OzSTOC
OzSTOC Ride Reports, Pictures & Videos => RIDE REPORTS => Topic started by: STeveo on October 09, 2013, 07:30:38 PM
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Had to do two ANDRA tech inspections and a magazine interview about my racing career in Newcastle yesterday. Left with plenty of time in hand to be at the first inspection by 11am, but didn't count on the roadworks or all the 'numpties' towing their caravans home after the long weekend at 80Km/h. So, I ended up being 1 hour late with no time for stops (except at the roadworks). Inspections done and interview finished (and had to wait for a thunder storm to pass) I headed up the pacific slab to Nabiac but only made it to Buladelah before my joints cried enough. Found a cheap motel ($55.00 cash) and crashed for the night. :H
Woke to beautiful clear skies and on to the National Motorcycle Museum to do some research on an old bike I am restoring. Attacked the 'series of interconnecting potholes' that is the Buckets Way (so called because one bucketful is all the workers are allowed to use on the potholes), coffee in the Roadies café in Gloucester, and home via the Port Stephens Cutting to Tamworth.
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So Buckets Way isn't all it's cracked up to be then STeveo.
What bike are you restoring?
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:thumbsup......Is the Topdale Rd end sealed now Steve ?
:beer
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Yes, Topdale all sealed now.
Buckets way is cracked up alright, and potholed and split and lumpy and ....
A 1937 Royal Enfield Model A. A ridged framed, girder forked, hand change 225cc two stroke. My father had a '39 model D that he taught my mum to ride on in 1943.
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A 1937 Royal Enfield Model A. A rigid framed, girder forked, hand change 225cc two stroke. My father had a '39 model D that he taught my mum to ride on in 1943.
Wow! That's a mouthful. Real family heritage there.
You're Mum was ahead of her time. Not many women rode back in the 30's, I'd reckon. No wonder it's in your blood.
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A 1937 Royal Enfield Model A. A ridged framed, girder forked, hand change 225cc two stroke. My father had a '39 model D that he taught my mum to ride on in 1943.
Sounds like a bike with plenty of character.
"My father had a '39 model D that he taught my mum to ride on in 1943" - i love stories like this.
Absolute gems that make me :grin :grin :grin
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Well, if you want the rest of the story.
Dad lived on the corner of the street that I now live in, and mum lived half way up the block. Mum's parents wouldn't let her go out with this young bloke on a motorbike, so dad would borrow his older brothers Whippet car and go pick her up, back to the house and off on the bike. Dad would ride out of town and put mum on the front and give her instructions from the pillion seat. Mum was a good rider/driver (she got her driving licence in a 3 ton Bedford truck and still had a class three (Heavy Rigid) when she handed her licence in at 85) being only booked once for speeding (at age 80!) and having one minor accident in 1952.
The deception went well until one day they were coming back into town (with mum riding) and they passed her parents going the other way in their car. Ooops! :eek
They were married soon after.
Mum drove wheat trucks at harvest, drove the tractor ploughing while dad ate lunch and rode the AG bike until a fall in her early sixties caused a bit of gravel rash and she decided that was enough. I took her for many rides on my 750 Honda, and she loved watching speedway.
She is now (at 88) too frail to get out much, but still likes to hear about my travels. :clap
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Steveo no doubt you are proud of your parents, and rightly so.
It is from people like our parents & grandparents etc that has made the "foundation" of our lucky country today.
Bring back the days of "less is more", when you talked face to face, not that twitterbook (joke)
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Great bit of personal history from an unfortunately long gone & much missed simpler (?) time .
Thanks for sharing Steve, it's put another big smile on my dial !
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It's great to hear that your mum still has a passion for motorcycles after all this time :thumbsup
And what a great way for her to continue to enjoy motorcycles after she has had to stop riding herself, through her son's adventures :runyay
Thanks for sharing a bit of your family history with the OzSTOC family :thumbs
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Fantastic story. I'm the youngest of 6 kids and I'm the only one that got hooked on motorcycling. Bought my first bike at 15, a DT175 Yamie. Both my boys are hooked as they've grown up with me having bikes. I just think it's one of lives great pleasures. :thumb