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Jimbo's 50th Birthday Ride

Well Jim had his 50th birthday on Saturday, and there was absolutely no better way to help him celebrate on a fantastic winters day than joining him for a ride. Seven bikes met at the Park Ridge Tavern and we all decided to head to Rathdowney and then follow one of the better bike roads into Boonah for lunch, but first stop was Jimboomba to pick up Mike and Lizzie. Panda led the ride down to and then through Jimboomba at a fairly good pace, but in her haste, completely forgot to stop to pick up our two colleagues waving to us frantically from the servo. I don't know exactly why, but we all followed like sheep in not stopping - they did eventually catch up with us at Beaudesert where we had pulled over for a break.

We continued onto Rathdowney where we pulled in for a drink at the pub and to wait for Grizz to catch us. He rolled in after about half an hour and then we were off. The road between here and Boonah is a great one for bikes - not too much traffic, lots of twisties and a couple of nice long straight bits. I took off and rode it as I thought it should be ridden - hard and fast. I really put the GSX through it's paces and was not dissapointed - she held the road beautifully and when asked, delivered the grunt with little effort. The only thing that was a little scary was the number of dead roos on the road - I reckon we passed about 10 in a very short period, due mainly to the lack of feed, except along the roadside. You wouldn't have much chance if you hit one on a bike, especially when right in the middle of a corner!

We pulled into the Dugandan Hotel around midday and settled in for some lunch. I really enjoy stopping at this pub because the food is great and it is located at a tee junction, right alongside the road, so you could sit there in the shade with your favourite beverage watching the bikes pass. After a really good feed, the girls arranged for a huge piece of cake to be brought out as a surprise for Jim and it went down really well. We hung around for a while longer as Jim ate his way through this chunk of cake, and then once he had finished, headed back towards home.

The ride back was great fun - three of us, Banjo on a Speedmaster, LJ on the Rocket and moi on the GSX, took off and really hooked into it. I was really surprised at how much stick the Rocket has - at one stage we were really moving along and LJ gave her a fistful, leaving me struggling behind attempting to catch him. I assumed that I would catch him easy, but there was no way I was gonna get there in a hurry! The Speedmaster was also a bit of a surprise - he was out in front setting the pace and took a fair bit to reel in. We took a different route to the others on our way back but did finally catch up with them as we rode into Jimboomba.

We all stopped for a break in Jimboomba and said our goodbyes from there. A couple of us returned to Jim and Tracey's place for a post-ride drink and photo session from their recent US trip which was really interesting. I left there about 5ish and headed down to Kingscliff. I reckon Jim would have had a really happy birthday - I know I really enjoyed it!

Out front of the Rathdowney Hotel

Ooooh yeah - show me some skin, baby!!

Our lunch stop just outside Boonah

The birthday boy with his cake - he ate it all too!

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2 Comments:

Blogger Moose Gear said...

What a Nice bike. You've reached my dream. congratulations and enjoy it.

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10:34 AM  
Blogger Kelly Renaul said...

I am sure thats been a gr8 ride ..

http://www.supersportsracing.com

4:59 AM  

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