weekender... and meet a recent new member

[Kev Murphy]

Up bright and early on Friday to discover that local rain had eased and was on the road at 7.30 am. Roads were wet and I copped road spray and grime from passing traffic and vehicles I was following. Not a lot of traffic, and rode with open helmet, just ducking down behind the screen to avoid spray in the face. Good trip to Hamilton but light showers between there and Glenthompson. Traffic was travelling at a good pace, and I followed with a group of four cars all the way to Ballarat. Another medium shower of rain through Ballarat to Ballan, still travelling with two of the earlier cars. Topped the tank at Ballan and grabbed an iced coffee.

Pushed on towards Melbourne and turned onto the western ring road to bypass the city to the north, jumped onto the Calder freeway eastbound when the rain started to increase... time to close the helmet and drop the visor around Pascoe Vale, where I exited onto Bell street and through Coburg, Heidelberg to Doncaster.

HOO BOY!...This is where the rain REALLY started coming down, with very poor visibility, and buffeting side wind gusts were pushing the bike hard sideways. I wanted to pull off the road and seek shelter at a servo, but could not see the traffic either side, so could not change lanes. Required all my concentration just to watch the cars in front of me, and anticipate their braking. Didn't take too long for the heavy wet stuff to find its way down the back of my collar while waiting at lights. This is about the time that I discovered that my one piece wet gear had a split seam. Yep!... you guessed it...and all this rain bucketing down while waiting at lights runs off the tank, and straight through the seam into the crotch area...  Nothing worse than riding with wet nuts.

Turned south down Middleborough road through Waverley, the rain ceased here for the short run onto the Monash Freeway for the hour long trip to Drouin. Oh yeah...and I hit a series of puddles on one section of the freeway, the front tyre parted the waters, which hit my boots, splashed up inside the wet gear cuffs, and soaked my socks. From there it just dribbled down into my boots. This proved that my short boots are waterproof, because they held this water for the next hour and a half.

Just light rain to contend with for the final leg. Turned south at Drouin heading for Poowong East and discovered myself to be on a horror stretch of road. Apparently there had been some very nasty wind that morning, and trees and branches were down all across the road for the final 25 Km. Was restricted to travelling at about 30 kph and less to pick my way around and through the debris. Some approaching cars on this winding stretch with multiple blind corners were weaving from one side of the road to the other to dodge the bigger branches.

Unnerving to see cage drivers swerve and approach the bike head on. Nearing Hallora when a ute ran over a larger branch which flicked into the air, and went through the windscreen of the car following. This was a piece of timber maybe six feet long and thicker than my wrist, and when it went airborne, it lifted to maybe 8 feet off the ground.
It speared through the windscreen and went between the seats of the driver and passenger. The ute did not stop. Driver and passenger were shaken by the incident, but luckily not injured.

After we removed the branch and pushed the windscreen out, they continued on their way towards Drouin. Ten minutes later I arrived at my friends home at around 4.30 pm, a little later than I had planned because of wind, wet, and traffic. Saturated from the guts to the knees, and from the back of my collar to my backside, and from the ankles down. Took my boots off, and poured about half a cup of water from each. Hot shower and a change into dry clothes really improved my mood.

More to be posted of the return trip later today. 

[Kev Murphy]

Part 2
Suitably refreshed after a couple of hours sleep, and have a meal cooking (last nights dinner)

 Now, a GPS is a wonderful device.
Until it gets a fixed idea that the actual route it has suggested, varies to the route that one wishes, by choice, to take. 
I think this occurs because of the number of electronic resistors within it's circuitry?

Sunday morning! Glorious sunshine, and a touch of warmth. Was a comfortable ride home. Great day to be on the bike.

Left my friends around 9.30 am, and casually drove west on a few second grade sealed roads through to Lang Lang, Caldermeade, Monomeath, Koo Wee Rup, Cardinia, Clyde, to Cranbourne where I joined the south Gippsland highway and at last the GPS and I finally agreed that we both wanted to go to the same destination by the same route.

The GPS had previously reported at Cardinia that the destination was still 1 hour ahead. In actual fact, I was at the home of Jdbiker in less than 30 minutes.
A knock on the door, a hearty welcome, and he insisted that I put the bike in the garage, off the street.
We spent about an hour, maybe a little more, chatting and having coffee.

Marvelous looking  he has, looks to be in showroom condition. Has a couple of other bikes in the shed as well.
 After a lot of chatter, I showed him the easiest way to post pics by using the attachment function, and advised on how to post lower definition or re-sized images, to fit within the confines of file size for attachments.

Many thanks for the hospitality shown, mate, a pleasure to meet you both, and I am sure our paths will cross many times again.

Back on the road, and towards Melbourne in moderate to heavy traffic. Took the Princes highway through Dandenong, Malvern and past Albert park... helicopters overhead, and lots of high revving noise... must have been some sort of Sunday hoon event occurring there...??

Continued up Kings Way and across the Westgate bridge and on a whim, I decided to travel home through Geelong, Colac, Warrnambool. Topped the tank, grabbed some fruit juice, and had a leg stretch at a servo near Lara, and rode non stop in light traffic from there to Portland, arriving at around 5.45 to a frosty reception from two cats, but they soon forgave me.
Cheers! 

[Marcus]

Wow, Kev that would have been the worst weekend to travel for the year, And you picked it... hahaha glad you mad it home safe

[Gadget]

Good ride [terror] (<---- autocorrect) report Kev.  Glad you had fun, and made it home safe.

[Shiney]

Great RR mate, thank you for sharing

[alans1100]

We had some of that rain before it got over your way: had 25mm out of it in our back yard.

Nice to know were not the only ones that get wet sometimes when riding.......lol

[Jdbiker]

Thanks Kev for dropping by and showing how to post pics. It was great listening to all your experiences, you should write a book sometime, would make great reading.
Cheers and keep the posts coming!

[Wild Rose]

Great ride report for your weekend outing 
Thanks for sharing and I'm glad you got home safe and sound 

[Kev Murphy]

I was just a little disappointed that I didn't get any pics, but the rain was just too heavy to get my camera out, as it is not weather resistant. Will buy a better quality and more robust unit in the near future.