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.
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.
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.
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