The next few weekends are going to be very busy. Tomorrow (Sunday) I head down to Berry, half way between here and Nowra, for the annual Shoalhaven Classic Bike Club show at the Berry Bowling Club. It’s a great show which I have been attending as a spectator for a number of years. It’s a bunch of (mostly) old blokes showing off some of the nice machines that normally live in their garages. Unsurprisingly, given that older people have plenty of time on their hands and often turn to restoring bikes from their youth, the collection is skewed towards 1950’s and 1960’s bikes, but, as I have often remarked, never be surprised what is lurking in unprepossessing-looking sheds. Some of the stuff that gets brought out for display is pretty amazing. Hopefully the spectators will find the Shadowfax to be a fitting part of the show.
There is a spread of newer bikes as well as it’s an “everyone’s welcome” type of show. There are no prizes and the entry to the show is a gold coin donation which the club passes on to a local charity. It’s held under the trees in the grounds of the Berry Bowling Club right next to the highway on the left as you come into town from Wollongong. If you want a nice, pleasant drive and a good show, pop on down and see. BE WARNED, HOWEVER. The very popular “Wings over Illawarra” air show is taking place at Albion Park Aerodrome so go early, or go around the other side of the lake to avoid the inevitable traffic chaos that is part of this hugely successful event.
Next weekend is Mothers Day, our official 40th Wedding Anniversary, so my wife and I will be heading to the Harbourfront Restaurant overlooking Wollongong Harbour for Mothers Day breakfast. I believe that there are also some other festivities planned.
Then, on the following Sunday, the 25th, Frasers Motorcycles in town are staging Wollongong’s first-ever dedicated motorcycle show at the Towradgi Beach Hotel. A quick email to the organisers (I only found out about it yesterday courtesy of a good friend on Illawarra Riders) prompted an equally quick reply saying that they would be delighted to see me and my lovely bike at the show. So, the Shadowfax will be get another opportunity to shine.
Yesterday I spent a couple of hours cleaning and detailing as the bike has accumulated a fair bit of grime after being shown then trailered and it came up looking very nice indeed. My good friend, Gary Rooke, from Oak Flats Motorcycles, completed the overhaul of the brake calipers in time for me to fit them for the show tomorrow and Dave Quinn has kindly loaned me the Kerker tailpipe again for the shows (I need to get a replica pipe of the original one made but, time and money, you know the way that it is.)
Since completing the build it has been a constant quandary to me as to what should do with it now that it’s done. One the one hand, I have had many of my friends take the line that, it was built as a racing bike so it should be raced. I am totally in sympathy with that point of view, having railed often against over-restoration and rich collectors who purchase vehicles with significant racing history then tuck them away in their private collections where they are neither raced nor seen by people who would appreciate them.
However, the quandary is that, should I decide to have someone race the bike for me, I would have to fit 17″ wheels and do many more modifications to the bike to make it suitable. And, even if I did, the bike would still be considerably under-powered compared to most other machines in P5. Added to which, if it was raced, it would become beaten up again without a doubt and, probably crashed as well. “Well, use it as a track day bike, then,” is the next suggestion. At least I could keep it original if I did that. However, as any of you who have done track days will attest, the standard of riding is not good and the potential for the bike being considerably damaged due to someone else’s lack of care is very high.
The alternative to all that angst is to keep the bike exactly as it is and just make it a display bike. While it would not be fulfilling its original design brief, it would be preserved in as-raced condition and as close as possible to its original configuration. I would not have to take the engine out and freshen it up (God knows how much a set of Moriwaki pistons and associated gear would cost now – well beyond my means, of that I am sure) and I would be able to admire and enjoy the fruits of my, and many other good peoples’ work. Given the interest that has been shown in it every time it has been shown, the decision is not as difficult as it first appeared.
Let me make it very clear that, while the bike is mine from the point of all legalities, I do not regard myself as its owner in the accepted sense of the word. Instead I regard myself as the bike’s CURATOR, the person to whom it has been entrusted so that a small, but important part of Australia’s motorcycle road racing heritage can be preserved.
To this end I have decided to entrust its future care and preservation to the National Motorcycle Museum of Australia at Nabiac on the north coast of NSW. Brian and Margaret Kellher, the proprietors, have been friends of mine for over 30 years and Brian has been hustling me to have the bike as part of the collection since it first broke cover at the Sheene in 2012. The bike will be on loan to the museum with the ability to take it out for any reason at any time being a part of the agreement between us. Many thousands of motorcyclists and tourists visit the museum every year and they will be able to admire the bike and read about its brief, but colourful history. I am convinced that this is the best course of action and I am looking forward to putting it into effect once these two shows are over.
In the mean time, I plan to enjoy it and visit it in my garage. Here’s the link to the NMMoA. They have over 700 bikes on display as well as thousands of items of memorabilia and other related bits as part of the collection. If you haven’t visited, you should.
National Motorcycle Museum of Australia.
Catch you next time.