VMMA Participate in the 29th Icicle Ride 2009
Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th July 2009
The VMMA continues to expand on its social events by this time participating in the BMW Motorcycle Club of Victoria Inc. 29th Icicle Ride 2009.
This event was traditionally in the early days very "hard yakka" to complete, it was a self navigate event with no group ride as such (for those very very dedicated motorcyclists) but over the years more motorcyclists have shown interest in an overnight ride and hence the addition of group rides that have a number of leaders.
Icicle Ride 2009 Badge
The concept of the Icicle Ride is that it is a mystery ride commencing at mid night and concluding at around 6.00 pm, there are 3 legs to the ride with ride instructions given out at the ride brief only for that leg and then the self navigators riding off first and then the group rides departing a various time intervals, group ride leaders are identified by red flashing LED lights attached to the rear of their helmets.
Pedro, Baron and Chris's bike about to be rolled out, The faces are chalk and cheese!!!!
Pedro from Bendigo and Baron from Euro rode down to Melbourne arriving at Chris & Sharyn's around 6.30 pm, after a quick chat Pedro and Baron had a (or tried) to have a little cat nap prior to our departure from Mooroolbark at 9.45 pm.
At 9.15 pm everyone was starting to get the gear (yes gear) and plenty of it, thermal this and thermal that and all types of other warmth protecting bits and bob's for the Icicle Ride is well known for its harsh weather.
Johno arrived on time at 9.45 pm, Chris lead Pedro, Baron and Johno through the outer suburbs of Melbourne and eventually got on the Ring Road at Greensborough for a then quite simple ride down to the BP Servo at Little River.
Pedro, Baron, Johno and Chris bikes lined up at the servo 11.30 pm.
On our arrival we found that already there were a great number of motorcyclists fueled up, registered for the ride and having a warm cuppa prior to the mid night departure.
We were joined by another two VMMA members, Taxi on his beloved new 650 scooter and Mark on the well ridden BMW.
A majority of the riders had pre-registered for the Icicle Ride, us included which made obtaining our "get out of jail" envelope (only to be opened if you become lost) an easy task, ride brief took place just before mid-night which emphasized safety, watch out for wildlife for the Icicle Ride will be via roads well known for wildlife activity, fog is a normal occurrence in the area even though we may be lucky tonight and have none and finally no over taking on the single lane roads and there are many of them on the route.
Ride route navigation instructions for leg 1 were then handed out with those self navigating departing immediately and the group rides departing at time intervals, all VMMA members rode in the groups.
L to R: Taxi, Johno, Baron and Pedro at Inverleigh soup stop after the 1st leg. The "Baron" has landed at Inverleigh Sports Ground.
Well leg 1 found ourselves taking the Avalon Airport off ramp and then all over the place heading at times towards Little River, Lara, Geelong, Anakie, Ballan, Meredith, Geelong again, Mt Mercer, Inverleigh, Winchelsea and finally to the sports oval at Inverleigh for the soup stop,
The entry to the Inverleigh sports ground was very well identified by many portable blue flashing markers, marshals at the sports ground supervised the parking of the motorcycles so that a orderly departure would take place, it was good to see large open fires burning away at the soup stop, but how did Taxi manage to arrive before us and have time to already have consumed his soup as we arrived?
Lineup of motorcycles at Inverleigh.
Once again a rider briefing took place at Inverleigh for leg 2 of the Icicle Ride with safety once again being the main thrust then the ride route navigation instructions for leg 2 were handed out and off we went again all over the place at times heading towards Winchelsea, Colac, Birregurra, Lorne, Winchelsea again, Cape Otway, Moriac, Anglesea, Torquay and finally Geelong for the fuel stop at 250 kilometers distance time being now 5.00 am.
For the last time the ride briefing took place and emphasized that there were a good number of turns close together on this final leg leg and that breakfast time had been changed from 6.00 to 6.30 am for the last leg will take 1 1/2 hours.
This last leg saw us (well some of us) traveling towards Colac, Ballarat, Hamilton, Steiglitz, Anakie, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh, Exford, Skew and finally to Melton Community Centre for a cooked breakfast.
Melton Community Centre was a very good venue to finish the 2009 Icicle Ride. Taxi trying to get rid of the evidence, Pedro is very tied.
Now I mentioned some of us, well it appears Baron, Johno and three others became a group on their own and some how ended up at Meredith and had to open up the "get out of jail free" envelope, even this did not assist greatly for they put their faith in a rider on a scooter who had a phone GPS, well the simple down the road one turn onto the freeway to Melton turned out to be a tour of duty all over the place that finally found them arriving at around 8.00 am at the Melton Community Centre.
It is reported by Baron that even though nearly everyone had departed their own separate ways home by this time the organisers were still there with plenty of breakfaster still available.
To conclude the report all VMMA members arrived back home safely and there were no incidents during the Icicle Ride 2009.
Reported by CW
