Charles Oliver – Page 9 – The Classic Owners Motorcycle Club Inc.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all our members and their families

13 Dec

Classic Courier : December 2021 – February 2022

9 Dec

Ride to Lyndoch, 28th November 2021

28 Nov

Here are some more photos from today. We had a great ride through the Hills to Lyndoch for lunch dodging the Adelaide Rally; we did get held up by the Rally at one point but only momentarily. Seventeen bikes, including one outfit set out from our usual meeting place near the Burnside Pool at Hazelwood Park.

We had coffee at Birdwood before exploring some interesting back roads around the Little Para area including a bit of gravel road that got everyone’s attention. A few riders and passengers left the group at Lyndoch, while the remainder headed back via Tanunda, Angaston, Kyneton and Mt Pleasant.

Another great ride on a beautiful day with great company and some particularly interesting machines.

Thanks Tony for another great ride and some quick footwork to dodge the Rally.

Words & photos by Peter Perry.

Historic race bikes at tonight’s General Meeting

23 Nov

Who said general meetings were boring?

At our final General Meeting of 2021, club member Phil Baughan gave us a chat about his two historic racing bikes: A 650cc Triumph 6T engine in a BSA A10 frame sporting a Suzuki GT750 4-leading shoe front brake and a Honda CB350 twin with Amal concentric carbs. Both bikes have been modified considerably over several years of racing with parts designed and made by Phil himself.

It was a very interesting night, the two bikes are a credit to Phil’s mechanical and fabricating skills, and both nicely turned out with matching paint jobs too!

The next General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 25th January 2022 at 7:45pm at the West Croydon & Kilkenny RSL.

Lions Bike Show, Sunday November 7th

8 Nov

On a glorious Adelaide spring morning we attracted possibly a dozen riders for the trip to the Lions Bike Show at Macclesfield Oval departing from the usual spot ie. Hazelwood Park at 9 am. One of the more noticeable bikes was a Suzuki GS750 cafe racer, which sported some fairly chunky Hayabusa forks and a nice paint job, including the lovely retro ‘S’ Suzuki tank badge.

GS750 special joined us for the ride and won the show’s Best Japanese Bike award.

We took the most direct route – Mt Lofty , down to the Freeway, turned off at Stirling, through Echunga to Macclesfield. After an incident free journey we arrived at the oval, found Wayne Williams (gazebo transporter) and erected said gazebo along with a couple of club flags just behind the bikes. Quite a few of our members, who weren’t part of the ride, added their bikes to our display and there would have been possibly 15-20 bikes there at one point.

This years Lions Show attracted many more bikes than in previous years. It was a perfect day to get out on the bike and mix with fellow enthusiasts in a spacious outdoor setting in the Adelaide Hills. A handful of local bands entertained the punters with a good mix of rock favourites. The coffee stand and the BBQ were very popular throughout the morning. Even the swap meet stall holders managed to attract my custom, for a change.

The Norton Owners won the Best Club Display with a fine row of mainly Commandos. The British Triple enthusiasts had a good selection of Tridents, Rocket 3s and a couple of Hurricanes. Other displays from : Ulysses, VJMC, Harley, Choppers, V&V, Adventure Riders, Triumph Riders and COMCC lined the oval.

Most members left early leaving our display looking a bit sad

1953 Ariel VB600 part of our club display

I stuck around for the prize giving: V&V President Brian Forth won the Best American bike award with his Harley Davidson outfit for the second year running and a splendidly restored 1927 Rex Acme TT took out Best Bike. The Lions Bike Show is going from strength to strength and the organisers would be delighted by this year’s turnout, which was reportedly just under 3,000 – a great effort!

October Club Ride

1 Nov

18 riders fronted up for the October Sunday ride. Club Ride Captain Tony led our merry crew on a truly lovely ride on a beautiful (perfect) day of around 250km. A map of our route can be seen by following the link below.

https://www.relive.cc/view/v26MxVY7L3O

Our journey started up Greenhill Road crossing over the Freeway through Bridgewater. We stopped for coffee at Meadows then suitably fortified with caffeine with tackled some new roads and some familiar ones on our way to Cape Jervis via the exhilarating Ridgetop road from Victor Harbour for a photo stop.

No matter how many times I ride down that long straight descent into the Cape ferry terminal the view takes my breath away. It is always beautiful but today it was awesome. The sky and the sea were both the darkest deepest blue. KI seemed to swim suspended between sea and sky.

‘See those stripes, they’re painted’, scene at Cape Jervis.

We backtracked to Delamere for a bite to eat and a comfort stop before reveling in the beautiful road to Rapid Bay for another photo stop and for the writer to get ever so slightly bogged (big shout out to the rider who gave me a push back allowing me to retain some dignity). We concluded with a run over the Myponga reservoir from the Carrickalinga end.

The only real adventure was earlier on in the ride when a dog wearing the ‘collar of shame’ wandered out into the middle of the road and our group. Poor thing could only see straight ahead. Thanks to some fine bike handling by all involved and some excellent hand signals disaster was avoided.

As the photos show we are truly blessed to live in what is arguably the best state in the best country in the world. We have some problems, of course we do, but on balance we are truly blessed. For me this was a wonderful ride and I was very glad to be able to share it with Darryl Vee, a Hard Arse brother. I promised Darryl an entertaining ride and this ride certainly delivered.

We stopped for the last time at the Aldinga OTR and dispersed from there. If you are not making it to our Club rides you are missing great times.

Till next time keep the rubber on the road.

Thanks to Peter Perry for the words and photos from Adrian How.