Despite quite short notice, eight of us assembled at Officer today and did a bit of a reconnaissance ride into Gippsland.  As it was a reconnaissance ride, I believe the two U turns included in the ride were perfectly acceptable.  One was due to a road closure and the other down to my route selection.   It was good to see Barry and John join us on Hondas, but we were still outnumbered as Andrew, Carlo, Ian, Jeff and Tez were all BMW mounted.   Ian did a great job as Tail End Charlie and his BMW had some special features

·         His GPS didn’t want to function

·         To compensate, his bike transmitted a special signal which turned every traffic light red for him after the other 7 of us made it through!  We waited and regrouped near Nar Nar Goon and joked that there would be no more traffic lights…

Mike Fittall's planned ride was threatened by the bushfires west of the city but we went ahead anyway. Mike changed the morning tea stop from Meredith as it was too close to the fire area, and we went via Ballan instead.

Fifteen of us arrived for the ride in nice sunny weather, if a little cool, and off we went with yours truly as TEC.

Out through the west around Lara and Little River and nearly to Geelong before turning towards Ballan. We surprisingly got a little drizzly rain which I really liked as I was wearing my mesh jacket, but we didn't really get wet.

A stop at a bakery at Ballan for morning tea

then it was off to Trentham via a collection of nice sweeping roads where we made good time. Lunch again at the bakery and a nice chat.

We had a great turn out for the Melbourne Branch ride from Lilydale to San Remo today and no doubt I’ll forget a name or two – Sorry!  The weather was great for riding and not too hot. 

We also had an amazing variety of bikes as shown in the photos.

New member Matt (his wife bought him membership some months ago I believe) joined us for his first ride with the Ulysses Club.  Scott and Dave came out with us again.   Neil and Adele joined us for their first time in at least a couple of years.  Ken also joined us after a lengthy absence.  Other regulars included Andrew, Carlo, Colin, Dinesh, Gary, Jack, Jeff, Kal, Mike, Peter.  Tez took on TEC duty again and brought his son Shamus along.   

Alf and John joined us at the planned morning cuppa stop in Bayles, but my plans fell apart…

Twelve of us ( Jack, Sam, Jeff, Colin, Cevat, Brian, Rod, Les, John, Mike, Gary and me ) gathered for a lovely Summer ride. Mike arrived surprising us all on a new Moto Guzzi Mandello. The XR1000 is gone. Also the brand balance is shifting. Only 7 of the 12 bikes were BMWs. Mike offered to be rear rider as he was running in the Guzzi,

Morning tea was at Lancefield, easily reached by going Wallan and Romsey. Lancefield was packed with a car display. Many different makes and models. Onwards to Castlemaine with the day temperature steadily rising. First along the Burke and Wills track, through Redesdale where Jeff left us due to family commitments. Turning right we went onto Sutton Grange and I overshot the turn for Mt Alexandra causing a U-turn for the group. Mt Alexandra is worth riding as it is a good mix of…