Sunday 8 February 2015

Touring twins - the (not so) Shiver ride

There had been talk - for quite some time now - to get a bunch of Shivers together for an Italian-Ape blat.

Turns out one local Shiver rider is down with mechanical gremlins and a few others are MIA - no matter, the call went out and a total of 3 Shiver pilots popped up their heads.

A fellow Shiver rider (chillibutton) gathered a crew of 5, 3 x Shivers, 1 x BMW F800S, 1 x Firestorm. The common denominator? Twin cylinder engine configuration:

Italian 750 V-Twin = Braaaaarp
Japanese 996 V-Twin = Rrrrrrraaaarrrgh
Austrian (Rotax) 798 Parallel Twin = I need less fuel stops than all of you! (sorry, couldn't help myself petesul)

So - we were in business.......game on.

We met mid morning in the Eastern hills of Melbourne, quick "G'day" with the obligatory "Nice bike mate," then off - pointing the bikes towards Kinglake.

Traffic was acceptable - a few slow patches, but all in all a great fist leg - a mix of tighter twisties to open sweepers to flowing changes of left/right, left/right - very nice indeed.


The fun continued as we rolled into Beechworth Bakery in Healesville - a standard issue stop for riders.



Quick caffeine and food stop for the riders with a tank top-off for the bikes - sans BMW :)) - before heading towards Yarra Glen. 

Another wonderful route - the BMW pilot has fantastic local knowledge and directed the group through some pearler country side - zero traffic, excellent road condition and composition........absolutely magic!


The Ape - thoughtfully surveying the road travelled and the route ahead 


Along the way we pull over for a photo opportunity - bikes in their natural environment - in the hills, with plenty of black stuff travelled, with plenty more to go.

Ohhhh - I am a sucker for a Firestorm

Twin, twins......I wonder which one is the evil twin?


All in all - a fantastic run gentleman - cracker ride with an, even more, cracker group. Let's not wait so long before we head out again eh?

Oh.......I also managed to scrub away some of my commuter tyre shame........

'Till next time fellas.....

\BitSar 
-- hopefully sooner rather than later. 

No comments:

Post a Comment