October 2002 Who’s News

 

The MTCV Home Page has taken 340 hits during October and 13,809 since April 1996. The new itinerary is up. We continue to generate new members via the web and quite a bit of email. Check out the visitors’ page which can be used as a bulletin board, eg Darryl Otzen’s medical status was updated daily

 

Seen at the October Social Sip: Bruce Saville, Martin Hastie and Carmen DeBono, Ben and Julie Warden, Peter Philferan, Darryl Otzen, Ron Johnston, Mark Easterbrook, Phil Richards, Ian Payne and Trevor Harris.  A total of 12, the lowest for a while, but expected for the wettest month of the year.
 

Darryl Otzen has a new KTM640 SuperMotard. He had it on display at the Social Sip. Certainly a trick piece of kit. Alas he crashed it on the following Sunday’s ride. I reported on the web visitors page:

"Dicky crashed his new KTM640 Supermotard between Cumberland Junction and Marysville yesterday on the Club ride. (Lost traction front and rear entering downhill corner.) Ambulance to Maroondah Hospital, transfer to Austin today. Vertebra T8 fractured, estimated 2 weeks in hospital, no spinal cord damage. Two other bikes parked close by toppled over into ditch creating spectacular scene. KTM wiring damaged and bike unstartable. Rolled, towed and left in Marysville to be picked up later this week. Thanks to all those people who stayed at the accident scene and provided assistance. The Club wishes Dicky a speedy and full recovery. Ben Warden (for the Committee)".

 

A week later Dicky responded with:

"Seems I'm not as invincible as I thought I was. I was going really well, till I crashed. My back hurts. It may be a long time before I can ride again. Thanks to Mark, Mike, Tom and Andi, and all others who helped out. Time for some more drugs...."  Dicky the groaning idiot.

Since then he has improved out of sight and is up and walking around with a back brace.

 

Mike Sampson was also involved in Dicky’s get off incident. (Every time I try and sting him for a membership he crashes and disappears for six months. Next time!) Mike’s recently rebuilt VFR800 toppled over in sympathy, as did Dianne’s CBR600, when they stopped to assist, the camber of the road catching them out. When I arrived shortly after there were three bikes upside down in the ditch creating an extraordinary scene. I emailed Mike during the week to see how he pulled up. Here is his response:

I fixed it all last night.  I pulled some pieces off the fairing (dash surround, screen, mirrors etc.) until I could get to the steel tube bracket (ie. the main fairing support - which was bent in and down).  I then got a lever on it and straightened it back to its right position ( lots of elbow grease and Joan holding the bike on its centre stand).  I polished out some minor scuffing under the seat on the tailpiece.  There were some (more) minor scratches on one of the mirror backs.  Luckily the fairing plastics weren't cracked, so everything looks pretty good now. I'm getting pretty good at pulling the fairing apart these days.  I did all my own repairs after the Granya crash and learned a lot from that exercise.

 

Phil Richards has traded his CBR1000 for a new TRX850. Any moment now he is going to come for a ride on it!

 

Ian Payne has a traded in his 1999 Blade on a new 2001 navy blue CBR929RR. Differences include fuel injection, upside down forks, 17 inch front wheel, fuel injection, more power, lower screen, security ignition, and lighter weight.  A new model in all but name. If he rides it anywhere near as well as he does the old one, he’ll be a devil to catch, particularly on our annual Mt Wallace Hill Climb. Expect to see more of him over the warmer months.

 

Tasmania Trip: as outlined in the meeting minutes we are investigating going to Tasmania in mid to late February. Nominal boat cost: cruise seat $200 return, twin cabin $410 return, 4 berth cabin $364. Details will be sorted out in the next couple of weeks. One option would be to travel during the day on the weekend, on the cheap seats, available until the 27th April. More details to follow. Those keen should let Ben or Ian know so that numbers can be crunched.  We are looking at 5 or 6 days duration.

 

The Points System, as promised, brought up to date. The top participants last month were Ben (25), Liz (22), Pete (21), Ron (19.5), Rob (16) and Ian (14.5). There has been some movement with Pete and Liz disappearing overseas. The top participants now read Ben Warden 39 (Blade), Ron Johnston 30.5 (Bandit 1200), Rob Langer 27 (BM1150GS), Pete Weyermayr and Liz Oliver both 24 (Blades), Ian Payne 22.5 (Blade), Geoff Jones 18 (R1), Mark Easterbrook 16 (Ducati 750SS) and Di Welsford 13 (CBR600).

 

Ron Johnston caught up with Dave Hives at the Philip Island MotoGP.  As a reminder, Dave crashed his ZX9 heading up Mt Baw Baw on September 15th, riding with the Club. Not being a member, we had no way of contacting him. Nevertheless, he has been a fringe dweller for so many years he almost counts as a member. Ron reports he suffered two broken ribs and, not surprisingly, the bike was written off. Dave picked up a new 2002 ZX9 on Friday, purple/blue in colour, and has already ridden 200 kilometres on it. Third time lucky, we hope. Dave said they got home at 11.30 pm that night after picking up the bike.

 

Mathew Clarke has traded his baby Blade in on a new red and white 2002 Suzuki GSXR 750. We look forward to seeing him on it and a Club ride soon. Won’t Kate be envious.

 

Belated congratulations to Mick Bosworth and partner, proud parents of a four month old daughter. That kinda explains why we haven’t seen him for a while.

 

News from Pete and Liz:

 

Hi everyone, we have just hit paradise - Lucerne in Switzerland. It is so beautiful and clean. The scenery is amazing, the air smells good, and it appears peaceful and organised - not to mention safe. In fact it seems to be the exact opposite of Italy. Not that we didn’t enjoy Italy - we loved Rome and Venice especially. Venice was magic at night. But it was all so hectic and touristy. The traffic was mad, the gypsies were everywhere so you had to hang on to your stuff and watch out all the time. People were always trying to trick you in to buying things or giving them money.

 

Our tour is great. Only 27 people on our tour - the majority are Aussies from Sydney :(, 2 from Canberra, one from Adelaide, 1 other from Melbourne, 2 Americans, 2 Porta Ricans, 5 Canadians. We are the only Kiwis (although we kind of slip in with the Aussies), apart from our tour guide who is from Dunedin but now lives in Amsterdam. He is a history buff so we have had over 2000 years of history in the last 2 weeks. Everyone is  aged between 20 - 40 years old and gets on really well.

 

We can’t believe how much we have managed to pack into the little time we have had in each city. This morning we went up Mount Pilatus. It was beautiful. We caught the Gondalas up and the cog railway on the way down. Steep - 48 deg. Spectacular.

 

Pete now knows how to say beer in quite a few different languages with the only tricky one being Spanish. I have finally found some cider today (Apfelwein), but it doesn’t matter as wine is fairly easy to say in most languages. The food has also been fantastic and both of us are having trouble doing our jeans up. Yum yum. Better go as we are running out of time and need to buy some Swiss chocolate. See you all later. Love Liz  and Pete.

 

23rd October,  Pete and Liz again:

 

Hi everyone, Had a cool time in Prague (literally). The weather has noticeably cooled off in the last week and a half. Prague is an interesting place - they have done a lot of cleaning up since the floods, but a lot of things are still closed. Some things like the Metro will be closed for a year!

 

Our friends, Katja and Greg and their two kids, Marcus and Lauren, were great. They looked after us extremely well and showed us the local sights. I even attended an aerobics class (with Katja) in Czech. We were always one step behind! The language is impossible.

 

Now in Austria with The Family. They are mad! So much fun - language not too much of a barrier. Some of the younger ones (our age) speak some English. We understand a little German. And everyone just yells and uses sign language. We haven’t laughed so much for ages.

 

We spent about 4 days in Vienna and are now traveling around and will end up in Salzburg on Friday. Then Sat back to London. Time is limited. Better go.

Liz & Pete.

 

Email from Rhys Williams re his day at the MotoGP, Phillip Island:

 

Ben... it was the best. I had full circuit access for the bike, just rode in and was waved through straight into the tunnel and parked at the Superbike pits. Met, Brocky, Kirran Perkins, and Gene Simmons (Kiss). I had a great chat to Murray..? who runs Team Kawasaki Australia.   Kawasaki are fielding two bikes in the Supers next year.  I spent some time in the Kwaka garage and had a good talk with Andrew Pitt. (Former World Super sport champion …Ed.). The Dunlop guy told us McCoy wouldn't make 10 laps, the tyre he wanted was the softest they make....guess he was right! (McCoy’s tyre chunked after about 8 laps and he retired …Ed.) My son Curtis seems to have landed an IT role with Kawasaki Australia. At the moment it depends on whether they can come up with the right package.....I told him "take it anyway".........So I obviously a had a fantastic time with unbelievable access.

 

Late breaking news: Rhys Williams had a lucky escape on the Walwa Resort ride last Melbourne Cup weekend away. On day three he crashed his Kawasaki ZX9 when he failed to negotiate a bend on the Snowy Mountains Highway – at a fair speed. The bike somersaulted landing upside down on the gearsack bag/rack and fairing screen in soft tullocky grass, amazingly avoiding all the nearby rocks. The bike was completely rideable sustaining minor cosmetic damage – blinker, mirror, scratches to panels and tank. It took eight (mainly passing motorists) to push the bike back up the 5 metre embankment and on to the road. Rhys landed on his back, suffering only the occasional knock and bruise. Panadol and Nurifen saw him able to continue riding, albeit at a more sedate pace – until the last day Happy Valley Road, where he cut loose resulting in a grin from ear to ear at the Myrtleford fuel stop. Go Rhys!