Today was the Victorian Pink Ribbon Motorcycle Ride. This is an annual event to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research. Spacemonkey69 and I have made an effort to do this ride each year since I got my learner permit actually, and so it's become something of a tradition, and something we look forward to each year. I'm sure it is a cause that is close to many of our hearts (excuse the pun), as we all know someone who has gone through some form of cancer or another, it's a disease which doesn't discriminate.

Our day started at the reasonable hour of 7.30am (thank goodness as last night was my 15 year high school reunion which went till late - that's another story). We rode first to my sister's place, as we've promised my 7yr old niece that she could ride with us this year now that she can go on the back of hubby's bike. Just as we pulled into their driveway the rain began. Just great! We had a few minutes to wait anyway, as we put the pink bandana around the niece's neck, adjusted her 'pink wings' and put a pink ponytail (helmet hair) on her helmet. The rain stopped and we were ready to go. Mum and little brother watched her hop on the back and us taking off, and I'm sure her mummy had a tear in her eye watching her little girl leave for her first "real" ride (before this we'd taken her only as far as the local cafe).

We rode out to the Westgate bridge meeting point near Melbourne city. The bikes had already started to arrive and fill the car park of the Shell Servo - which is a huge car park. In all there were 10 different 'meet points' across Victoria, all leaving to arrive at 11am at Point Cook. Point Cook town centre was closed off to all cars, only allowing bikes and pedestrian access. A band (Retromax) set to play in the town square, trade stalls, all local retail outlets open for business, some even with specials and part of purchase being donated towards the pink ribbon cause, raffle tickets, etc. Lots of other things organised to make it a memorable day.

We met up with XRAYX and all paid our registration fee - all funds going to breast cancer research. Checked out all the other bikes, chatted with other riders about their bikes, had people talking to us about our bikes... actually it was here I ran into Greg Evans (local media celebrity from the 80's - hosted a match making tv show back then, now on radio) who was checking out my bike really well - imagine that! Turns out they came on his daughters bike which is a 650 Drag Star, similar looking to my V-Star and we got chatting. It was great, lovely guy and his daughter is really nice as well. Got a few tips from him on roads we can't miss on our trip to Sydney, some of the best riding roads he's ever experienced. We'll try work those into the trip.

10.30am all engines started and we hit the freeway towards Point Cook. Kept up a good pace considering there were probably a hundred bikes, and we saw other riding groups from other directions merge with ours as we were arriving at Point Cook Town Centre. 

The town was abuzz, splashes of pink everywhere, bikes literally everywhere! People lining the streets, getting off bikes, watching bikes, taking pics of bikes and generally just a lot of fun. My sister was there waiting for us - takng video of all the action (and if I can figure out how to edit it and upload it, I will!).

I had to back the bike into a bike space I thought I might have a bit of trouble with, as there was a lip on the road and it went uphill. "Concentrate" I told myself, "Think about it before you do it", "Ignore all the people watching you, just concentrate and do this"... then, with the right amount of momentum I bumped over the lip and the bike just rolled back smoothly into the perfect position - great! I might finally be getting better at this slow speed, walking around stuff. Just after I parked, the rain began again, but it only lasted a few minutes and was light. Then it was gone - and hasn't come back the rest of the day. We were blessed.

We had a good time at Point Cook really checking out the diverse range of bikes and chatting with various riders. Always interesting to see what other people are doing with their rides, and other people wanting to know about ours. I think spacemonkey69 showed about half a dozen riders the easy bracket system for my saddlebags, cos they hadn't seen it before, stuff like that.

Home early now, had a full on day yesterday, and late night. Got a family dinner on tonight, then going out until late tomorrow after work, to a concert - so trying to conserve a bit of energy - for the next ride!

Hope I haven't bored you all... I'm not much of a writer, so thanks for reading this, and if you made it this far - well you get a gold star LOL

Take care and ride safe to all!
Dim