WIMA Victoria: Easy Rider

Easy Rider - Not!

It was with a sense of anticipation and excitement that Bruce and I arrived at the Oakleigh headquarters of Australian Rider (you know, the magazine edited by Margaret Stewart's husband, Guy Allen). We had been asked along to ride a few bikes on one of his comparos for the magazine. Bruce had previously been on one and had a great time riding a Moto Guzzi, Ducati, Laverda, Buell, Honda, Yamaha, and any other modern V-twin on a three day jaunt to South Australia so I was looking forward to a similar event. I could see that I had deluded myself and the senses quickly turned to trepidation (nay, terror!) when I couldn't see a sports bike anywhere—instead a couple of HUGE cruisers were waiting for us. "Bags the small one", I muttered to Bruce as we wandered in to get the keys. Fortunately, we didn't have to meet the others until the following day so I had a chance to sort out how to ride the thing before making a fool of myself. The "small one" turned out to be a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 and I thought I'd watch Bruce take off to see how it was done. A fat lot of good that did—instead of turning right as he'd intended, he speared straight across the road and into the servo opposite!! I then proceeded to do a ten-point turn at the pavement edge and when finally pointed in the correct direction took off in the most sedate bit of riding in my life. I didn't even get out of second gear! Arriving home, I wrestled the bike through the front gate and into the front yard. As it's a fairly small yard, it was chockful with the big Kwaka and the even bigger Suzuki Intruder 1500 that Bruce was 'riding'.

The fear started in earnest the next morning, as I commenced the process of getting the beastie off the wet grass and back out into the street. How come I was sweating when it was only 2 degrees? We managed to get to the meeting place on time, and I had a breather while waiting for our fellow riders: Margaret Stewart, Amanda Carter, Guy Allen, and David Morley. Apart from the previously mentioned Suzuki and Kawasaki, there was also a Honda Aero 1100cc, a Honda Valkyrie 1500, a Kawasaki Nomad 1500 and a Yamaha Royal Star 1500—a good range of the current model Japanese cruisers. The remainder of the retinue were Muttley behind the camera, Mark behind the wheel of the car and Margaret and Guy's daughters, Morag and Althea, just to make sure we didn't get too serious Our first stop was to be at the Shell servo at Westgate so we threaded our way through city traffic and out to the freeway, then fueled up and headed down the highway towards Geelong.

Now I must admit that the first problem I encountered with these bikes was finding a comfy riding position. Having ridden sports bikes all my life, I found the feet-forward, arms-up posture a bit hard to cope with at first but after shifting around and experimenting I settled in and cruised along with the others. Another difficulty was low-speed manoeuvring—these bikes are all HUGE! At one of our stops, I was unable to get the bike off the side-stand thanks to the slope of the ground where it was parked. Fortunately, Bruce hadn't taken off and I was able to call for assistance. At highway speeds though, all the bikes cruised easily at legal limits.and I was beginning to see the appeal they have.

We stopped at Geelong to swap bikes and then it was off to Lorne for lunch at the Arab. The weather had worsened throughout the day and by the time we'd finished eating it was necessary for all the riders to don full wet-weather gear. I'm not sure if it was something I ate but it felt like there were a million butterflies in my tummy. Maybe it was the thought of a wet Great Ocean Road on enormous bike that I was unfamiliar with, which belonged to someone else, and which was very expensive to boot. I put on a brave face, however, and off we went into the twisties. In spite of their bulk, the big cruisers were fairly tractable, and once moving, felt very stable at the sedate speeds the conditions required. In fact, I think that word "sedate" would be appropriate to describe these bikes and the type of riding one does on them. I didn't find myself wanting to fang, even when I could have, and consequently it was one of my slower trips down the Great Ocean road.

One of the scarier things we had to do were a heap of U-turns required by the photographer in order to get his happy snaps. The bike I was riding didn't really do U-turns, though it did manage a few 3-point turns. Perhaps I was spooked by one hundred metres of cliff and ocean directly in front of me! We all managed to get through the day without any disgrace and I must admit to relaxing enough to enjoy myself, but by the time we got to Apollo Bay, everyone was stuffed and cracking the tinnies and bottles for our liquid refreshments was hard work. Our accommodation was spacious and comfortable, and for the next hour or so we kicked back over a few drinks. But due to the exhaustion the evening was a bit of a blur, really...

We'd arrived at Apollo Bay in a fairly tired state and it was a while before we gathered together again. Amanda found a spa bath in her room and decided it was the best way to try to rejuvenate herself, as she was feeling the ill-effects of some dreaded lurgy she'd brought along with her. Bruce was also feeling rather poorly, but for some reason Amanda wouldn't share her spa bath!

Guy made a visit to the pub and the tinkle of glasses and bottles was enough to see us all in the room shared by Morley, Muttley and Mark, with enough energy to do a bit of elbow-bending and have a few appetisers before dinner. The conversation was mainly about the bikes and the journey, and we all had a good laugh about the bloke in the car who had endangered us all with his overtaking: we had eventually had the pleasure of seeing his car with the front wheels dangling over the cliff-face! Hopefully, he'll treat the Great Ocean Road with the respect it deserves next time.

After aperitifs of various kinds, we decided that it was time to attend for a feed, so we rugged ourselves up for the short walk to the pub. It was freezing cold and the wind was straight off the South Pole. Dinner was an increasingly noisy and exuberant affair as we had our fill of food, wine and beer and the stories got better and better (or should that be worse and worse?)! I can recommend the Apollo Bay pub for an excellent dinner but I think the party atmosphere is BYO!

It was several hours later when we braved the chilled wind and took the short stagger back to the motel. We lounged around M, M and M's room again and had a few more drinks, told a few more stories, and had a lot of laughs. Morley came out of the bathroom at one stage, glared fiercely at Amanda, Margaret and I, and said "This is a blokes' room and the toilet seat is to be left UP"!

It was quite late by the time we all got to bed. After a refreshing sleep, I peeped hopefully through the curtains the next morning. Alas, the weather had worsened overnight. The temperature was barely above zero and there was a howling gale blowing. Breakfast seemed like the best idea, so we attended to that. When I looked out the window again, I could hardly believe my eyes. There was a bike detailing happening on the motel doorstep in the middle of a hailstorm! The rain appeared to be horizontal, so being under cover didn't help much.

Half an hour later, the hailstorm had abated somewhat, so I ventured outside to help dry off the bikes. When this was done, it started hailing again so I decided to watch the photo session from inside. It was a dismal sight-a motel forecourt, bleak dark clouds overhead, gale-force winds and intermittent rain and hail. It says something for the photographer's eye and Muttley's talent that the photos were beautiful. (See Australian Rider Vol. 1 No.4 ) You can even see the weather reflected in the puddles!

The next photo session was to be done on the shoreline at Skene's Creek. Amanda had mentioned that she thought I would like the Valkyrie, so although it was a bit like mounting a horse, I climbed onto it and rode it gingerly down the road to our next stop. Mark took great pleasure in telling us that while it was only 1 degree Celsius outside, it was very warm and cosy in the car. At low speed, the advantages of the Valkyrie were obvious. With a more conventional riding position, rather than the feet-forward style of the other bikes, low speed and U-turns were a cinch, and the weight wasn't a problem.

By the time we'd finished the shoot, we could see our next storm looming in the distance and it was decided that perhaps the weather was less harsh inland, so we set off up through the Otways. Little did we know! I was punting the Valkyrie carefully around the winding road, as the next storm was upon us, and the temperature was dropping further. As we ascended, I noticed a build-up of "hail" in the corners. It didn't take me long to work out that it wasn't hail, but SNOW! And now it was not just in the corners, but all over the road and flurrying around us as well. We stopped on a small saddle to assess the situation. Muttley thought it was a good opportunity to shoot off a few rolls of film. Amanda and Bruce sniffed and sneezed excessively and Mark stuck his head out of the car, told us that it was minus 2 degrees outside, but was still warm and cosy where he was-really?

By then, the snow was falling much heavier and we decided that we shouldn't hang around at all, as there wasn't much experience at snow riding between the lot of us. Guy thought that one of the smaller bikes might better for me, rather than the largest, but Amanda and Margaret had already jumped on the smaller Honda and Kawasaki, which left only the Suzuki Intruder or the Yamaha Royal Star. I had managed to avoid the Yamaha. as the others had all thought it was a bit strange, and I didn't care to change my mind to ride it in the snow, so it was onto the Intruder again.

From there on, it was a very careful ride indeed. The snow covered the whole road, and even the wheel tracks were barely visible. First gear seemed fast enough, as visibility was getting worse and the snow was building up on the Intruder's big screen. We weren't much further along before it was necessary for me to peer around the sides of the screen to see around the corners. Lots of bends saw me clambering from side to side to see where I was going. We all made it up to Forrest, and Guy went off to see if he could find us some lunch. He had no luck so we had to ride further up the road to Birregurra where we made a bee-line for the pub and its food and warmth.

I'd managed to snaffle the Honda Aero when we stopped at Forrest, and as the weather had fined up and the roads dried off, it appeared that everyone was feeling better as I watched them disappear rapidly into the distance. The Aero was willing to give chase so I gunned the throttle and the big cruisers lapped up the straight roads of the Western district plains.

We were all relieved to have survived the snow ordeal, and I could tell from the conversation that I wasn't the only one to feel a tad nervous during it. Lunch was a relaxed and cruisey time as we knew that home was within a couple of hours away. The temperature had risen considerably and everyone was much more comfortable as we mounted the bikes for the last leg of our journey. Even the horror of the Geelong-Melbourne highway didn't seem too bad, and when we waved our goodbyes to each other, the grins on their faces said that we'd all had A BLOODY GOOD TIME!!!

Moira Stewart