It is well known that Chicago, in the USA, is known as the Windy City. Well, Wollongong, just south of Sydney, has a similar reputation and, thusly, a similar name, Windy Wollongong. Every winter, usually around the July/August intersection, the city is assaulted by wild westerly winds that seem determined to blow the city off the map and into the nearby Pacific Ocean. For those who don’t know the city it must be explained that it clings to a narrow strip of land between the said ocean and the escarpment that is part of the Great Dividing Range that runs down Australia’s east coast. At times the coastal plain is very wide but at other locations, like Wollongong, it is very narrow indeed, in some places less than one kilometre wide from the ocean to the base of the mountains.
Where I live, south of the city, I am less than a kilometre from the base of the mountain and so, when the winter westerlies blow in (they usually last for a few weeks), there is little to prevent my house from copping the full force of the winds. Add to this that the house faces west and has a street going west at right angles from the end of my driveway and I am a prime target.
Not long after moving in we fitted roller shutters to the front windows (our bedroom is at the front of the house and so our windows cop the full force of the winds) and resigned ourselves to the reality that we would have to make do as best we could in the winter months. Our yard constantly fills with loose debris that is blown in by the winds, it is a struggle keeping the garden in good condition and garbage day is a nightmare as peoples’ bins further up the street blow over and the trash gets blown down the street and into my yard.
It sounds terrible, I know, but, having lived here for over 10 years now, we have developed a tolerance to the inconveniences and the advantages of being here far outweigh the disadvantages. And, we do have a fall-back position as well since there is a bedroom at the back of the house equipped with a queen sized bed that we use as a guest room. When the winds become too onerous, we usually gravitate there and sleep in relative peace and quiet.
Of course the impact that the wild weather has on my motorcycling activities is also considerable. As well as it being uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous to ride in these conditions, it is also unpleasant and, since motorcycling is supposed to be FUN, the bike stays in the garage a bit more than it would. I don’t mind riding in the cold (I rode through 20 Canberra winters) but I draw the line with the winds.
Now, to more pleasant matters. Recently a new business opened up in a little town south from here. Wandandian is south of Nowra on the Princes Highway, the main route south from Sydney, and, by default, Wollongong. I got to know about it through their announcements on Facebook and I was immediately intrigued. Advertised as a “motorcycle-themed coffee shop” I noted the name and put it on my “watch list.” There has been, and still are, several attempts at a similar ventures elsewhere. The famous Road Warriors Cafe on the Old Pacific Highway served the northern riders well for many years before being closed as a motorcycle-themed venue then reopened as a “normal” coffee shop. Pie In the Sky, also on the Old Pacific Highway north of Sydney, while not being specifically motorcycle-themed, certainly attracts a large and constant clientele of motorcycling people. And there was a similar venture started some years ago in the little town of Cobargo on the far south coast but I believe that it has now closed.
Anyway, as the time grew closer and the barrage of advertising on Facebook continued, I grew more interested. So, a few days before the official opening, I took a run down there to see what the lie of the land was. It should have been a pleasant ride but the weather was wild and windy (see above) so it was an endurance run rather than a milk run. Set up in a facility that was a nursery in a previous life, the Coffee Garage is right on the highway and has loads of parking. The building has been extensively renovated and it all has a nice, new feel about it. I almost became their first paying customer as Darren, one of the owners, fired up the coffee machine, but, just as he was starting to make me a brew, a blackout hit that ended up lasting for nearly an hour so that didn’t happen.
A long conversation with Darren, and his business partner, Dean, filled in the gaps for me. Tiring of the world of advertising and hankering to get involved in a business that involved motorcycling, they had set up a motorcycle building/restoration business in another coastal town nearby. Here they tinkered with bikes and started producing some interesting bikes, mainly in the cruiser/chopper genre. But Darren’s mind took him off on another tangent as well, the idea of taking a Japanese superbike and turning it into something more user-friendly and “cruisy.” The result was a curious mixture of the Yamaha R1’s light weight and performance with a laid-back seating position and naked/streetfighter overtones. Hard to describe, actually as there isn’t really a category into which Darren’s bike fits; you might just have to go and look for yourself.
It wasn’t a huge leap for D&D to combine the bike building venture with a coffee shop built around a motorcycle theme, but calling it that really does it a disservice. You see, to give the business its proper name, The Coffee Garage and Arsi Motorcycles covers it better (“arsi” is Latin for “passion” – it wouldn’t have been my choice, but, hey). And so the coffee shop part shares the premises with a workshop where D&D create and work on their unique motorcycle creations and customers can sit in the coffee shop and actually see the bike/s and work being done.
And make no mistake, this appears to be a very well thought-out venture. With coffee shop staff being headed up by Schelle who has 17 years of experience in catering, the bases appear to be well covered. I’ve been down there twice, once on their official opening day where I DID actually become their first paying customer and once last weekend with my wife who was also very impressed. The venue has quickly gained a huge following amongst the local motorcycling fraternity with the staff having to fight off customers with a stick on the weekends (figuratively speaking). But, more importantly, the trade during the week days has also been hectic as the word spreads.
I hasten to add that I receive no remuneration for this “free plug” but gain great satisfaction in letting you know of a great little business that combines most motorcyclists’ two passions, bikes and coffee. It should be a winner and I believe it will be. Note the name, and, if you’re down our way, give them a try, you won’t be disappointed (now, I wonder what they could do with that spare VFR I have in the back shed?)
Finally, the news (some good, some bad). My good friend an old CRRC identity, Tony Annand, contacted me this week to inform me that another CRRC identity, Ralph Buchanan, had died in an ultralight aircraft accident last weekend. Ralph, who owned a high-end stereo shop in Phillip back in the day, had moved down the coast to live and was based, we believe, at Batemans Bay. As well as being a sad loss of another good friend, the news hit me particularly badly as Ralph was a huge part of the Shadowfax project when the bike was first built in 1980, contributing a considerable part of the engine-building expertise at the time. Sadly, we lost track as you do and my efforts and the efforts of others to contact/find him when the Shadowfax rebuild was taking place were unsuccessful. So his death has hit me rather harder than would have been expected.
The good news is that my presence on Facebook has resulted in me re-establishing contact with the Fisher family. Brothers Laurie and Ken Fisher are ex-pat Englishmen who came out to Australia and settled in Canberra to live. Not long after arriving the racing bug bit and they built and raced a road racing sidecar outfit for CRRC for a season or so (they had raced for years in the UK before migrating here). Unfortunately, a bad accident at Sandown Park brought their racing efforts to a close and they turned their attention to helping others race. For many years afterwards they were stalwarts of the Canberra Mini Bike Club, running races for kids at the Fairbairn Park complex. Riders like Stuart Bennett, Trevor Jordan, Rod Colquohun and many others got their start in racing running an XR75 around the mini bike track. Laurie and Ken were actively involved in the administrative side of running the road closures at Macarthur Park and also fostering the careers of their sons who followed them into racing. Ken Fisher Jr won two Australian 125cc titles back in the day, from memory.
I am now conversing with them and hope to get down to Canberra and see them both and chew the fat a little. I know Facebook gets a bad rap from some, but, man, the number of my old friends that I have found on there and the pleasure that that has brought me is worth its weight in gold.
That’s all for today, catch you next time.