Who’s News                March 2010

The Club web site at www.melbsportsbike.net.au accumulated 668 hits during March, down 142 on last month. Total visits are 59,092 since April 1996. The counters on the other pages after another month indicate that the Calendar page took 660 hits (total 9235 since 28th October 2008) and Great Roads 117 hits (total 2724).

Seen at the Social Sip, Marks Place on Thursday 4th March: Julie and Ben Warden, Trevor and Barbara Rolfe Harris, Barb and Cliff Peters, Kate Stewart and John Rousseaux, Ron Johnston, Kurn Bridgeman, Ian Payne, Paul Southwell, Peter Philferan, Peter Feistl and Cindy Lee. 15 people

The Club Participant of the Year is based on aggregate points accumulated at 1 point per ride, an extra point for leading or being rear rider, and 1 point per magazine article (maximum 2 per magazine). Attending one or more days of a weekend event scores 3 points for leading, 3 for rear riding duties and 2 points for participating.

The count is for the 2009/10 year ending the ride before the 2010 AGM in July. After nine months, the top ten count is Ben Warden (77), Ha Du (61), Pina Garasi (59), Ron Johnston (54), Ian Payne (45), Dave Ward (45), Cliff Peters (41), Dennis Lindemann (38), Paul Southwell (32), and Misho Zrakic (33). No change to the relative positions this month.

Front Cover.  Photo taken on the Mt Baw Baw ride, Sunday 14th March, Main St Moe. Back Row: Rod Boulter, Damir Djikic, Phil Hotschilt, Damian Jones, Dave Ward, John Rousseaux, Dennis Lindemann. Front Row: Ron Johnston, Chris Pointon, Pina Garasi, Cliff Peters, Henry Wright, Ian Payne and Jason Wilson. Ben Warden behind the lens.

Email from Dave Chisma:  My wife Gail and I have booked a 3-bedroom house in Cowes for a week for the MotoGP and we're looking to fill two of the bedrooms (one double and two singles) for a flat fee of $500 for each bedroom (up to 7 nights). We plan to have no more than 6 adult non-smokers (including us).  Dave can be contacted on mobile 0407 304 901 or email [email protected]

Membership now stands at 81.  Official kilometres for the month: 1680 km. Official Club kilomtres for the month (people x ride length): 21,730 km We had no crashes for the month’s 5 rides.

You’ll notice that all incidents have been removed from the public facing 2010 Rides web page. These historical records will be maintained in an Incident Log, but only viewable by members in the Members area.  The Incident Log is not there yet.

Dennis Lindemann can’t lead his Noojee Ride on April 25th due to moving house. Any volunteers? The proposed route is up on the web which may assist you in deciding.

The Club is publishing both General and Committee Meeting minutes in the Members area. Pretty messy at the moment but will improve with time.

Barb Peters has volunteered to retype old magazines and they will appear in the Members area as well. This is a very long term project.

We are also developing a Bio Page for the Committee members so you know who’s who in the zoo. 

The Club Risk Policy has been reviewed (annually, every March) and a number of minor changes have been made. In the next few weeks the final tweaks should be incorporated. Part of the Risk Review identified that the rear rider was not being given the list of ICE numbers. The leader is responsible for ensuring that the rear rider has these numbers at the start of the ride. That means they can coerce someone else to collect names and numbers or to assist collecting.

The Committee will develop a Cancellation Policy for long weekends, Christmas Camp and Tassy trips. Typically it will mimic the external accommodation/boat cancellation policies and be developed alongside the costs proposals. There will be a different Cancellation Policy per event.

The Committee is considering purchasing T-shirts with the Club logo on the front and our name change history on the back, similar to those produced for the 50th Anniversary. The price will be in the range of $15-20 depending on numbers. If you are interested please advise what size and how many. We will probably get black writing on white background, nominally “white”; white writing on black background, nominally “black”. We could also get “grey” and “navy blue”. If you want 15 red ones, we can do that too.

Pina Garasi has bought a brand new Honda CBR600. Here are a few of her thoughts regarding the passing of the R6.

2004 Noojee - a group of riders pulled up and there it was… the R6. It was love at first sight.  I left my number if ever he wished to sell; the call came mid-year and the deal was done.  Many kilometres of good fun were had until the R6 started to feel the burden of riding with the MSR Hard-cores. And so the troubles began: coils, stator, helicoiling the plugs, regulator.  It was time to part. I gave the R6 relationship everything I could.  So with some sadness I surrendered the R6 to be sold and purchased  a bike I had been resisting for two years - a Honda CBR600RR - only because it didn't excite me to look at. But I had enough evidence of the Honda reliability factor to convince me.  I see the CBR as an "arranged marriage"  A good match. We will grow fond of each other and love will surely blossom. 

Pina Garasi (missing my R6 with much sadness, but prepared to love again…)

 

Who’s Bruised?

Update: Danny Hawker (ZX10) crashed 28th Feb and broke every rear rib on his left side bar one; broken collar bone, lungs needed to be reinflated and a fractured cheek bone.  A week in The Alfred followed by a couple of weeks in Bethesda Rehab and then back to The Alfred to rebreak and plate the collarbone and then home. Still pretty sore but glad to be out of hospital. Itching to get going again.

Update: Cindy Lee (VTR250) crashed 21st Feb. 6 km north of Greendale.

I'm starting to get some controlled movement in my shoulder - about 30 degree rotation. After barely any progress in the first month, this is very exciting! There's still pain, and some days are worse (LIKE TODAY) than others. I'm now on a combination of anti-inflammatory and Panadeine Forte instead of the heavy duty opiate pain killers. Panadeine Forte used to make me feel woozy when I had to take it on previous occasions, but after being on pain killers for 1.5 months, my head feels normal most of the time ... but I guess not quite.  My mental state? oh.. errr ... great! except when I'm tired, cranky, sad, bored and frustrated. Naaa. I'm good. It's only going to get better.

I've had lunch with Ern a couple of times now where we have a nice whinge about the situation. That's been fun.

Just got back from the Fracture Clinic at RMH. Finally saw a post surgery x-ray. I have a plate running down along the bone from just below the humerus head and 6 screws. Scheisse!

My shoulder will never be the same so my cricket bowling career is over - who cares. It's just the Doc reckons it could be 9 months possibly even 12 months before I'm back on a bike. Double schiesse! I can't believe it takes so long! But it's still early days and hard to say. If I aim for 6 months; that'll mean I'll miss the worst of the cold weather.

Also 21st Feb, Rob Merrett (R1100S) crashed coming into Pyalong, suspect centre stand dug in levering front wheel off ground. He turned up to last Sunday’s ride (28/3) riding an immaculate BMW HP2 Sport. Lots of carbon and trick bling. His bike was definitely getting all the looks throughout the day. Welcome back Rod.

Paul Southwell has been for a few test rides and will be back riding with the Club soon. He has purchased Dave Ward’s CBR1000 as an interim bike until the price of BMW S1000RRs drop to something reasonable, hopefully in a year or so.