Hi there,
last weekend I went to the Ulysses club organized Golden Dragon Rally held at the Tarnagulla Recreation Ground. With Friday being a public holiday due to Saturdays AFL grand final (Our labor premier sucking up to his union mates by giving them a day off in order to 'attend the AFL grand final parade'). I would be surprised if ANY union members attended the parade, electing instead to watch it on TV while they sink Copious amounts of alcoholic beverages around the BBQ.
Anyways, Friday was a day off so we could get a head start on the weekend. The gates opened at 9am, but I didn't get there until around 4pm., selecting a campsite just inside the rail of the footy ground right next to someone I later found out was a Collingwood fan.
This was my mistake
The problem with Collingwood being in the grand final is their supporters. In the case of a loss, Collingwood supporters will commiserate with each other, drink heavily, get loud and then be a pain in the arse to everyone. On the other hand, if Collingwood wins, the supporters will celebrate, drink heavily, get loud and become a pain in the arse to everyone. Either way, the vast majority of the rally attendees lose out.
Thankfully My local Collingwood supporter (who was only set up 10' away from me) Got pissed on Saturday morning (an early start) and made a pain in the arse of himself and then cracked the shits when the president of the local Ulysses chapter had a few words with him about his behavior towards some of the women there. This led to him packing up his stuff and moving to the opposite side of the recreation ground. I felt I dodged a bit of a bullet there.
As far as rallies go it was unlike the rallies I have attended in the past. At this particular rally, they had CARAVANS! Who the hell takes a Caravan to a motorcycle rally. For that matter, who brings a trike that is powered not by a motorcycle engine, but by a ford focus or a Peugeot engine and gearbox? The answer is 50+year old members of Ulysses club. What's more, some people in the caravans brought their dogs along as well. MADNESS I tell you. Then when some people started letting off fireworks (an activity more befitting a motorcycle rally in my book anyway) one particularly brainless dog (a white samoyed) went mad. pulled away from its mistress tore off into the bush dragging its lead behind it.
The next morning (Sunday morning), the dog still had not returned and its owner was beside herself with grief. Too much Drama.
Somehow I can't see myself going to any more rallies put on by the Ulysses club. I just don't fit in, I would never own a trike that was powered by a car engine, and I will NEVER own a caravan.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Monday, October 1, 2018
The Story Thus Far
Hi there and welcome to my little corner of the blog. First a little about me
I started riding later I life (I was about 27 when I got my 'L' plates), and despite this, when I found motorcycles, I found something that was missing in my life and have been mad keen on motorcycles ever since, racking up around 30,000km a year, (although a little less than this after my Big motorcycle accident in 2010. The accident did nothing to temper my desire of motorcycles, in fact, if anything it has had the opposite effect, and I now take part in more different styles of riding than before, when I only did road riding. Today I enjoy Touring, adventure touring as well as full-blown Dirt bike riding as well as using the bike to commute (At one point I didn't own a car and got around solely on my bike and do the very occasional rider training day at Phillip Island. These days, the major reason why I ride my bikes is that it gets me out of my headspace and makes me feel normal again (One of my injuries in my motorcycle accident is three brain bleeds and being in a coma for a week. Now I have an A.B.I (Acquired Brain Injury) and the Depression and other conditions I have as a result of this injury makes me feel decidedly less than normal.
Its gotten to the stage where having one bike simply doesn't allow me to engage in my passion fully so I have 4 different bikes. I own a 2010 Italian money pit a.k.a. a Multistrada 1200S, A 2008 Suzuki DR650, which is my favorite bike at the moment, and I use this for generally getting around and for all my dirt riding and adventure touring, a 1986 BMW R65 which belonged to my dad. I like to take this bike out on warm sunny days and cruise, thinking about my father who has been gone now for the last 8 years, and finally, I have a 'project bike' which is 1981 model XJ550. The bike is in parts at the moment and I swear that one day I will get back to restoring this bike and putting it on club rego along with the BMW R65.
So what has been happening of late?
Well, I planned a ride into South Australia to go to the off centre rally, which is held at different locations once every 2 years. I planned a 2-week trip but on day 5 of the trip, I was riding between Dalhousie springs (where I had an awesome swim in the thermal spring), and Mt dare, the site of this years off centre. Things were going well and I had been coping with the sandy conditions but I dropped the bike ins some bastard soft deep sand. I did all the right things, I stood up, I leaned back, I kept the throttle on, but it was all in vain and the bike speared off the road backing me off as it did and the world went black...
When I woke up again I was surrounded by concerned-looking people, who were asking me if I was alright. I knew I had been knocked out, I had a splitting headache and was seeing 2 of everyone. They put me in a land cruiser and someone from another 4wd grabbed my jacket and helmet and rode my bike (which fared much better than me, it was fine) the remainder of the way to mt dare. When I to mount dare they got the Royal flying doctors on the phone and they wanted to talk to me! I don't recall the conversation but I impressed the doctor so much he sent a plane to mt dare to collect me and fly me back to Port Augusta. I had a few hours to wait for the Doc so they set me up on a table with some lovely folks who kept me company and made sure I stayed awake till the doctor came. By this time it was after 9pm and they had lined the runway with lights.
The flight back was impressively fast in the Pilatus PC12 they sent to collect me. They transferred me to Port Augusta A&E where they shone lights in my eyes and put me on a table for a CT scan of my noggin. All good they said, apparently my brain is 'unremarkable'.
I spent the next 3 days in the hospital. The double vision went away by the end of the first day, but I had a blinding headache, some dizziness, and nausea that lasted for quite a while longer. The first day I was in the hospital I got a phone call. It was from a guy who was mucking around out the front of the mount dare hotel when he high-sided the bike and broke his handlebars. He asked me if I would let him have my handlebars and he will settle up with me once he got back to WA. 'Fair enough', I thought and I let him have the bars. Another guy called me the following day wanting a replacement for his front brake line, I let him have it and said we will settle up when he got home.
After 3 Days in the hospital soaking up lots of morphine to stem the pain in my head, I flew Port Augusta to Adelaide and from there back home to Melbourne. I then had to figure out how I was going to get my bike back.
I was not prepared for how much it was going to cost. Originally I thought I would take a trailer and pick up the bike from Maree, so I asked for a quote to deliver the bike to Maree...... $4500! What the hell, I didn't have enough money to do this so I asked the owner of the mt Dare pub, where was the nearest made road to Mt Dare. He told me he could take the bike to Kulgara, which is just inside the border in the Northern Territory. For this, he said he would move the bike 250km To Kulgara for $1500 bucks. Send it there I said then worked out how to get to Kulgara the following week.
The plan involved me hiring a bike trailer for 4 days, then driving 2 days at 1000km/day to get to Kulgara, spending the night there, pick up the bike the following morning, then drive another 2x 1000km days back to Melbourne. A big trip yes, but it was made longer by the Turbocharger in my car giving up the ghost before I got to Ballarat Have you ever tried to drive a Turbo diesel car without the turbo? Believe me, it bites the big one, not fun at all. The big hill that heads east from Adelaide is really steep and I found myself doing 60km/hour with my foot flat to the floor the whole time. I was being passed by big freight trucks. Very embarrassing but I made it.
Time to check out the bike. I looked over it and found that there were a few things that were missing off the bike. Sure the handlebars and front brake line were gone, but I also found that one of my double take mirrors were missing and my master cylinder for the front brake was missing as well. I called the guys who took stuff from my bike with my permission and both of them reckon the mirror and master cylinder were there when they collected the pieces they needed. SO, someone has been helping themselves to my bike. This REALLY pissed me off as I would have given them the parts they needed if they only ASK.
I had a bit of a grumble about the situation on the Monarchs motorcycle club Forum and found a sympathetic ear there. Then one of the girls on the forum put it on ADVrider, which put it in front of a much larger audience. People started sending in replies expressing a desire to help me out. by sending me money. They said that it wasn't right that I should lose out after helping other people. By the time I had given these generous souls my bank details, and they sent funds through to me, I wound up with enough to pay for the parts I needed and make a small donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
I had never spoken to these guys before, I didn't even know they were part of the forum, but their generosity and kind words left me with a good feeling about the community there, it blew me away.
So that is about it for this post, sorry it was so long. My next trip will be to the to the Golden Dragon rally at Tarnagulla at the end of September.
When I woke up again I was surrounded by concerned-looking people, who were asking me if I was alright. I knew I had been knocked out, I had a splitting headache and was seeing 2 of everyone. They put me in a land cruiser and someone from another 4wd grabbed my jacket and helmet and rode my bike (which fared much better than me, it was fine) the remainder of the way to mt dare. When I to mount dare they got the Royal flying doctors on the phone and they wanted to talk to me! I don't recall the conversation but I impressed the doctor so much he sent a plane to mt dare to collect me and fly me back to Port Augusta. I had a few hours to wait for the Doc so they set me up on a table with some lovely folks who kept me company and made sure I stayed awake till the doctor came. By this time it was after 9pm and they had lined the runway with lights.
The flight back was impressively fast in the Pilatus PC12 they sent to collect me. They transferred me to Port Augusta A&E where they shone lights in my eyes and put me on a table for a CT scan of my noggin. All good they said, apparently my brain is 'unremarkable'.
I spent the next 3 days in the hospital. The double vision went away by the end of the first day, but I had a blinding headache, some dizziness, and nausea that lasted for quite a while longer. The first day I was in the hospital I got a phone call. It was from a guy who was mucking around out the front of the mount dare hotel when he high-sided the bike and broke his handlebars. He asked me if I would let him have my handlebars and he will settle up with me once he got back to WA. 'Fair enough', I thought and I let him have the bars. Another guy called me the following day wanting a replacement for his front brake line, I let him have it and said we will settle up when he got home.
After 3 Days in the hospital soaking up lots of morphine to stem the pain in my head, I flew Port Augusta to Adelaide and from there back home to Melbourne. I then had to figure out how I was going to get my bike back.
I was not prepared for how much it was going to cost. Originally I thought I would take a trailer and pick up the bike from Maree, so I asked for a quote to deliver the bike to Maree...... $4500! What the hell, I didn't have enough money to do this so I asked the owner of the mt Dare pub, where was the nearest made road to Mt Dare. He told me he could take the bike to Kulgara, which is just inside the border in the Northern Territory. For this, he said he would move the bike 250km To Kulgara for $1500 bucks. Send it there I said then worked out how to get to Kulgara the following week.
The plan involved me hiring a bike trailer for 4 days, then driving 2 days at 1000km/day to get to Kulgara, spending the night there, pick up the bike the following morning, then drive another 2x 1000km days back to Melbourne. A big trip yes, but it was made longer by the Turbocharger in my car giving up the ghost before I got to Ballarat Have you ever tried to drive a Turbo diesel car without the turbo? Believe me, it bites the big one, not fun at all. The big hill that heads east from Adelaide is really steep and I found myself doing 60km/hour with my foot flat to the floor the whole time. I was being passed by big freight trucks. Very embarrassing but I made it.
Time to check out the bike. I looked over it and found that there were a few things that were missing off the bike. Sure the handlebars and front brake line were gone, but I also found that one of my double take mirrors were missing and my master cylinder for the front brake was missing as well. I called the guys who took stuff from my bike with my permission and both of them reckon the mirror and master cylinder were there when they collected the pieces they needed. SO, someone has been helping themselves to my bike. This REALLY pissed me off as I would have given them the parts they needed if they only ASK.
I had a bit of a grumble about the situation on the Monarchs motorcycle club Forum and found a sympathetic ear there. Then one of the girls on the forum put it on ADVrider, which put it in front of a much larger audience. People started sending in replies expressing a desire to help me out. by sending me money. They said that it wasn't right that I should lose out after helping other people. By the time I had given these generous souls my bank details, and they sent funds through to me, I wound up with enough to pay for the parts I needed and make a small donation to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
I had never spoken to these guys before, I didn't even know they were part of the forum, but their generosity and kind words left me with a good feeling about the community there, it blew me away.
So that is about it for this post, sorry it was so long. My next trip will be to the to the Golden Dragon rally at Tarnagulla at the end of September.
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