So who is going to PI for the MotoGP

[Sundog]

I have to relate a story that had it's beginnings at this years GP, sorry for all the text but it's hard to abbreviate it and get the points across.

I didn't make it in the end to the GP for reasons stated below but some mates of mine did, in particular one of them took his 19 yo son along. He rides a pristine Blackbird and his son on P's has a brand spanking new LAMS Ninja. They'd rocked up at the GP, parked their bikes and headed trackside, having a blast after the Moto3 race they went back to the bikes to grab some sunscreen only to find someone had played bike dominoes and their bikes were on the ground, both had fairing and levers damaged badly enough to require eventual replacement but neither bike was incapacitated. A bunch of really pissed off blokes were having a go at a young woman who had dropped her bike and then watched with horror as 5 or 6 bikes next to hers fell over one after the other. She was insured so I'm told but I think it will be a long time getting processed, most of the affected had the opinion that the insurer will try to apportion blame elsewhere in their tricksy ways.

But, that's not the complete saga.

My mate and his son were able to ride their bikes home and went home via Arthur's Seat, which for the non-Melbourne riders is a steep and very windy hill climb, most curves are 15 or 25km hairpins. It's a fun place to time trial yourself and learn to take corners well. As they rounded the first blind hairpin at the base of the hill they had no way of knowing that coming down the hill was another young woman, riding a new Monster. Witnesses said that she took one of the tight corners to fast and went wide, tried to pull it back but got fixated on the Armco railing that runs all the way down the outside of the road, she hit it at speed but at an angle and went OVER the railing and tumbled down the hill, eventually needing an air-ambulance to the city and intensive care, last heard to be in critical condition, name unknown. However, it gets more interesting in that her bike, after hitting the Armco did not fall over but slid along the barrier at speed until it slid off the barrier and carried on in a straight line, upright & riderless, going down the steep road!! My mate's son had just turned the corner on the hairpin, his dad following to assess his cornering skills, and got T-Boned by the riderless Monster which knocked him off his bike and pushed his already damaged Ninja into the hill, writing it off completely this time. He wasn't injured because it was at a slow speed and the Monster Missile hit the front of his bike and not him.

That Ninja was just not meant to be, it seemed almost pre-ordained to go to the scrap heap, two accidents in one day and neither his fault. Thankfully the biggest of the two was just a scape for the rider and nothing broken, but you gotta say, his luck just wasn't there that day.

[Two dogs]

 
That is so lucky the young fella didn't get hurt.
I made sure when parking my bike it had enough room in case of the domino effect.
It was very windy Friday and Saturday , the bloke who parked next to me had his bike the wrong way round so it was standing straight up
just ready for a fail with the wind not in his favour.

I had a close call going up Brown mountain (appropriately named   ), I was already a bit spooked as the group I was with had an off there last year.
It is comparable to Macquary pass.
I was setting up for a tight uphill hairpin and just starting to tip in when a Linfox full size Woolworth's truck coming down hill arrived on my side of the road , he didn't brake or back off forcing me to go so wide I was looking at the drainage culvert below my bars and had to pull my head to the side so the corner of his trailer didn't take my head off.
The rest of the mountain climb was at a very sedate pace after that.

On the Bonang Hwy out of Delegate I stopped to get my breath back and for the group to catch up and talk before we hit the next 80 k of twisties
I was pretty excited and took off making the most of the 100 k limit with no cars on the road the only moving things I saw was a Roo and a Dingo.
Second sweeping left I'm cranked over and what is in the middle of the corner coming the other way   Bright blue Vic SS officer.
I bolted on knowing he would have to get past the other six riders to get to me.
When we stopped again to re group, one of us was missing.
We started to get worried after 15 minutes waiting and were about to turn around to find him when Pete showed up.
Mr   had pulled him over and warned him that two riders had been killed on this stretch the day before and a girl also on a bike had been crippled running off and into a tree.
The first two both had hit logging trucks .
This was quite sobering so we all decided to slow down ................ well I did the others promptly forgot within the first few corners    

[heatherp]

Hmn one would think this spate of serious motorcycle carnage would rate a mention in the media.  Can't seem to find anything on a quick web search or on the VicPol media site.

[Two dogs]

Heather
We took it on face value at the time , most likely just a scare tactic but it worked on me  .