A dozen of us gathered at Epping to farewell autumn today and the weather was kinder than some recent days. 

Had a bit of drizzle around Greensborough before the start, the odd bit along the way and some light rain after lunch at Seymour.  

It was great to see returning member Steve join us for his first ride with Ulysses in many years and he was made welcome.  Nick took on TEC duty and once greetings and chats were over, we headed up the Hume to Wallan.   Bridge and roadworks delayed us a bit until we got through Wallan and we then had a good run in light traffic up to Broadford

where we stopped for a cuppa and chat in the bakery – wasn’t exactly warm outside.

A dozen of us gathered at Officer for today’s ride into South Gippsland and enjoyed much, much better weather than last weekend.

  Despite the forecast for a possible afternoon shower, it did not rain at all.

Shamus was riding his Ducati, Alf – KTM, Ian - Suzuki and I was on my new (to me) but old Honda.  The other 75% of us were on BMWs!   People remarked that my much less used Honda has visible taillights and indicators and that the suspension clearly works much better than the bike which has 285,000km.  In brief – it is familiar and a joy to ride.

Sam took on TEC duty.  We rode off a few minutes after 10.00AM and headed into the hills towards Beaconsfield Upper and had a delightful run with no traffic.  We had a bit of hitch with corner marking north of Pakenham and happily got it sorted…

Thanks to a last minute suggestion by Paul last night, three of us enjoyed an impromptu ride today.  Graham, Paul and I met at Lilydale in perfect autumn riding weather and rode off through orchards and up the Yarra River valley via back roads to Warburton and then up the “Reefton Spur” to Cambarville.  Traffic was minimal and the road up was in great condition apart from some damp corners which probably didn’t get to see any sun all day and quite a few small trees partially blocking lanes of the road.   Caution was exercised and it was still a very enjoyable ride up. 

From then on, the road surface deteriorated badly as far as the Lake Mountain turn off.  A wallaby had the good sense to run away from us rather than into us and I also had a lyrebird cross my path as I started the descent –…

Six of us gathered at Ardeer

for the ride to Portarlington and enjoyed good riding weather.  After a good chat, we set off shortly after 10.00 a.m. and rode west to Rockbank, left the freeway and made our way through Exford and Rowsley before the spectacular (but narrow and bumpy) climb up from Glenmore.

All oncoming cars got half off the narrow road to let us stay on the bitumen which was great roadcraft by the drivers.  We had a brief photo stop and rode on to Meredith for our cuppa break and a chat.  Andrew and Sam then headed off their own way.     We then rode through Steiglitz and some very enjoyable roads and scenery despite many new 80 KPH zones.  Pat then left us to go to a social gathering so then it was down to Jeff, Peter and me.  We descended one more spectacular drop near Maude…