NOVEMBER RUNS
Sunday
8 Tony Daly’s special
tour. 8.30am KBCP.
Friday
13 Debbie’s Double Feature,
Fancy Dress, Horror Show. (not to be missed)
Social Sec’s
place, Unit 17/28-36 James St, Box Hill. 8.39pm.
Sunday
15 Cambarville. 9.30am KBCP.
10.45am Lilydale.
Sunday
22 Central Deborah Gold Mine.
$1? 9.30am KBCP.
Saturday
28 Carrum Beach Night & B.B.Q. KBCP 6pm SHARP
Sunday
29 Mt. Cole State
Forest. Picnic Lunch 8.39am KBCP.
DECEMBER
Friday
4 General Meeting. Club
Hall 8.15pm SHARP.
____________________
CLOSING DATE FOR ATICLES FOR NEXT MAG IS
20.11.81.
MAGAZINE ARICALS CAN BE
POSTED OR DELIVERED TO FAYE & GEOFF MORGAN, 246 GAP RD, SUNBURY. 3429. Ph. 744-1189.
____________________
EDITORIAL – NOVEMBER 1981
As mentioned last month
we, along with 4 or 5 other members, attended the World’s End Rally. We generally feel that a good time was had by
all. Sure we had our moments but generally,
a fairly easy trip of 12 days, covering both the World’s End and the Big Desert
Rallies. Two bikes (2800km each) and no
mechanical problems (unless you call five punctures mechanical problems). Three of these occurred in 40km! THAT was a frustrating day. (I missed out on pies at Eudunda, and, a
visit to a winery (Geoff). Still, that is touring. You must take the good with the bad.
On the subject of
touring, have you thought about the ‘Back ‘O’ Bourke’ run? According to our calculator we’re looking at
around 2 ˝ thousand K’s, give or take a couple of hundred, and around 72 hours
in which to do them (the K’s that is!).
Sounds easy doesn’t it? Sure,
could be a real fun trip, but, it could be hot (40 deg+), or it could be wet
(ever tried riding in 3 inches of red dust mixed with an equal quantity of
water?)! One thing is for sure, no
matter what the weather, it is bound to result in some sore bums and stiff
shoulders accompanied by a strangely satisfied grin!
We’ve recently heard of
a couple of instances of riders getting lost during club runs. On one occasion a rider has even suggested
that he got left when he stopped to check his load after another rider pointed
out a possible problem. (At least that’s the way we heard it!). As we see it there are, in fact, two problems
here, (a) because of the way the club functions on a ride it is quite possible
to ride up to an hour and not see another machine. This tends to be rather un-nerving and only
confidence in the club’s road rules can coax one to keep on riding and of
course one eventually comes across a couple of riders patiently sitting on a
corner just waiting to point out which is the correct way to go!, and (b) if
you are a relatively new rider with the club, or an old rider with a new
machine, the rear rider may miss you (particularly if you pull well off the
road). Obviously the problem is one of recognition. If you have to make an unscheduled stop, make
it obvious (flag the rear rider down if necessary). Remember, you only have to recognize the rear
rider, he/she has to try to recognize everyone else, and that could mean up to
40 machines! A mammoth task and we feel
that no member who volunteers to be rear rider would knowingly leave another
rider stranded. Think ahead to the next
scheduled stop when someone asks “What happened to the so and so?”, and
suddenly everyone realizes that a machine is missing. Has the rider got fed up with the ride and
gone home? Did the rider take the wrong
turn and so get lost? Did the machine
run off the road and if so is/are the rider/riders lying in the scrub
injured? Should we go back and look for
wayward machine or should we just shrug our shoulders and go on enjoying our
ride and to hell with them? There’s the
question, YOU provide the answers!
Cheers Faye & Geoff.
____________________
NEW ADDRESS
Kevin
Robertson
63
Waltham St
FLEMINGTON.
3031
Ph.
376-1568
____________________
WANTED
Travelling
companion/s for motorcycle trip at Christmas.
Leaving town Boxing Day am and returning New Years Day pm. Only a week
but should be good. Suggested itinerary
includes Hiawatha, (Gippsland) Noojee, Woods Point, Matlock, Aberfeldie,
Walhalla, Dargo, Mt Hotham, Swifts Creek, Omeo, Bogong, Myrtleford, Eli, King
Valley, Mansfield, and Home. Not
sticking to a hard and fast timetable and working on the theory that it’s
better to travel than to arrive. Only
money needed will be for gas and goodies.
Camping all the way. Can be any
sex, colour or creed but age must be somewhere between 18 and 80. A reasonable bike and some camping gear is
essential, can bring your dog if it fits in your pack. If you’re a starter ring Don on 82-3791
during business hours.
____________________
CHRISTMAS BREAKUP
SATURDAY 5th DECEMBER
The Christmas breakup
will be held at the Healesville Hotel, Healesville. The time 5pm or thereafter in the bar for
pre-dinner drinks then about 6pm into the dining room for dinner. This will run to about $7.00 a head for a
three course meal. About 8pm there will
be a band to kick off the nights entertainment in the back room $2.00 per head
entrance. If you wish to stay overnight,
bed and breakfast at one of the motels will run to about $28.00 per double. If
you want any more info contact Keith Harris on 478-3982 A.H. See you there!
____________________
Don’t
forget write-ups and letters to the Editors, Faye and Geoff Morgan, 246 Gap Rd,
Sunbury. 3429.
____________________
NAVAGATION &
RELIABILITY TRIAL Sunday 13th
September.
We
left KBCP about 9.30 after some initial briefing from organizer Tom Saville on
the day’s fun. Proceeding out the
Eastern Freeway to Templestowe and Warrandyte then to Kangaroo Ground where we
stopped at the Yarra Glen turn off.
Travelling some of the way in company of Mick (My bike don’t wallow)
Fagan. It’s most interesting to watch an
R80 GS 0 BMW “NOT” wallowing on trials uni tyres through fast sweeping corners.
Anyway
back to the event. At Kangaroo Ground
the ride split into two, one group comprising Frank, R80 GA; Mick, R80 GS; Ted,
Honda 250 RS; Bruce, Kwaka 500 and me R75/7; were for the hard run. The others, mostly lead wings and assorted
oriental heavy metal, wisely chose the not so difficult course.
The
first section being a navigation test at an average speed of 50 kph through
most of the back roads from Kangaroo Ground to Yarra Glen and on to
Toolangi. Not knowing the actual
distance to the first control it was essential to keep an eye on the clock and
odometer to gauge the 50kmp average speed.
Oh yes just to make things interesting participants were sent off at 2
minute intervals. One individual trying
to lead another astray stuffed himself up, and it was not me. 15km into the State Forest from Toolangi
there was Les Leahy at the first control.
Ted and myself coming in spot on time.
The
next section was in some fairly rugged bush tracks plus an observed section, at
an average speed of 25kph. The 25kph may
sound easy but the tracks were not.
Leaving the control proved to be fun on wet grass but after a couple of
tries I was under way. It was quite easy
following the markers along the tracks to the first decent. This little number while not being super
steep had a liberal sprinkling of large rocks and loose dirt. I got down intact although at one stage I
nearly had to bail out, involuntary of course.
Now
the observed section bit. Well it
started with a 45deg drop of about 5 to 6ft from the road with a 90 deg left
turn at the bottom to miss a neatly placed log.
Followed by a straight run of some 50 yards of tree branches, rocks and
logs neatly arranged by Craig. A right
turn then downhill for some 200 yards over much the same type of ground. Ok here we go over the edge, front wheel digs
into the soft earth and Keithy jumps over the bars, BM goes down engine
screaming. Fortunately Craig quickly
hits the kill switch, thanks mate! Pick
up bike, red face and continue. No
further trouble apart from clouting a log with right crash bar, pushing it back
onto the cylinder. Now back on something
resembling a road and a flat out run down the Narbethong trying to make up lost
time.
At
Narbethong I’m greeted by Jude who notes my arrival time and here we have 2
more tests along the lines of do you know your bike. Firstly guess your tyre pressures then
measure with tyre gauge followed by fill your petrol tank and guess how
much. Thus finished the day’s competition. This was followed by lunch while the
organizers figured out the results.
After
lunch the club once again divided, with the more dirt oriented riders heading
for the bush while the others returned to town by a more civilized route to
finish an excellent day.
Keith
Harris, R75/7 today!
____________________
MALDON SPRING FESTIVAL
A beautiful sunny
morning saw Ian and I heading off to K.B.C.P. , picking up Keith and Jude on
the way. Upon arriving at Jude’s, I
assured her that indeed it was a nice day to be put on the bike. Ten minutes later we were on our way with
Keithy leading us into the city via the boulevard.
Quite a shock awaited me
at K.B.C.P. Jude and I were astounded to
see very few familiar faces there, in fact, most of them, we’d never seen
before. Just shows how quickly you lose
contact, if not riding consistently each Sunday. We really felt like a couple of ‘old’
semi-retired members! Well, I suppose 4
years membership almost puts you in that category which leads me to ponder on the
‘vintage’ of other, even older members!
Well, Keith and Jude
led, and Les was rear rider. By the time
we were out of the city things started getting colder (God will I never learn?)
and colder. Setting a nice speedy
pace Keith led us through the Bulla Hills to New Gisborne, the Black Forest and
onto the Calder, where we stopped at Taradale (just outside Castlemaine) for
petrol and refreshments.
Several kitkats and
coffee later our rear rider appeared, with the news that Bruce Faldon had
broken down and had headed for home.
Another coffee and we were off again heading through Castlemaine and out
to Maldon.
A brief burst of
sunshine heralded our arrival. After
shedding our numerous garments and waited whilst Jude had another life
sustaining coffee, we headed off for a look see, keeping in mind that we had to
be back by 2pm. Numerous craft shops had
their doors open to the public and we viewed a host of beautiful pottery and
home spun garments. I was disappointed
that (a) there was very little originality and design in the leather work and
(b) the prices were indeed indicative of the ‘killing’ the owners hoped to make
on the tourists.
Hunger pangs were
quickly saited by a generous, (if not unwholesome) helping of Boston bun with
pink icing (courtesy of Mr Leahy) and sponge cake (courtesy of Mrs
Wallis). We were then treated to 20
minutes of Bagpipe playing by the Maryborough Pipe Band most enjoyable and
colourful. Jude was treated to a peeping
tom in the ladies toilet and Les was seen getting into the true festival spirit
by accepting a flower to wear in his belstaff.
It was 3pm by the time
we all regrouped and headed for home with Keith again in the lead. Owing to the doom laden sky our trip home was
both direct and speedy with no mishaps.
Ian & Lynne R90/S
____________________
GARY YOUNG’S SPECIAL TOUR
Our leader got there
right on the knocker, 10am, with his pretty little girl on board. He took us out the Sth Eastern Freeway, where
at the end of it Sue decided to pull out as her Motto Guzzi was feeling a bit
sick. Heading up towards the Gully, we
then went via Emerald and the Cardinia Dam, then took some back roads to
Launching Place, where we went across to Healesville through the Black Spur to
Buxton, there having morning tea and filling up with petrol. While here Craig and Brian (BMW’s) left us to
come home. We continued on to Alexandra
then started to tour through Frasers National Park. At a sharp right hander an intending new
member, came off his CX500. He was
somewhat sore but ok. With a good ˝ hour spent re-aligning the front end we finally
got going again, competing with a lot of dirt before hitting the main road back
to Melbourne.
After Bonnie Doon, we
turned off going through the Strathbogie Ranges and finishing up at “Polly
Quins” for lunch.
Lunch over, time to
continue, down through Merton, where we fuelled our bikes and ourselves. We headed back to Lilydale where we
dispersed, after going via Yea and the Dickson’s Creek road. Thanks to Gary for inviting me back for tea,
after what was a pleasant day’s ride, with the weather near perfect.
“Big Daddy” 750/4, R/65
____________________
TREASURES NIGHT RIDE
Eleven eager souls
awaited the 7-30 departure time; after a brief rundown of our corner marker
system for the benefit of our two visitors, we set off up Flinders St then down
to the Eastern Freeway to put a little distance between us and the Saturday
night city crush.
From the end of the
freeway we headed through Templestowe to Warrandyte, and then turned off onto
Jumping Creek road, quite a nice piece of road, hilly and twisty with a posted
75 limit, obviously meant as a personal insult!
We then emerged onto the
Maroondah Hwy just before Lilydale where we picked up another visitor to swell
our numbers to the even dozen. Montrose
loomed then the road really became interesting as we took the Olinda turn off
and followed through to Monbulk, Emerald and Gembrook, twisty all the way,
great bike territory.
As it was still early we
took a detour to Upper Pakenham, then over some reasonable dirt (we never seem
to go anywhere without some dirt, I wonder why?) to a short stop for a leak
(‘It was dark officer’) or a smoke at the intersection of the Beaconsfield –
Emerald road.
Back into Emerald we
went then toured via Clematis to the urban sprawl at Rowville. Some of the thirstier bikes required a top-up
before we called it a night over a coffee and a chin wag at Dandenong Road.
Phil Duffy
Lead Wing & Chair.
____________________
1981 M.T.C.V. FUEL ECONOM TEST RESULTS
1st Phillip
Duffy & Son 650
Kawasaki 33.8kpl
2nd Bruce
Faldon 750
B.M.W. 24.4kpl
3rd Keith
Harris 1000
B.M.W. 24.9kpl
4th Mick
Fagan GS
80 B.M.W. 24.2kpl
5th Gary
Young & Andrea 1000/S
B.M.W. 22.9kpl
6th Keith
Finlay 1000
Kawasaki 22.6kpl
7th Jack
Youdan CBX
1000 Honda 22.4kpl
8th Frank
Bloxham GS
80 B.M.W. 21.9kpl
9th Mark
Lapirow XV
1000 Yamaha 21.7kpl
10th Ian
& Lynne Taylor 900S
B.M.W. 20.9kpl
11th Chris
Negus & Debbie Snell 1000
RS B.M.W. 19.9kpl
12th Tony
Daly lost
in action
____________________
TASMANIAN TOUR 1981
Hi. Well the main
reason for writing this belated story of our trip to Tassie (last Christmas for
God’s sake) is the Editors threat to put blank sheets in the mag ‘coz there’s
not enough news to print. Probably most
members of the M.T.C.V. have been ‘across the water’ with their bikes, but for
those who haven’t it could be of some interest if they are planning such a
journey. For started, let me say we had
a fantastic time. The weather was
perfect, in fact it was the hottest summer for ten years, and when it’s hot in
Tassie it’s really hot. They don’t have
air conditioners over there, only heaters.
The place is like Pommie land in more ways than one. Anyhow when you’re camping, what the
heck. Who needs it? To anyone contemplating touring Tassie by
motorbike I say ‘go instantly, don’t hesitate’.
It’s like Melbourne used to be 20 years ago. No fuss, no rush, hardly any cars and very
good, very cheap take away food. We met
lots of other bikers on the trip, all with different bikes, different
appearances and different stories but all with same easy going laid-back biker
attitude. Top people, if you’re a Harley
person you’d be well catered for in Launceston, I’ve never seen so many
stump-pullin’ great American freedom machines gathered together in such a small
place. All told, in three weeks we
covered just under 4000kms and travelled just about every road on the island
(or so it seemed) and saw the majority of the towns both big and small. No one place was better than the rest, just
different and I’d be hard pushed to put a finger on the ‘high-light’ of the
trip. However the biggest downer for
sure was the camping ground at Cradle Mountain.
More on that later. O.K. Here
goes:- Boxing day arvo saw amongst the usual contingent of tin tops about 50
motorcycles loaded into the bowels of the “Empress”. Two were ours. The crossing which we were told was one of
the roughest in five years got progressively worse as the night wore on. By 9pm the port deck was out of bounds and
the best place to seek refuge was the lounge.
Much good talk abounded there, mainly about bikes and birds and the jugs
weren’t hanging around too long.
By the next morning Jan was near the death and green as a
KL250, the dogs in the cages on the top deck all thought they were headed for
that big club house in the sky and only a handful of people turned up for
brekkie. A pit really as it was very
good and quite free. Anyhow I wasn’t
feeling too bad and by 8am I’d put away a decent style of a feed. Anyhow I wasn’t feeling to bad and by 8am I’d
put away a decent style of a feed, by 8.15 it was on its way back to Melbourne
and by 8.30 I’d got outside another serve of bangers and mash and no more
problems. Perseverance that’s the key. On the first day ashore we headed west to
Boat Harbour and many points in between.
Six bells brought crayfish, French bread and cold cans of tea and soon
took our minds off the fact that we were fairly damp after riding round in the
rain for seven hours. Still raining and
blowing hard and cold we pulled into Stanley, the next morning we said goodbye
to Steve and Werner XL5000’s after checking the place out and nearly getting
blown off the ‘Nut”. We set off then to
the Pieman River on the west coast and the boys set off to Smithtown for some
rugged off roading. We didn’t know it at the time but we weren’t to meet up
with those guys again till the boat trip home.
Our wanderings took us in a roundabout sort of way to the
Pieman River. The track was like any
rally site you’ve been too. We hit the
camp area at dusk fairly wet and cold as it hadn’t stopped raining all day
again. Log cabins there were only $2.50 per night per person so we indulged
ourselves a little and dried out in front of the biggest fire ever.
As we left the next afternoon the sun started shining and
heralded the hottest Tasmanian summer in ten years. We checked out Roseberry, Zeehan, Queenstown
Derwent-Bridge and set up camp for a couple of days at Lake St Clair. The Derwent-Bridge pub gets our vote as the
best watering hole in Tassie and it’s interesting to note that it is owned by
the Forestry people who also control the National Parks. Under a shady oak tree we met a New South
Welshman who had just finished rebuilding his CX500 after busting a cam chain
tensioner (funny, never heard of that before).
At Lake St Clair we wore ourselves out in grand style climbing a
mountain (I think it was Mt Rufus) and taking long walks etc. This place rates as an absolute must. 5 stars.
Actually it has looked better than when we saw it as it had just been
ravaged by bushfire. As you were, go
back three paces, in point of fact the night after the Pieman, found us at
Strahan on the west coast. We took an
all day tour up the Gordon River, saw some Huon Pine trees and saw a movie on
“Saving the Franklyn River”. Later that
night we met Polly and Ray form Adelaide astride a 750 Suzuki Waterbottle with
a worn out rear tyre and a very noisy muffler, they were doing every inch of
Tasmania in 5 days, she drove, he packed behind with the gear. They didn’t talk much, they had to go. One more word on Lake St Clair, I think that
place must be a top number for trout fisherman as we met a couple of guys there
who had towed their boats all the way from Queensland just to fish the lake.
Lake Pedder called us after a day or two. Strathgordon as a town wasn’t worth visiting
but the trip by road is motorcycling at its best. Utopia, New Norfolk, Hobart surrounding
suburbs didn’t hold our interests for too long so we putted on to Port
Arthur. A word of advice here on Port
Arthur. Whilst it’s a must for all
tourists, and a top place to see, if you’re planning on doing the prison tour
make sure you are in the first intake at 9am because at 11am about two million
buses arrive, and disgorge more little old ladies and little old men than you
ever thought existed in this entire world.
North was where the action was, we figured, so we headed inland through
some very historic old towns of great architectural interest. To name but a few Richmond, Ross,
Campbelltown and on to Launceston.
Now Launceston is big on lots of things but very skinny on
camping spots. By far and away the best
is Longford, about 15Km’s south and one of the best camp spots on the
island. This was the place where we
first met B-M-Frank and Bill Guzzi their mounts you guess. It happened like this, we had decided to stay
there a few days and use the place as our base, well, they were watching them
prepare for a ride when Bill decided to warm his motor up, instead of
straddling the bike he just switched it on, leaned across the tank and hit the
electric foot, the old spaghetti burner fired up first shot. Well all that was ok except that it was on
the side stand and in first gear, it was cool fun watching their tent get half
demolished by a runaway SP1000. Anyhow
when we finished rolling around on the ground we went over to lend a hand and
there started a week long association that was bulk fun from sunup to
sundown. Bill Guzzi was an ex Merchant
Navy Seaman. A wind breakin’,
rollickin’, joke crackin’, fun lovin’ crazy Dutchman. Frank was a trifle more subdued. Both were bikers in the true sense of the
word. Together we toured Launceston,
Evandale, and all points around. We saw
Entally House and other old homes, played with the monkeys in the park went
swimming, fishing, exploring at night, scabbed around, consumed numerous malt
sandwiches and generally had a ball. We
cried uncle after five days. The boys went to Hobart, Jan and I went to Cradle
Mountain. What an awful bloody trip that
was 75 km’s each way of the roughest road you’d ever find. Jan got a blow-out on the way it was Sunday,
nothing open so we had to patch it and rebuild the tube, no big deal really but
we had to load the heavy stuff on to my bike just incase and had no more
problems. We limped into the Cradle Mt
camp area about 8pm, ate, put the tent up and crashed. The next morning when I woke up my hands were
covered in blood, likewise my face, neck and feet. I thought the grim reaper had come looking
for me during the night. Also I noticed
I had developed these dreadful black spots all over me. After a closer examination which took a
quarter of a second I could see they were leeches. They were all over everything. We thought we must be in a swamp or
something. Shift the tent quick. We did all that but before we had the tent
erected on the new site our legs were covered in leeches. 1981 was a good year for leeches. They won that round.
We packed everything up, loaded the bikes, took a six hour
hike up Cradle Mountain then split straight out of the place. As a foot note when we got back from our hike
practically the entire place was empty, funny that eh? Going back to Sheffield we stopped on a lonely
winding for a billy of tea and a smoke when we heard what we thought was a Boeing
727, as it happened, it turned out to be about 30 blokes on Choppers. They all wore cut offs, ear-rings and bones
in the noses etc and when they spotted us sitting under a tree they ground to a
halt alongside us. None of them looked
as if they had been to bed for about six years.
I thought to myself “what the bloody hell’s this”, as luck had it one
was from Melbourne and when he spotted our M.R.A. badges he declared us
brothers. A few anxious moments but no
real problems. We chewed the fat with them
for an hour or so then we had to move on as we were meeting Bill and Frank in
the next town.
That night in the pub at the foot of Mt Roland we let the
good times roll, we’d met up with some other bikers from Melbourne as well as
the boys and we made that much noise in the lounge that the Publican stuck his
head round the door and asked us if everything was all right.
In our last week we toured the east coast looking at St
Helens, St Marys, Bicheno, Scottsdale and then the north coast and anywhere
else we thought we hadn’t been. As they
say in the States “we just keep on pullin’ clutch”. We said goodbye to all our mates, got aboard
the boat for home and who should be waiting for us in the lounge? Steve and
Werner XL 500’s.
“Life in the best lane”
Don 650 Yam
____________________
FOR SALE
White BMW 75/5 Long wheel base model
Registered to 9/11/1982.
Good tyres, new battery, stainless steel mufflers heavy duty
front and rear springs, Halogen headlight.
Has done genuine 51,500 miles.
EXTRAS INCLUDE;- Driving light, Crash bar, Ressley panniers
and rack, rack above each cylinder.
It is running beautifully.
The only reason for selling is set up for two-up touring and it is
rarely used.
All I ask is $2150.00
If interested contact Greg Moore on 057-732228
____________________
Just a few lines regarding the content of this mag. It seems that last month’s editorial evoked a
positive reaction, from at least one person.
He put pen to paper and promptly filled five pages of the mag. Sure it is of a personal trip but as members
of a touring club I would imagine most will find it good reading (I did). We have but perhaps half a dozen members who
will feed us an article like this. How
about a few more getting in on the act?
Don’t be afraid if they are a bit long, we’ll serialize them if
necessary! With a bit of luck this month’s contribution will have started a fad
– thanks Don.
Geoff
____________________
FOR SALE
English made Fibreglass Chaincase (fully encloses chain) to
suit Honda CB750 K1-K6. $27.00. Contact Phil Duffy 311-1013 or Geoff Morgan
744-1189.
____________________