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Northern Run Report 16th July 2006

From Brian Forth

Listed as ‘The Northern Run’ but what on earth was the acting run captain thinking off when he named the day as ‘The Pleasant Sunday Morning Run’!

Some months ago it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, no rain, no cold days, sunshine, it was still reasonable riding weather, BUT that is where the reasonable finished in this story.

I was suppose to work, had a few spare days to take off so committed myself at 6.30am not to go to work and ride my Harley for it’s first official run, that is where the day went down hill, for me that is.

I went to the shed, warmed up the Harley and got all the wet weather gear on, put the thermos in the carry bag, pushed the bike off the stand and found I couldn’t move the bike forward or backward, I looked down to see the chain about to come off the rear sprocket, something was wrong so the Harley was put back on it’s stand, waved goodbye and started the BSA WM20 and off we went. Before I got to the end of the driveway I realised it was going to be a very, very, very cold day for that ‘Pleasant Sunday Morning Ride’.

Arriving at Pelican Plaza I found fourteen Members prepared to ride. Captain ‘Pud pulled them into line-photo’s taken of the crew by Ken Hurley. Captain ‘Pud’ then read the riot act about how a marshal should stand on a corner so HE can be seen and no one should get lost like last year. You know it worked, everyone arrived at each of the wee stops, no one was missing. A couple of Members travelled in the warmth of their plastic cars.

There was one wee stop where there was no men’s room and several Members were seen disappearing down the bank of the local river, there was only one problem they had their reflective vests on.

I didn’t have a good day riding my BSA WM20, it chugged up hills very slowly, no problems going down hill, forgot to turn the petrol on at one stop and came to an abrupt stop, then it was catch up riding.

Regular Club Captain filled in as a corner marshal for me several times because I was still coming – I could not keep up the pace. But I think he loved it because he passed me 4 times during the ride, all I saw was that smile, a left thumb up in the air and the blast of the exhaust as the AJS on song rocketed off down the road-was that an excuse to give the AJS a slight flogging of speed?

I had to return home early because my daughter decided to come from Melbourne, so I left the 13 riders to continue the ride onto Salisbury North Football Clubrooms for warmth, good food and fellowship.

Remember, Keep the shiny side up.

The Drivers Dog, aka ‘Forthy’

Participants on the 16th July Northern Run

Barry Carlisle 1958 Norton Twin Solo
Brian Forth 1942 BSA WM20 Solo
Natalie Halstead 1936 BSA R4 Solo (First time out)
Neil Hamilton 1951 Norton Big 4 Outfit
Brenton Halstead 1949 Sunbeam Solo  (First time out)
Rob Smyth 1929 AJS Cammy Solo   
Bob Kretschmer 1941 Army BSA Solo
Bob Gill 1927 Harley Davidson Solo
Russell Sadoroshny 1965 Matchless Solo

Malcolm Gray 1975 BMW Solo
Pud Freeman 1988 Kawasaki Solo
Paul Knapp 1972 Honda 4 Solo

Laurie Leibhardt Backup Trailer Plus several more in cars.

Last updated 3 Agugust 2006