A Rather Flat Start to the New year!!

[Swampy]

Terrific to be back at Cat's again after their short Xmas Closure. Lulu was there leading the charge and bemoaning the fact that most of her friends were stuck in China and a one way air fare now costs $7000.00

Another terrific gathering of Club Members to welcome in the New year. Robin, Chris G., Anthony, Spacey and Nurzo took to the hills in order to maintain the dirt and dust levels on their bikes!!

Kim, Adrian, Hermann and Ross Ashton along with DFS made a welcome return and it would be remiss of me not to mention the "Odorous One Armed Bandit" Alias "Bugle Arse" Beemer Dave who made sure in no uncertain terms that everyone was aware of his presence in our midst, Phew!!

Also terrific to see Jamie (NSW Chapter) grace us with his presence again!!

Another No Show by Bozo, (Get better soon mate) prompted Peter to organise a ride into the country side to Dowerin. (Ride Report Pending) !!

I tailed along as TEC with full intentions of completing the ride but somewhere in the hills on a rather steep incline John on his K1300 came to an abrupt stop after his brand new rear tyre decided to have unsolicited sex with a massive screw which left the poor tyre rather deflated and decidedly flat !!

Hermann and his sidekick stopped to lend assistance as I rendered immediate first aid with at least three attempts at plugging the wound from my trusty Tyre repair kit but for all the good it did I may as well have put a band aid on the hole!!

In other words the tyre was well and truly...........................Beyond Repair

John called the RAC to come and rescue his bike and as there was at least an hours wait time Hermann and company left to continue their journey!!

I stayed on to keep John company and we had some interesting conversations in the hour or so it took for the rescue truck to arrive watching a never ending stream of vehicles take a wide berth around our bikes.

It was around 1040hrs when the RAC arrived and picked the bike up. I decided to try and catch up with the mob but found the Great Eastern Hwy closed by Main roads trucks at El Caballo.
I then took the back roads to Wundowie only to find my way again blocked by Main roads vehicles which prevented me accessing the Highway again!!

I gave up and returned home using an alternative route back to Great Eastern Hwy and home!!

An interesting day but an expensive one for John who I trust got his bike home without further incident!!

Swampy

[pspencer]

Ah the mighty Swampy to the rescue, displaying once again his willingness to sacrifice his Sunday ride to assist a Club member in need. Should be mentioned in dispatches.
With four down it left six to push to at least Mojos Mundaring to take a break to mourn the sorrow of John’s K out of action. We managed to score our favourite table and due to a minor wait for coffees the Boss slipped us some free cakes to compensate, sorry Swamps missed out. Decided as time was moving on to leave Dowerin for another day and head to Beverley, giving the usual Wooroloo/ Wundowie route a miss due to recent fires. Kim decided Mundaring was enough for him so it left Bruce, Mark, Nick and Eddy as TEC to follow me out through the GEH to The Lakes onto GSH, Yarra, the Talbots and Waterhatch to arrive in the Red Vault at Beverley around midday. Not too hot high twenties but windy. The Red Vault was surprisingly almost empty so in no time we were fed and watered.
Nick decided to check out the Airport to collect info to reignite his gliding expertise and Bruce wanted to return via Brookton Hwy so it was Mark and Eddy following me out of Beverley to take, Top Beverley Rd to York and Cut Hill Rd to get us back to the Talbots and heading home.
As Swampy mentioned not an ideal way to kick off 2021 but it is all part of the game. Thanks again to all for a great day nevertheless with special thanks to Eddy for TEC duties and again the selfless act from Swampy. John hope your tyre repair is not too costly.