CMCCV Midweek Ride Tuesday 17-09-2024.
“Gippsland Ridge-Roads Revisited”
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We pull up at the Tooradin United servo and we are a little band of 4 bikes feeling sorry that Terry Hoare (today’s Ride Leader) is not well and can’t ride today – he might be feeling lucky to be home, warm and dry, but he is usually our Eastern Weather God that gets the sunshine out. Paul Clayton on his sweet VFR is leading our small footprint on the road, with our ever faithful “Tail End Tom” on his Darth Vader like black Can-Am spider. It’s a bit like grabbing a couple of mates and going for a ride.
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From Tooradin, we ride down the Bass Highway to Lang-Lang and then East on Westernport Rd through Heath Hill towards Drouin. It is cold – only about 10 degrees as we re-visit Gippsland’s hills and valleys along Invermay Road to Athlone. South on the Drouin-Korumburra Rd to Poowong and onto Loch. There’s a little stretch of road just before you cross the South-Gippsland Highway into Loch’s main street, going down a hill into quite a deep gully with the best short sequence of smooth corners you could find – love that little bit of road.
We stop opposite the Loch Village Foodstore and dismount to get coffee and now there is 5. Scott Oldfield has arrived in Loch just behind us – he was going to ride his Ducati ST4S today having prepped and run it yesterday with no problem, but seeing the gloomy cold weather this morning the ST4S was silent having decided to stay home. Garage shuffling to get the Multistrada out had delayed Scott past our Tooradin departure time, so he used his “Multi-horses” for a quick trip to Loch – perfect timing.
Parked on the grass is literally a “Push-Bike Road-Train”. This is a very serious “Tandem”, dual pedal power bicycle with a trailer and enough luggage for a trip around the world!
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That is exactly what the riders are doing. 3 years ago, this very friendly middle-aged couple sold up home, pedalled across the USA and Europe, and are now doing Australia. They say they can do about 50 miles a day, camp each night and they are on their way to Sorrento to get the ferry to Queenscliff, and pedal the Great Ocean Road – OMG!
We enjoy more of Gippsland’s ridge roads from Loch on Wonthaggi Rd and Bena-Kongwak Rd, to Inverloch. Today this area is very windy and there are a LOT of broken and downed trees along the roads from the recent extreme storms and gale force winds. Emergency services have cut large diameter sections out of big trees across the road, and we were stopped at “Roadworks Traffic Lights” as road crews continue the clean-up.
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The Inverloch Bakery is our pick and we had a very nice lunch, warming up out of the cold wind. The Inverloch locals reckon the coast road to Cape Patterson is better than the Great Ocean Road and we headed home that way. It’s similar and a good ride, but doesn’t really match the day’s fun and enjoyment we had riding the Great Ocean Road during the Otways Rally.
Above, Scott (left) is on his 2023 Ducati Multistrada and Peter is on his 1979 Ducati 900 GTS. 44 years of Italian evolution – Maybe Scott’s bike might not exist, had it not been for Ducati’s 1970’s market success with the “L” Twin OHC engine platform, then with shaft and bevel gear cam drive, replaced in the modern era with “Rubber Bands”.
North to Wonthaggi and it’s dry on the “swinging” Dalyston-Glen Forbes ridge-road all the way to the Bass Highway.
Terry Hoare’s plan for a sunny day is coming true as we cruise back into Tooradin under a clear blue sky, and guess who we see in Tooradin? Yes, the American couple on their speedy bicycle have made good time covering the 40 Kilometres from Loch! Our little group had a most enjoyable, cruisy riding day and enjoyed re-visiting some of the really good Gippsland back-roads – with no rain.
Thanks guys, ride safe,
David and Mez.
Midweek Ride Participants List for 17th September 2024.
| Rider | Motorcycle | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Peter Trathen | Ducati 900 GTS | 1979 |
| Paul Clayton (Leader) | Honda VFR800 | 2014 |
| David & Mez McLennan | Triumph Thruxton S | 2016 |
| Tom Thursfield (TET) | CanAm F3 | 2018 |
| Scott Oldfield | Ducati V2S MultiStrada | 2023 |