10 riders assembled at the top of Gooseberry Hill on an overcast day for the West Australian Motoretta Giro 2017. Tea and coffee was provided …..including HiLo and Soy milk. In addition to four of the inaugural attendees (Simon, Renato, Eddie, and Andy) this years event attracted six new riders: “Lucky’ Phil Synott, ‘Welsh’ Mark, Tony Wong, Tom Colville, ‘Rocket’ Ron Laycock, and Phil Green.  It was great to see people coming up for the morning just to spectate and to have the assistance of Carol, Angie and Tracey, with the timekeeping.

WA Giro participants recognize that we will never beat other states with such a challenging route, but are content with the competition within the riders and the thrill of knowing we could plunge to our death at any given moment.

Although the same route as last year, times were much slower, partially due to what turned out to be a dozen old Rolls Royce doing the Zig Zag at the same time, but there was not much to be done about it but keep going, although at least one contestant decided it was as good a time as any for a toilet break.
Last years winner Eddie (RMC) managed third with an average difference of 17 secs, with Andy Marsh coming in at second on 14 secs and Rob Bollingbroke winning the day on 13 secs.

Martyn Heffernan and Christopher Puddington from Victoria accepted the challenge of hosting the 2nd annual Australian Lambretta Jamboree and they located a venue at Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula, called the Ace High Ranch.
I flew into Melbourne the day before the Jamboree and was picked up by Martyn from the airport, and taken back to his place for the night where we stuffed Rally packs. The next morning was spent loading his truck to the gunwales with all manner of stuff before driving over to Chris’ place where Martyn dropped me off, having kindly lent me his Nammer LiS for the ride down. At Chris’ Steve Diffey, who had spent 12 hours riding down from Sydney the day before, was fettling with Adam White’s GP, as Chris rammed his van full of Gymkhana seesaws and other obstacles.
Then it was a short ride to Brighton to meet up with some of Scooterhead and a few others…. where Diffey did some fettling on Doug’s GP…. then it was a very scenic ride down the coast to Cape Schanck, and some of us only got marginally lost after taking directions from a local who’s dreadlocks, pupils and lack of footwear should have made us think twice!
The Ace High Ranch has since been described by Derek Myers as the Apex of rally sites, and it’s hard to disagree. It is very much a ‘dude’ ranch with trail rides etc. and those that weren’t camping were all billeted in wood cabins named ‘Wyatt Earp’ and ‘Annie Oakley’, you get the picture. It has to be said though that horses and Lambrettas have a mutual distrust of each other. The rodeo ground, where the gymkhana was held was surrounded by a natural amphitheatre of rolling hills.

The rest of the day was taken up by a BBQ, some drinks, and catching up with old mates who were drifting in from all over the country.
The next morning Mark Carter was up bright and early on the tongs making everyone bacon and egg rolls, before most set off for a ride to Arthur’s Seat State Park. I say most as, the SA boys went off with their trailer and came back with a Heinkel in it, and a few stayed back to help Chris set up the Gymkhana.
It was my first gymkhana and the evil genius, Dr Puddington, behind this particular creation had me worried. Having gotten the OK from Martyn that the Nammer could take more abuse, I nervously committed myself knowing that I was representing WA.
The rest is history, slaloms, chicanes, seesaws, water jump complete with rubber goldfish, limbos, an old saddle, and the balance beam from hell. It was great to see people not only doing the course on rats etc., but quite a few happy to throw their shiny pride and joy around the course.

People were happy to share their scoots and it quickly became apparent that, Derek and Sandy’s Luna’s were the machines to beat.

Sandy and Chris took things to another level, with Sandy dressed as Elvis, and Chris, his scoot honouring it’s Indian heritage, looking like a maniacal Indian prince.

The competition got fierce, with most having multiple runs around the course on different machines, but stewards eventually agreed that though Stef Urs Baumgartner got the faster time around the track, Puddington made a clear run with no penalties, and was the outright winner. Other highlights included Sean Heffernan’s ‘Most Spectacular Dismount’ on the balance beam. Those not participating just soaked up the sunshine, atmosphere, and drinks on the hillside.
The hills surrounding the rodeo ground were just aching for a hill climb and so after the gymkhana seven or so of us flogged scooters up the hill a few times before returning for a low key show and shine line-up.

Sandy and Derek also decided on a show of power by butting up the front tyres of their Lunas and digging holes with their back wheels.
The evening was taken up by awarding prizes and trophies, with a truly epic drunken speech by ‘Barra’ Inglis, and there was a well frequented stall selling LCOA merch. and handing out rally packs.
The next morning people started to drift off on their way home, except for Nevil Cope who decided to turn up…. It is hard to imagine how you could improve on the weekend, and rumour has it that Martyn and Chris are interested in having another go next year.
It was also great to see, and it should come as no surprise, the likes of Derek Myers (Scooterlabs Vic.), Mark Carter (Carter’s Classic Scooters SA), Steve Diffey (Lambretta Obsessions NSW) and Sandy Symeonides (SSScooter Engineering NSW) not only donating prizes, but very much participating in all aspects of the event.
Thanks to Martyn and Chris for such an amazing weekend and it was great to catch up with friends from all over and great to make some new ones. Roll on next year.

Once again Mickey Finn was the organiser of the South West Tour, ably assisted by Bunbury Wayne. About eighteen Scooters assembled at the E shed  in Fremantle mostly Lambrettas with a smattering of Vespas, where riders chucked their gear into our back up driver, John Foden’s ute and trailer, and with Jim Dickenson leading the way, he managed to get the rabble eventually to Mandurah where we met up with Brian Tolley who was also driving back up and ‘Sweaty’ Tom Colville. By this time I realised I was running lean at idle and was flicking my choke on when rolling off the throttle to compensate, and ‘Welsh’ Mark had replaced the throttle cable on his Rally.
From there it was through North Dandalup, then onto Dardanup to meet Bunbury Wayne, before lunch at the Moody Cow in the Ferguson Valley. Then it was onto the Nannup Hotel, which was our lodging for the evening.
The following day had us riding some amazing secondary roads that I never knew existed, taking us east across to the Stirling Ranges, unfortunately as expected the weather came in and it was drizzling for most of the day, we reached Mt Barker with only the one mishap, where Mark missed a corner and found the gravel, only to be dusted off and continue his journey, then after getting pics taken by the local cops it was off into the Stirling Ranges, where, still raining, we were anointed by the wash of B triple road trains before finally getting to the Stirling Ranges Retreat. They had us set up a little way away from the other campers in our own little spot, which was smart on their behalf as we started hooking into the drinks. My GP’s exhaust was sounding stupid loud by this stage and I was convinced to tackle the surgery required to replace the exhaust gasket which I finished after dark with ‘Rocket’ Ron’s help and much pisstaking and photos by everybody else. Then it was an interesting walk to the local café who had stayed open to accommodate us for dinner, an impromptu jam with dark horse, Andy Marsh on the guitar and harmonica, before retiring to the camping grounds for what shall be now known as ‘Beer Jenga’ where a rubbish bin is quickly filled with empties and people take turns trying to balance further empties on top without the whole lot collapsing…….. well, it kept us entertained for hours.

In the morning it was first off to the Bluff Knoll lookout, for some great photos, who says we don’t have really big hills in WA.

Then onto Bridgetown on some more amazing backroads, through Gnowagerup where Phil Green’s scoot turned up in a trailer with suspected blown head gasket only to discover that he had run out of fuel, and the local cops having a great time with us and turning a blind eye to some of our shenanigans (we are big on WA Police twitter accounts apparently).

Then onto Kojonup for lunch at the bakery with the Gypsy Jokers MC. Replacing the exhaust gasket on my GP had it running sweet as a nut, however coming into Bridgetown Andy Marsh’s Rally’s clutch actuator disintegrated leaving little presents inside his casing, which he and Mark spent hours stripping the engine down to get rid of the bits before reassembling so Andy could continue riding albeit without a clutch. Then it was off across the road to the local Chinese for dinner.
The final stretch from Bridgetown to home was all going swimmingly until Andy managing to coax his clutchless Vespa to Pinjarra finally gave up figuring he could never manage the traffic lights and Sid holing a piston in his GP just before Pinjarra.

From Pinjarra, we all collected our kit and split up on our way home, only for me to hole my piston 85k’s home. Luckily a few of the guys were behind me, including John and Sid in the ute, so we loaded the GP on, and I began my ride of shame back to Perth on the back of Mark’s Vespa Rally.