Ride Day - July 6th 2008

Have you ever stood listening to 6 blokes standing around discussing lubricant and how big the hole needs to be? Well, I heard it all today when I was out on the monthly Geelong RAT ride day - but it wasn't what you'd think - or was it...
It was a great turnout for a winter's day with 8 bikes rocking up for the ride to the Hepburn Springs.
There was a rumour that it might snow in Daylesford & that just got a few of the northern hemisphere ex-pats excited remembering the good old days of negotiating snow drift and black ice!
Stefan had left the bonnie at home (still not sure why) and instead rocked up on the ZZR1100 - reckoning he was gonna take it easy but I knew that wouldn't last long!
The calendar had suggested a Xmas in July ride so the plan was to get to one of our favoured pubs for lunch - what better than the old Triumph faithful - the Hepburn Springs Hotel.
The cruise up through the Brisbane Ranges was pretty tame - lots of traffic in convoy and with school holidays there was bond to be a cop somewhere in the bushes! We didn't spot a radar gun all day but a sneaky camera mounted on a falcon station wagon parked on a nature strip on the way back was hard to miss!
Janey was on her first group ride on her Street 3 and loving it - she kisses it more than me these days!
Unfortunately Mick had to return to Geelong when we got to Ballan - for those that don't know Mick & Vicki became proud grandparents a couple of weeks ago.
As we got into Daylesford the group had pulled into the Shell servo & there was a lot of activity around Martin's Street 3 - it was the dreaded puncture scenario that we've all known at some time or other. Well, it's not so hard these days if you've got the reamer, lube & plug handy! Great if you've got the tools but you need to know how to use them (reminds me of a saying I heard before somewhere!).
Everyone looked at each other & my first thoughts turned to the only person I knew that had plugged a tyre since I'd knew that a plug kit even existed! Where's Muz when you need him!
With is all standing around trying to understand the instructions that had been written by some Taiwanese kid using a Taiwanese to English dictionary, Warren took control, lubed up the reamer & got into it. There was lots of background talk about lubricant & putting things into small holes - generated a bit of excitement among some!
Well, eventually the job was done - perfect! See photo of the end result - hard to believe that it's good enough to hold back 40 psi!
On to Hepburn Springs pub for lunch and the Wobbly Wazzer on the cocktail board caught a few eyes - Midouri, Kahloua & Baileys - maybe that's for the next RAT meeting!
On the way back the temperature was dropping & Stefan seemed to appear, disappear and reappear! One minute he was up front riding into the distance & then I'd look up and see the ZZR tail-lights in front of us!
It was a a good days riding and great to catch up with big Bruce again too. Martin made it back safetly and with a fully inflated tyre - highly recommend getting one of those kits - they do work!
For those that don't know Warren & Mick have organised a Demo Day on 9th August - it's bookings only - good chance to have a go on something different.
See you all at the July meeting at Max on 31st July.