Phillip Island adventure - the MotoGP!

After the usual trip on the ferry, I managed to exit Melbourne without getting lost and was on my way to Bairnsdale for the Barry Sheene Ride. I was going to be travelling with two riders from Sydney - Kenneth, a Thruxton rider who also loves his Vespa, and Ted, a Monster rider. They had never been on the BS Ride before and were impressed with the number who turned up at the Bairnsdale oval on the Thursday morning, more than 800. The ride itself was an often sedate trip through appreciative country towns. We suffered a bit of rain on the way but it was fine for our arrival at the Phillip Island, where we all had fun riding around the track and taking photos of each other.

Friday's weather was pretty crappy, but it did mean you could get a good viewing spot, unlike Sunday which was very crowded. All I could do was find a good spot near a video screen and watch the GP race on that, with added sound effects from the finishing straight nearby.

I had entered the Show & Shine competition for the second year running. This year they had added a Best Scooter category, which my Vespa won easily as the other scooter entrant didn't turn up! Part of our reward was a lap of the track on Saturday afternoon, and after being breathalysed and the having the bikes scrutineered, we were out there! (apart from a minor hiccup when we had to get out of the way to let the riders of the preceding Superbike race get back to their pit area - oops!)

We all had a great time on our lap, including the rider of a Japanese 70cc machine who was really going for it! Just as I was coming through the starting grid area I decided to change up to fourth, and crunch! Back to third quickly, but that was the end of fourth gear for the trip. I did have a fiddle with the clutch cable back at our Cowes accommodation, and exchanged a few words with Marco Melandri who said he saw my victory lap, but he wasn't much help!

I decided to get a motorcycle transporter to take me back to Melbourne for Monday night's ferry, and was trailered the rest of the way home once I was back in Tassie. Now the Vespa is in for a rebuild, three teeth were broken right off fourth gear, but at least I got to do most of the things I wanted to before it went crunch.