Startled by the intrusive noise disturbing my early morning dreaming......"bugger it...it's time to get up".... I gently mumble to myself so as not to disturb the better half. "What day is it today?"......"ahh yes!!" no sooner than I silence the alarm clock, I'm out of bed and launching out of the house heading for the hills...... "Phil Randall Marysville Ride here we come!!".

Scones with jam and cream welcomed all of the riders as we pulled into the car park in the usual meeting spot, for a 9am kick off!!
With a group of approx. 20 riders, we were off and had begun the day setting a fantastic pace. 
Special mention has to be a congratulations to the participation of two of our female AMTRA members who gave all of us a run for our money and handled themselves and their weapon of choice superbly!! Well done girls, I will apologies I did not grab your names, but we can all agree it's awesome to see all of us, ladies included, getting out on the bikes!!

Everyone settling into the day nicely, and in no time we begun finding our individual  safe and comfortable rhythm. The morning sunshine already high amongst a perfect blue April sky, there is no place i'd rather be!! Did I mention the scones were superb.........

A relaxing lunch down by the river, a pie, neenish tart and snickers bar and chat amongst the group and we were off once again. Phil asked a loaded question as we headed off...."Anyone for a challenge hill??" Hands went up and a challenge hill it was.

It goes a little something like this, rocks, rocks and more rocks. Did I mention there were rocks. Big rocks, small rocks, ugly rocks, sharp rocks, loose rocks, non loose rocks, scone rocks (.....is anyone picking up a theme in this article) and i think i saw a log in there aswell, whilst not a rock i think he just wanted to be part of the rock family. He seemed to be mingling well with a glass of red in hand and some canapés. I called him Loggy. Again, great job on the scones Phil, you would certainly get three votes on brownlow night in my book.

Lots of free flowing irrigation jumps and some slippery clay that would eat you up and spit you out for breakfast in the middle of winter. 

All in all, a fantastic day had by all. We made it back to the car's with no injuries, no broken bikes and.........you guessed it, SCONES!!!!!!!!! Whilst some were extremely liberal on the layering of cream, not mentioning names, (myself), which meant that other's were frothing in anger (Ken) as they were left to force a scone with jam (without cream) down the gullet.

By now you would all have had a gut full...of this article and the lack of detail about the ride and the level of detail about the scone, but one thing I won't joke about is just how much fun we all had.

Phil, I take my hat of to you mate, keep up the great work and pencil me in for another scone...or two.

Cheers,

Chris De Propertis

I'm getting the picture, Chris.

Rocks, rocks, rocks, scones, rocks and scones ........... And a bit of good, fun riding in between.

Sounds perfect, thanks for sharing.

Enjoyed meeting everyone at the Bakery for coffee had a great chat meet with my female friend that was going to ride my CRF, head on the way in the convoy through the spur to have  what i can't explain, see pic, returned with my friend to workshop fixed bike  to go on a afternoon ride in toolangi! 

How did that happen, Tristan?

I can understand one bike breaking loose, but two!

still trying to figure it out.

I think I know why they fell off the trailer, you do not appear to have the wheels tied to the trailer. Some people have mentioned that i over do it but ever since i have had bikes on trailers i always tie the front and back wheels to the trailer.

I have seen quite a few bikes come off trailers over the years with some of them being dragged for a while at high speed for lots of damage, looks like you got off fairly lightly Tristan, i hope that is the case anyway.

When I passed you in the spur the bikes were standing by the side of the road, I gave you a thumbs up - are you OK? - and you returned the thumbs up so i did not stop.

Yeah Phil - those scones rocked.

The 2 ladies doing a great job were Debbie and her friend Sue who has only been riding for a short while, you would'nt know to watch her.

Thanks also to Michael for lead duties and Ian for tail. Great day out, thanks to all for your company and laughs.

Ken R wrote:
Was all tied in broke rear strap agreed if no rear strap the beta and crf would have been in the back of the car. Beta was unharmed due to rear strap 

Tristan, I'm looking at the photo of the trailer and there are no steel loops for you to tie the rear rim to the trailer which is what I meant. I also tie the front wheel rim in with rope around the rim and the angled up part of the bike channel at the front. I guess you could do this on the rear rim as well. (My trailer has a solid base) This way there is no way the bikes can come off the trailer. I also never tie bikes together. Hope this helps.

Tristan

PS - looking at your photo again you have a solid base in your trailer so you would need to get loops welded on to each side of the tyre channel to tie the rear rims down.

Thanks Phil for another great day at Marysville.

I wonder if anyone has mentioned how appreciated the scones were ?

Thanks Michael for leading and putting in THE (my) hill for me to try on the new bike.  Thanks to Ian for sweeping in dusty conditions.

Special mention to Frank and Luke who were right behind Sue and I to pick up our bikes on a number of occasions

Sue had a ball and cant wait for the next ride. It was great to meet some new and catch up with familiar faces.

PS Thanks Frank for letting Luke ride your bike back at the carpark seems I now have to reorganise the  budget for a new bike

See you next month

Cheers

Deb