Melbourne weather is such a wonderful thing – nothing like a low pressure system to make a potentially hot summer day’s ride much more tolerable. 18 of us began the morning ride in light rain, which thankfully disappeared fairly quickly. However, the day stayed grey and overcast, making conditions fairly pleasant for pottering around the Marysville tracks.
My little AJP is currently in pieces whilst I try to find a 6-speed gearbox to suit it, so the XR200R was called into duty for the day. This little ‘red rocket’ has just had its 35th birthday, so it felt a little out of place amongst all the modern toys, but it did a sterling job for the day.
We toured the usual tracks within the triangle, dealing with just a hint of slippery clay in a few places. Most of the tracks were actually close to perfect – just enough moisture to keep them dust-free, but not enough to add any of that ‘treacherous’ glaze.
It was great to see the less experienced riders happy to tackle a few challenges, and there were plenty of hands ready to help out if needed, which is the whole aim of these days.
Mark took over the lead at one stage to show us a couple of new tracks that he had discovered – they are probably best left to a harder level ride, but they did look very interesting! We had a quick stop at the fire tower too, and it was good to see it was manned, even on a dreary day.
Lunch was at the creek below Marysville again, lounging around enjoying our sandwiches, and lots of gas-bagging involved.
We lost a couple of riders at the lunch stop, and a couple more as we prepared to head across to the Dom Dom Saddle side of the road. This brought numbers down to 14.
The tracks over that side of the road can be very slippery when it has recently rained, but apart from a lot of puddles, traction wasn’t really an issue. We blasted around the main tracks, and then headed back via a track that is a little tricky to follow. It started out as a fairly well defined pair of wheel ruts, and gradually became more overgrown as we progressed. It was somewhere in here that I took a wrong turn and the group got separated – it’s amazing how short scrubby bushes can hide other riders who are only a stone’s throw away from you. We managed to regroup, and found our way back to the wheel ruts again and on to the other end of the track.
3:30 back at the cars, with the speedo saying 107kms for the day – not a bad day at all!
Thanks to Mark and Lefty for doing tailman duties, and to everyone for making it another fun Sunday’s ride.