Ah Spring is upon us & glorious September. Despite having lived in this City for eight years now I never cease to be surprised & amazed at the sudden arrival of Canberra's Spring. Only a month ago we were holding the traditionally & deliberately frigid Gluwein run, but here we were only a few weeks later basking in warm sunshine.

Those of you who have been in the Club for a long time may remember when we started this event some six years ago, at the suggestion of Dick Stubbs. Dick once worked at the then Apollo Tracking Station.

Much has changed for the Club since then, prompted by the endeavors of our members, whose numbers grow year by year. Back then we had no BBQ trailer, or for that matter no reliable & stoutly constructed breakdown trailer. We would show up at Honeysuckle where we would cook our own meat on the electric BBQ, with perhaps some extra meat carried in the breakdown car, if it was present.

Now, with our large & enthusiastic membership we regularly have twice the number of riders at events than were usual five years ago. This is all grand, but it makes arrangements far more difficult, the BBQ trailer has to be victualed & driven to the destination & set up set up well in advance of our arrival This time Richard Stanfield was OIC BBQ.. Meanwhile the bike trailer has to be picked up & prepared for the eventuality of a breakdown, this time Arki Jaartinen took this duty, & he has business (read on).

So our large band gathered at the Services Club, with many interesting machines awaiting the 'off'.
The oldest machine was Peter Toet's lovely pre-war Matchless V twin, however there were a number of 1950s machines present, including my own beloved 1954 Velocette.

Peter briefed us on the route & I took off first, being much slower than the 60s & 70 Triumphs & Nortons which predominate. I expected to be passed by the wave of faster riders soon after I passed the Lodge, but strangely no. I was climbing out of the Cotter Valley before the green streak of Magg's T150 came past me, followed by a fellow who signed himself 'Rommel' on his 60s Harley.

The Cotter loop was a picture of Spring with the pine re-plantings after the awful 2003 fires now over 6' tall & very healthy. Onward south & Steve Davey passed me ion his pre-unit Triumph, but few others. Onwards into the Namagi National park past the (wonders will not cease) reopened Tharwa Bridge. The climb upwards to the old Apollo site brought cool air, but not cold & the freshness of alpine forest in a damp Spring morning.

At the BBQ spot the trailer was already long since fired up & snags were ready for immediate consumption. That's service for you. Soon all the others rolled in and a happy band we were. The breakdown trailer had one casualty was Rob Cornhill on an AJS, although I did not enquire as to the cause of the failure.

Sadly I had to leave quite early as I had some motorcycle welding to be done with my neighbour in the afternoon. Trevor Fowler rode back with me on his recently purchased 1973 T150 Trident. For the both of us this was a delightful day's ride with no drama.

However I was reflecting on earlier Honeysuckle Creek runs, which did not run as smoothly. Some years ago Trevor Fowler was coming down the steep descent & hit a large bump & became airborne on his 1966 Triumph Thunderbird. The bike went end over end into a rock face & was nearly a write off. Trevor was thankfully only bruised. I had been ahead of this mishap on my T120 with Son James on the pillion & only heard about it later.

Trevor's Thunderbird has been repaired long since, but I think for him it is not quite the same.

Another year, 2002, when I was again Velo mounted I decided to ride home around the Cotter loop, of course with no back up. I came across Peter Byatt who was riding Dick Stubb's Honda 350/4. He appeared to have seriously blown it up. He insisted on struggling on & made it to the pump house before ceasing to run it a plume of smoke. On that occasion I rode home & fetched my car & trailer & rescued Peter & the dead Honda. The Honda was rebuilt by the way & still comes out on rides.

This year we sadly had similar incident. It involved Chris Bodenschatz who has recently returned to the Club after a long absence on his freshly restored 1972 Commando, of which he is most proud, decided similarly to ride the Cotter Loop home, & he too suffered a serious failure. However this time the breakdown trailer, which had already completed its duties under the care of Arki was called back to rescue the forlorn Chris. We await reports on the breakdown.

Chris, by way of an historical recollection, had been with me on his Commando some years ago, when we were returning from a VVCMCC weekend at Wombeyan Caves. It was Winter & we had stopped to remove a stone from Barby's 4WD brake caliper. We ended up just the two of us, the others long gone, on wet dirt roads in gathering darkness. I was again Velo mounted, when I hit a kangaroo, in the darkness, a few miles south of Gunning: what a disaster.

Ah life's enduring memories are built on motorcycling, well at least mine are!

Lorraine Litster
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Roll Call
names listed in BLUE were added later, as they were missing from the original report.
If anyone else was present at the event and their name is not listed please let me know. (webmaster@vvcmcc.org)