Who’s News May
2010
Happy Birthday Mr President! Ian Payne turned 60 on the 15th of May. He has been waiting for Dave Ward to return to Melbourne to pick up his hail damaged and now repaired Maloo ute to share the occasion. The moons and planets have aligned on Saturday the 5th June. Note: this is your last opportunity to say goodbye to Dave Ward as he will be working in Tasmania for the next 12 months. The plan is to celebrate this significant milestone, share a meal and a few laughs. If you have any memorabilia - photos, etc, please bring them along. Feel free to distribute to former members and friends of the MSR. The venue is the Baden Powell Hotel, 61 Victoria Parade, Collingwood, 6.30pm.
The Club web site at www.melbsportsbike.net.au accumulated 720 hits during May, down 31 on last month. Total visits are 60,563 since April 1996. The counters on the other pages after another month indicate that the Calendar page took 600 hits (total 10,451 since 28th October 2008) and Great Roads 134 hits (total 2989).
Membership now stands at 83. Official kilometres for
the month of May: 1578 km, down
532 from last month – 5 rides versus 6, one very wet, winter. Official Club
kilometres for the month (people x ride length): 18,669 km, down 9,991 on
last month. Winter is here.
We had one crash for the month’s 5 rides, first time rider Jon Low on a Ducati Monster 400 LAM. Pertinent facts: 1 month off Ls, 2000 km only riding experience, chasing very experienced riders on unknown roads (Woodleigh Loch Road), Wonthaggi Ride (30/5). Bike major cosmetic, rider mild concussion (4 hrs observation in Wonthaggi Hospital), failed to negotiate a bend, speared off the road over an embankment and through a barbed wire fence.
Seen at the Social Sip, Marks Place on Thursday 6th May: Julie and
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 eleven months, the top ten count is
Front Cover. Montage of 4 photos from the May rides. Top Left, Mt Donna Buang Lookout. Back row: Shane Byrne, Henry Wright, Cliff Peters, Peter Jones, Jean Yves, Jason Duff, Pina Garasi, Rod Boulter. Middle row: Peter Fisher, Darryl Mills, Ivan Radywonik. Kneeling: Pierre Ong, Ha Du. Bottom Left, McCalister River, Licola Ride. Back row: Damir Djikic, Mark Copeland, Cliff Peters, Pina Garasi, Dennis Lindemann, Tim Emons, Ron Johnston, Ken Goederee, Chris Pointon. Front Row: Geoff Shugg, Tony Raditsis, Pierre Ong, Edward Simonis, John Rousseaux. Top Right, Loch ride finish at Koo Wee Rup: Ron Johnston, Geoff Shugg, Cliff Peters, Henry Wright, Pina Garasi, Misho Zrakic. Bottom Right, Euroa. Jason Duff, Paul Southwell, Dennis Lindemann, Chris Pointon, Cliff Peters, Pina Garasi, Misho Zrakic.
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. So far the response has been fairly underwhelming with only 6 non-committee members responding.
Welcome to new member Shane Byrne riding a Hyosung GT650. He’s keen and is hanging in there, despite the culture shock. We wish him many safe and fun rides with the MSR.
Email from Tony Raditsis on Thursday 20th
May after his Aprilia RSV1000 drive chain joining
link clip failed, 10 km short of the Longwarry North finish on the Licola ride.
Left bike at a Jindivick
farmhouse, Tony pillioned with Mark Copeland (VTR1000) to Longwarry North, then with Ron Johnston
to his home.
In Tony’s
words: The RSV was collected on
Monday night with the help of “Rocket” Ronnie Johnston. His offer of assistance was much
appreciated as I had no trailer or car with a tow bar. Ron had all the
right gear and we had the bike up and secure in about 10 minutes. We also
had a very pleasant trip there and back. Top stuff and demonstrates why
being in such a great group of enthusiast is so much fun.
Things to note from Sunday 23 May Reefton Ride:
· No CBR1000s – an end of an era? (probably the first time in 3 years)
· 15 bikes, 9 different manufacturers
· As many BMs as Hondas (the Club went through a period of having lots of BMs in the 70s – back to the future?)
· Hondas make up only 20% (normally 50% or more) of the bikes
· Two delectable BMW S1000RRs (pronounced “double R” I am reliably informed)
· Jean Yves last seen on a 650 Silver Wing scooter, now 1200 BM. Man of extremes.
· Ivan back after his crash – swears Kevlar pants are protection and warm enough
· Henry Wright back from America
· Mr Peter Jones escaped from horse feeding duties
· Peter Fisher swapped VFR800 for the BM S1000RR – running it in
Email 13/5 from Barbara and Trevor Rolf Harris travelling around Europe: We spent three nights at Levanto. We were going to walk the Cinque Terre tracks but the bad weather meant that all but one of the tracks was closed. We walked around each of the villages and the track we could. We spoke to a few people who did not know that the track was closed until they had walked it. (No closed sign at the end they started at but a closed gate at the end). They all agreed that the tracks should be closed. There were bits that had washed out, parts that had rock slides over the track, and steps that were covered in torrents of water. We were glad that we had not done this ourselves. It rained most days.
We stopped in at Pisa to see the leaning tower. We chose not to climb it. I have had enough of stairs for a while :)
We then drove on to Firenze (Florence) and stayed the night. There was a big storm as we drove into town. It is not easy to work out where to go when it is hard to see because of the rain. We have also worked out that our SatNav is not very up to date with Italy.
Our hotel had a terrace on the roof. Trevor and I thought we would go up and see what we could see and take some photos of Florence. As soon as the door closed I realised that it had locked. We tried the door. It was locked. I pressed what looked like a buzzer. It just beeped at me. Trevor pressed the buzzer a few times. It just beeped at him.
We decided not to get worried and take some pictures and worry about the door later. We were at the other end of the terrace when I heard the door click. Another couple had come up. And you guessed correctly - they let the door shut too. A few more presses of the buzzer, and a few more beeps. The other couple were Asian and did not speak much English. So it was hard to explain what had happened.
About 15 minutes later one of the guys from the hotel came up and rescued us. He explained to us that we needed to press the buzzer. We explained that we had been doing that and it just beeped at us. He then tried it and it beeped at him. It had stopped working because of the storm. We found out later that the hotels Internet also was out because of the storm.
The next morning we set out to find the statue of David. We decided, after walking for about an hour, that we did not actually have time to see it. We then decided to wonder the streets some more. We did see a practice David and did not have to line up for three hours to do so.
We then drove to Rimini where we stayed the night near San Marino. And spent the next day in San Marino, an interesting country with an interesting history. I will let you look it up. We had fun trying to buy stamps in a post office. Ended up with one of the locals telling me it was faster and easier to go to the tobacconist across the street, so I did that. This was faster and a lot more fun. Have you ever tried to mime what a stamp is? The gentleman on the counter spoke about as much English as we did Italian, but we got there in the end and had fun on the way.
We are now in Venice, the second of three nights. We walked over to San Marco today and spent a lot of time looking in shops at Venice glass and masks. I have found some metal lace masks that I can wear with my glasses. Two will be in the post tomorrow :)
We are going to the glass blowing at Murano tomorrow and spending time on the local water buses tomorrow. All is well :)
Email from Cindy Lee regarding her recent purchase of a Suzuki GSXR750: It’s mine! Seller was near Melton so Geoff Jones came with me. And Ivan with his sore knee went with me to collect it! I can’t thank you enough, guys.
It wasn't a track bike. With 27,000 km on the clock, it looks in pretty good condition. I just need to spend a bit of money getting it registered, seat reshaped (it's a bit higher and wider than the later models), and get the bike fully serviced and set up for me... oh, and get better. Three more months I think. Then practice! Practice! Practice!
Yoshimura exhaust! Finally a bike that doesn't sound like a whimpy lawn mower. Life is good!