In a monumentally bad example of poor planning, last weekend had the following motoring/motorcycling events planned for Sunday. A car/bike Charity show at Mittagong, a motorcycle swap meet at Jamberoo Pub in aid of Riders Against Discrimination, Shoalhaven Classic Bike Club’s annual show at Berry and Illawarra Riders monthly Brekkie Ride (and these are just the ones I found)
I opted for the Berry show since I haven’t been for a few years and I was wondering if it was a good choice when I set out at 0700. It was overcast and raining when I left Wollongong and it wasn’t looking at all promising. But, as I crested Mt Pleasant at the end of Kiama bends, a clear sky and a glorious day was all I could see. Traffic was light despite the weekend and extensive roadworks associated with the Berry By-Pass and I rolled into the Bowling Club car park right on the button of 0800. I set up in the shade of the big gum tree, got me a sausage sandwich from the food stand and a coffee from the barista (the manager of the bowling club who had set up his espresso machine under a pit tent) and settled back to watch the show.
The club organises an incredibly well-thought out event. Sections of the lawn (not the bowling greens!!) are allocated for each type of bike and divisions ran from kids bikes all the way through to modern bikes and every stripe in between. My bike was entered as a Competition bike and I shared the stand with Laurie Turnbull’s gorgeous ES2 Norton historic racer (which won its class on the day) and an unrestored 1920’s BSA beach racer that has obviously been sitting in someone’s shed for a long time. By the time mid-morning had rolled around there were over 100 bikes in the dedicated display area and dozens more (some of equal interest) in the parking areas around about, all ridden in by spectators.
The club held numerous raffles during the day and had an astonishing collection of donated prizes. For someone who never wins anything, my $5 purchase of 6 tickets in the first round was a merely symbolic gesture, so I was more than amazed when I won 3rd prize in the first draw, a 5 Litre drum of Lucas Oil and a 400ml can of chain lube. $5 to enter the show, $5 to buy the tickets and I was already well ahead financially on the day AND I’d done something to help the Club’s nominated charity, the local Mens’ Support Group. As always, it was a great day. Everyone had a fun time and, as always with shows like this, there were the tall tales and often untrue of motorcycling derring-do from years gone by.
A punter arrived with a not only unrestored Z1 but one that looked like it had been totally neglected since the day it rolled off the showroom floor. Far from being embarrassed by the bike’s condition, the owner was proud that it looked so awful, claiming that it had taken him over 30 years to get the bike looking like that! He proudly pointed to scratch marks on the alternator cover claiming that they were as a result of an accident when he crashed out of the Calder Two Hour production race somewhere back in the mists of time. Whether he was telling porkies or not is not my place to say, but I didn’t recognise his name and I remember the names from that era pretty well.
As you’ll see from my album, the range and variety of the entries was just amazing, The beautiful TY250B at the top of the page was one of my favourites but there was something there to satisfy every taste. There were a lot of Zeds, a delicious 500/4 (the owner also owns a CBX550F2 which he loves) 2 Vincents, a plethora of British iron covering 70 or more years of the UK’s domination of the world motorcycling industry as well as oddities like a Benelli Sei and a very special Triumph cafe racers built up around a tubular steel frame, a motor with reversed cylinder heads (carbs at the front, exhausts at the rear) and a bewildering display of other well-known and lesser known marques.
I caught up with lots of friends and a big thank you to Dave and Jim who helped me load and unload my bike from the van. Here’s Elwyn Jordan’s shot of the ‘Fax in place.
Later in the day a guy came by and we had quite a long conversation about the bike and its history. He remarked that the shape of the tank looked very familiar but that he just couldn’t place it. A little further into the conversation I mentioned Kent and he said, “Kent, is he the guy who built the bike? Did he live in Canberra?” I answered that he was right on both counts. “That’s why the shape of the tank is familiar. I remember visiting this guy called Kent back in Canberra around 1985 sometime and he had a big black bike with a tank like this.” I showed Michael the photos in the album of when Kent had the bike as a naked bike with grey undercoat paint job and it was obviously the same bike. Amazing, after over 30 years.
Just near the time l was packing up to leave another guy came by and he obviously knew a deal about Kawasakis and it was an interesting conversation. I don’t know how the subject came up but he said, “You know, I used to ride a Kawasaki back then and I was in “Mad Max, too.” Like I said before, you get told all sorts of stories so I was politely interested. I asked his name and he said it was George Novak and his nickname was “Scuttle”. Here he is standing by the bike.
A George Novak DID play the part of “Scuttle” in Mad Max, I checked when I got home. So, a little unexpected brush with fame!
It was a great day, lovely weather, super nice people and some fabulous bikes to admire. Of the 4 things available yesterday, I’m pretty sure I chose the best. Oh, and a big thank you to my son-in-law for helping me load and unload the bike from the van here at home. It’s a heavy old thing!
Here’s the link to my album on Facebook. It’s set to Public so you don’t have to be a FB member to see it.
dunc says
looks like a great day for it down there
some interesting bikes in those pictures
didnt know it was on so missed it