fair bit of rain as once we hit the Federal there was so much water on the road… and one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever seen.  Got home about 5:30pm.  And the 7 - well he performed beautifully.  :D