Another great Mountain Goat run last weekend was enjoyed by a wide variety of scooters, from a Series 1 Lambretta through to an enormous Suzuki Burgman.

I rode the first leg to Yea with Klaus and Chris (the Germans) starting from Preston at 10.30 Thursday night. By the time we arrived at 12:40 am it was hard to imagine what feeling warm ever felt like. Next morning was perfect weather as we had breakfast with most of the crew in Marmalades cafe in Yea, before heading off towards Mansfield.

I had chosen to ride the vespa for several reasons. Firstly my lambretta was pinking badly (the vespa went out in sympathy anyway and was rattling it's way over the mountains). The second reason was that I had only just built the tuned vespa (63 GL with kitted px motor) before the last MG rally and wanted to see how well it went in the twisties now the engine is broken in and tweeked somewhat.

The first (mechanical) casualty came when Chris blew his piston apart while demonstrating some of the tuning skills of a German scooterboy. Just out of Mansfield he was putting his freshly built reed induction p210 through the paces, after having cheekily being overtaken by Paul Mac's Pinasco kitted PX. Too much too soon, or a lesson in the Aussie climate perhaps.

By the time we got to the high country the shady mountainous forests were a blessed relief for riders and engines alike, giving a real reason to shift our sore arses from side to side. I don't know about everyi=one else, but upon arrival in the holiday park the first 3 or 4 beers didn't even touch the sides. 

I had only bought one can of beer, but it did seem to last a fair while....

 The night was relatively cool and most of us gave the grog a good nudge, making a big breakfast at the local cafe a must do before voting.

Once all that was done everyone gathered back at the park for the trip over the hill to Bright.

I had fitted a racing compound sava mc18 to the front and a medium on the back and they didn't let me down one  on the wild twisties up and over the mountain. What a rush.

On the way down was even better. Pitting my horsepower against Stuarts ability to brake was a pretty close call with me taking his stock P200 on the flat before the finish line. Ten seconds after arriving, Paul Mac pulled up. He had left the top of the mountain last and managed to overtake about fifteen scooters while making up about 5 minutes (out of about 15).

 PICTURED FROM THE LEFT: Paul Mac, Klaus, Stuart, Janine, Cathryn and AL.

Lunch was at a pub in a local town, then it was to Bright for an icecream.

The trip back over to Mount Beauty was a more relaxed one as I joined James Greigel and his wife Natalie on their GP200 and LX(?) respectively. Such a treat to take in the surroundings as well as the pleasure of watching a perfect Lambretta buzzing flawlssly around a mountainside. It reminded me of Ifan's Li150 the year before. 

Everyone made their way back to camp after exploring Bright, except Klaus. Spark plug trouble left him stranded over the mountains. It was fortunate that Lynne happened to be meeting him there with the 4wd. (I am happy to say the scooter was fine, just in need of a new plug).

We pretty much took over the pizza restaurant over the road for dinner which pretty much turned into an election party, with much excitement as the results came in. All the excitement/riding/hangovers took their toll  and a reasonably early night was had.

Some folks left at the crack of dawn, but most rode in a group pretty much all the way. It was a hot hot day which didn't make things too good for Julia, who's transmission belt shredded to pieced in the middle of nowhere. After a Valiant attempt at towing by Jeremy and his GT200, the scooter was left for the RACV to pick up.

Once on our way again there was a cool mountain to cross before Mansfield followed by lunch (and Chris picking up his forsaken Vespa left there since Friday).

From Mansfield it was a matter of watching engine temps as far as Yea, where some went back via YArra Glen and us Northerners went through Wittelsea . Quite a nice ride into Wittle sea with some cool forests and bendy roads. From there we hit the suburbs and went our seperate ways.

See y'all next year

derek