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The Return to Northam - AKA, near death by parmi!

2/8/2019

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After such a successful weekend last year the LCOA Northam weekender had to be repeated and thanks to our extremely capable state rep. Steve Leech it was.
 
The weather for the weekend was for showers, not perfect by any description, but not enough to turn off 25 odd LCOA members from turning up for the ride.
 
The Northern and Southern mobs all met up in Perth’s foothills at Stratton, by which stage Rich’s GP 250 with all the bells and whistles was already in the van and pretty much stayed there, all weekend. Rich is probably still trying to figure out which bell or whistle is actually broken, but we all agree that if nothing else his scoot is very consistent.
 
Next up was Toodyay, a 70km ride unfortunately interrupted by a traffic accident where a motorcycle rider had failed to take a corner, the police had the road closed down in both directions and traffic was banked up. Once we had all established it wasn’t one of us we breathed a bit easier, however the rider apparently suffered two broken legs and a broken arm, so our thoughts were with them. It’s easy to say ride to the conditions, but it doesn’t take much……
 
Then it was into Toodyay for a bit of lunch and a pint for some, before the weather started closing in and we all made the final 20km dash to Northam and our digs at the Riverside Hotel.
 
Simon’s GP turned up on the trailer, but was soon running again with a scavenged CDI, come to think of it Simon kept his scoot on the road for the whole weekend by scabbing parts off dead scoots.
 
Steve Leech had organized a brilliant afternoon and evenings entertainment, so once everyone was settled in with a drink in their hand the ‘pubkhana’ began……, I’m not sure whether Steve should be roundly commended or crucified for the ‘pubkhana’, however if you like playing darts blindfolded, lobbing clutch plates at a target, a bit of pool, then getting very dizzy before skolling a crap beer and crappier vodka, and of course laughing at others doing the same, then Steve’s ‘pubkhana’ is for you. As it turns out WA’s newest LCOA member Trev Ireland took out the honours and will be receiving an LCOA hoodie as a prize. I saw on the WA LCOA Facebook page how Trev thanked everyone for making him feel welcome, but that is how it should be.
 
The weekend wouldn’t be complete without music and Steve had arranged to get Tim’s DJ kit up to Northam  (so Tim could ride) and Tim did an amazing job DJing for hours, keeping not just us but the locals entertained until closing. Thank you Tim!
 
I hadn’t eaten all day, and was so hungry I could have eaten the crutch out of a low flying duck, so when my chicken parmi, was put in front of me I went at it with a passion. Unfortunately two bites in I knew I had a problem, I was struggling to breathe, I took a swig of cider, in the hope of washing the chicken down but that didn’t work so I spat the cider out all over Neil. I somehow managed to clear my throat, but decided I had used up my luck so went to bed early leaving the rest of the Club to party ‘til the early hours.
 
The next morning predictably saw many sore heads with most taking advantage of a café for a fry up, and then was the predictable scene where everyone’s getting ready to go and then someone else wakes up and others need to fill up, so two stroke fumes fill the car park as everyone else kind of waits around looking at the clouds closing in…..
 
Eventually we were off, and it was a straight flog back to Perth. John Senior had a rear wheel puncture, Neil blew up his engine (but that was always his plan), Rich rode Bugsy’s scoot back to town (and managed not to break it) as Bugsy was under the weather.
 
All said and done a fantastic ride out organized by WA State Rep. Steve Leech, thanks mate looking forward to the next one.

​Max - El Presidente.

​
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Bathurst Giro - This is why we ride!

2/8/2019

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In the beginning... there was fog
It all started with a Queenslander.  Ian ‘ideas man’ Brill said, ‘why don’t you do this year’s Giro on the Mount Panorama circuit’.  So we did.
The NSW/ACT event was run a little later than the others, due to lack of availability of many of the usual suspects.  However the re-arranged date, the June long weekend, was the perfect opportunity for a gathering of the scooter clans.  A few hardy souls rode to Bathurst and others drove, and by Sunday morning 15 scooterists had congregated on the grass verge at the bottom of Conrod Straight, staring at what would have been Mount Panorama had it not been completely obscured by fog.

The 5 Ps
But there’s more to this story than simply riding four times round the Mount Panorama racetrack.  Most participants took the opportunity to arrive the day before in order to prepare themselves and their steeds, so that both were in tip-top condition for the event.  People prep may or may not have included cleansing ales and not-so-cleansing shots.  Scooter prep involved Terry Smith wiping the fog from the Lambro windscreen, me checking my sparkplug colour and just about everyone getting lost going to the servo to fuel up.

There’s always one
…and it had to be Chris Johnson, whose people prep was taken too seriously and resulted in a lie-in.

And they’re off!
Sean Heffernan has developed a way to not need a timekeeper for the giro, or rather he makes everyone a timekeeper.  People pair up: one rides, the other times them, then they swap.  Genius!  The event takes a little longer than if everyone set off at about the same time, but it also gives people the opportunity to watch or photograph others riding, which is cool.  Sean was very good at explaining to everyone how to use their mobile phone lap timers – there were only a couple of riders who had to do an extra lap because of stopwatch operator error.
Those going first rode mostly in cold, foggy conditions – all a bit other-worldly.  Those in the second group were blessed with views from the top of the mountain and warm sunshine.
Mount Panorama is a public road with a 60 kph speed limit which is heavily enforced by both fixed and mobile speed cameras.  For this reason, we decided not to wear the Giro bibs and were happily left alone to putter round the circuit four times.  In fact, we got lots of smiles and waves (even from some of the bikers) and most of the people walking a lap of the track stopped at our gathering point to have a chat and admire the scooters.

Post-ride debrief
Once everyone had finished their laps, times had been calculated and awards presented, we all did a final group ride round the circuit and followed Terry in his Lambro the long way back into town for a late lunch.  We managed to find the worst café in Bathurst and wait foreva for average food, which was unfortunate because Michael King was keen to ride out round the Sofala Esses (100 km loop) but ran out of warmth and daylight for this jaunt.  He contented himself with joining a few others (including Chris, who rose from his deathbed after lunch) for one last lap of Mount Panorama.
The evening consisted of further debriefing over wood-fired pizza and Fat Bastard red wine (Sean’s recommendation!  It was, in fact, a rather nice Malbec.)

Starting grid – runners and riders
People came from near and far to vie for the title and bought along a wide variety of classic scooters, including Terry’s mighty Lambro (which did make it up the hill, proving the naysayers wrong).

ACT
The journey to Bathurst from Canberra is pretty direct, now that the Trunkey Road route is sealed all the way.  Making the 270 km journey from the nation’s capital were:
Chris Johnson (scratch!)
Nicky Hussey (me)
Nico Wright with his wife Marita as pillion.

NSW
The Sydney contingent had nearly as far to come: 210 km over the Blue Mountains either via Penrith and Katoomba or the Bells Line of Road:
Steve and Natasha Diffey
Mark le Cornu and Fleur James
Team BRB:  Phillip Julian, Sean Heffernan and Terry Minutillo
Terry Smith
Tim Coffey was the local representative, riding 55 km from Orange.

Vic
Michael King and Craig Trimble drove all the way up from Victoria (nearly 800 km) to have a second crack at a medal – much respect!

And the winner is…
Me!  Not entirely sure how that came about, as I’m usually the most inconsistent rider out there, but the calculations showed I had an average lap variation of 1.95 seconds on my Series 1.  I must have paid attention to my braking marks or something 😊.  Terry Smith in his Lambro came second with an average variation of 2.87 seconds.  I have a suspicion that riding slow vehicles as fast as they’ll go might be what to do to win this event!  Craig Trimble on a new-to-him PX200 came third with an average variation of 3.1 seconds.  Lucky last was Fleur James on her TV175 with a variation of 14.68 seconds.

Thanks for all the fish
Many thanks go to Sean Heffernan for organising the event again this year.  Bathurst, we might be back next year!
​

Nicky Hussey – Canberra Swarm SC, LCoA
​
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