On Saturday the 5th of December CanberraRiders held the third official Wank Factor Ride (WFR).  For the uninitiated, a WFR is just a great excuse to clean off your bike and leathers and spend a day posing for our budding amateur photographers!   These rides have been very popular in the past, and this should come as no surprise – according to the monthly demographic statistics compiled by adr1an, “posers” are now the second-fastest growing subgroup on CanberraRiders!

In a typical display of his natural leadership skills, Lurch decided to delegate the responsibility of organising the event; however, he made a potentially fatal error by handing the reins to the most disorganised and unreliable member of all… me!  As expected, by the time the day rolled around I had not organised anything.  Mick C decided to head out early in the morning and scope out some corners, and I tagged along to identify safe places to park at after the photo corners.  We also cleared some gravel off one of the corners just to make sure there weren’t any mishaps.

Soon it was time to head back to Tharwa, so I trundled along nice and slowly in my car so Mick C could keep up – I didn’t want him to get lost out there in the wilderness.  Riders and photographers were already arriving by the time we got back to Tharwa, and thankfully bobthetomato showed up with a set of walkie-talkies.  The turnout was fantastic – by my count we had 22 riders in the carpark!

We had a quick rider briefing to make sure everyone stayed safe, and then we were off on our way to the Namadgi National Park for a big group shot.  Everyone stopped at the cattle grid, and the photographers headed down to the bottom of the hill to get set up in a lovely spot next to a rotting kangaroo carcass.  Once they had finished pretending to adjust camera settings Mick gave the ‘ready’ call over the radio, and the first round of wanking commenced!  Unfortunately I was a little premature, and accidentally drove my filthy car into the background of the photo… oops!  I managed to last a little longer on the second attempt, and the photographers got some great group shots.

Now that the group stimulation was out of the way we headed up into the mountains for some solo action – the mainstay of a good WFR.  The photographers staked out two consecutive corners, and the riders got their pose on!  We also bumped into another two riders who did a few photo runs, and will hopefully join the forum soon.  Highlights of the solo session included Kip rolling his jeans up and then trying to get his knee down, and Michael engaging in mid-corner battles with ninjas and deranged scooter riders.  The only real downer was when I was unfortunate enough to see Mick C running – think Forest Gump crossed with a slightly less coordinated Steve Urkel!

Later, an incident occurred.  I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, so I’ll let this picture tell the story (and assault your innocent, unsuspecting eyeballs).

This disturbing scene caused irreversible damage to lenses and SD cards, so the photographers decided to call it a day.  Some of the riders headed over to Moonrock for an iced coffee and a chinwag, and the others made their way home.  It was a great day with only a couple of minor mishaps, and it was all made possible by the wonderful photographers and a great group of riders who maximised their pose factor whilst still riding within their limits.

I don’t know how long I can last without some more relief – bring on the next WFR before the weather gets too cold!