Ninja Days

ROBERTSON- with RAT/Katana Australia

So, there I was, looking for the Katana Gang and no Katanas arrived at sunny Stanwell Tops. There was a beautiful F4 MV Augusta and a couple of big Suzukis, Yamaha, a range of big bikes with their serious riders, a few cruisers nearby, but no Katana. I parked my NINJA just opposite, so it could be easily picked by those I had met before, but that did not work out either, as I had never seen Jace, the organiser of this trip to the Valley, other than at Gina's funeral. Then he was in a fine tailored suit and this time his remarkable hairdo was hidden under a helmet. For about half an hour I chatted to a nice Harley rider, who was reminiscing about a trip to Hamburg in Germany. Time after time I looked over my shoulder, expecting the group to arrive. Nada!

No wonder! They were there all along. The F4 was part of the group and when we finally recognised each other, they were about to leave.
Hmmmm...Very, very tempting indeed!

"No Katanas here", said Jace, "you are riding with the RATs today. The Road and Track-riders..."

I just had to have a quick look around to see if there was ANYTHING under 1000cc amongst them.Gulp! Failing that, my next question was: "Are you FAST?" Someone started up their engine and his answer somehow became inaudible. I guess I'll see...

I expected to head down the coast way, but we went back via the 'burgh, along the old highway, then down to the Gong via the Freeway. There were others and I was unsure who was who, and if they knew each other and where we were going exactely...I figured I'd follow them anyway, so, play it by ear.

The Freeway was fun to ride 'in bulk'. I expected to ride all the way down to Albion Park, turn right at the roundabout and then right again at the town centre, but that was not how it went!

Cruising along as a group right across all lanes, I happened to be on the outside, when people started to turn off at Fowlers Rd. Suddenly I was not quite sure wether they were the people I had taken off with or were they the riders we caught up with on the Freeway??? Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!! What the heck! I'll follow them... cutting across three lanes and riding over the grid, juuuuust making it, I was glad to discover that Jace, giving me the thumbs-up, was among them. Pheew. Luck 's on my side.
Turn right and then there was a petrol station everyone pulled into and that's when I realised that we were ONE group. The others had taken off a little earlier. That's all.

Hey, I was just a little worried about my street-cred. Can you imagine if it had turned out that I had followed the wrong bikie group? That would have been too embarressing...

We crossed a railway bridge somewhere...I'll find out... turned left and were on one of the most MAGICAL single lane country roads I've been on, cutting right through a valley, rich in country air, flung bits of cow dung, a little dirt road and a foot deep river crossing thrown in as well. ADVENTURE!!!!
Just kidding!!

Once we got to the Macquarie Pass it started to sprinkle. Time to get the wet weather gear out. Am sooooooooo glad I packed it! Could kick myself for leaving my clear visor at home, though. Reminder to self: riding in rain is good practise.

Rain?
It poured!

I let them all go off and made my own way up to the Robertson Pie Shop. It was a busy place when I got there, I looked around and thought to recognise one of the female riders in the group, but as it worked out, she was actually up there with the Illawarra Riders. I had planned to contact them for a while now, but never got around to it. Now there is no excuse...

Whilst I had a conversation with a couple of members, I briefly noticed a woman pointing at me from a 4-Wheel Drive. As they started to drive off, I finally recognised Joy from Corrimal! Funny!!! I had actually tried to invite her on this ride, wrote the email and got distracted, mustn't have clicked send and when I checked the outbox the next time I logged in, the mail had disappeared. No time to re-send and that was that.

There she was! What a coincidence!

It poured all the way home.

Just out of Moss Vale on the Illawarra Highway, we had yet another reminder of our human frailty, our mortality. A ute had spun out on the wet road and had landed on its roof. I hope they made it, I hope they were lucky.

I left the group at Bowral and after Mittagong it really came down in buckets all the way to Campbelltown, where it stopped suddenly and briefly. Just enough to wipe the visor, unfog the glasses and wring out the gloves. Heading to Appin it all started again.

The petrol station attendant at Appin took one look at me and said: "Must be terrible riding in such awful weather."

"Nahh, not really... riding is what I want to do, so I better not complain!"

Getting through Bulli Tops was like finding your way through a Chineese Laundry- 5m visibility in the thick of it! The Smash Repair Trucks were ready for business and lining up

I got home safely, but can no longer avoid giving that Ninja a good clean.

Where to next?

Labels: Ride Report

posted by The '95 Ninja ZX6R @ 17.3.07