Ulysses Club Melbourne Branch

San Remo Sunday Ride 21 February 2021

John Cook has lived up to his reputation as a Ride Leader par excellence with a great ride from

Lilydale to San Remo. Even amongst the group of regular riders there was a chorus of “roads I’ve

never on before” at the ride break. The ride was one of contrast with the first section across the

Dandenongs being tight roads and low speed limits whilst the second leg after morning tea was more

open and let us get into top gear!

We left Lilydale even more promptly than usual after John had checked with another group of riders

who were gathered nearby for a separate ride – they had cooperatively delayed their start time by

10 minutes to avoid mass confusion of multiple rides starting off at the same time. And there was a

third group gathering nearer to the pub on some delectable old machinery including a couple of very

tidy Vincents.

After the windy and scenic roads of the Dandenongs, the morning tea break was at Bunyip – a

relatively un-used location for our breaks mostly due to the previous lack of open businesses on

Sundays. But nowadays the general store at Bayles (a regular break location in the past) is not open

Sundays but the bakery and the café at Bunyip are! Barry F and John T joined us at Bunyip for the

second leg, and Pat R headed off for other things.

The second leg took us onto some more open roads and some less intense riding on sweeping bends.

Familiar places like Poowong, Loch and Dalyston went by as we headed to lunch at San Remo. Lunch

was in the park for most of us although a breakaway group launched a “counter attack” lunch at the

pub! Julian quietly met up with the group at San Remo having made his own route to there after

been stooged at the roundabout in Poowong by a car obscuring his view of the corner marker and

missing the second turn. Who’d have thought there’d be that much traffic in Poowong!

Many of the group headed back towards Melbourne as a group, whilst some of us went solo and the

counter attack group were enjoying the leisure time at the outdoor tables. My own return involved a

quick ride over the bridge onto Phillip Island and out to Churchill Island for a quick look, then a ride

back to the city via random roads.

The cast of villains:

Ride Leader: John Cook, Honda ST1300

Tail End Charlie: Stewart, Honda F6B

Mark: Yamaha MT07 (new member! Welcome Mark)

Terry: BMW R9T

Dennis: Ducati Monster

Carlo: BMW K1300ST

Andrew: Yamaha Fazer

Pat: Triumph Tiger 1200

Colin: BMW R1250GSA

Brian: BMW R1250GS

Jeff: BMW R1250GSA

Jack: BMW R1200GSA

Sam: BMW R1250GSA

Julian: Victory XC

Reece: BMW F800ST

Mike: BMW R1200RS

Ian: BMW F700GS

Barry: Honda ST1100

John: Honda CB500X

Westernport Bay views from the lookout: