ALBANY VINTAGE & CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE CLUB
February 2007 Club News
Two Peoples Bay | Locust | Calendar
The Locust Ride
Yes, we knew there were locusts about, but around a dozen riders and
partners were at the Amity, including three visitors, on a beaut summer
day. Frankland Roadhouse said there were only a couple of locusts and
I’d heard that they were down as far a Narrikup, although Ronnie said
there were some on the Lower Denmark Road.
But as we were riding along Narrikup and Mt Barker regions seemed to
be clear of them, maybe the buggers have disappeared! After a coffee
break at Cranbrook we rode onto Broomehill, just the other side of
Tambellup - whack, whack, then another whack, then I was tucking my
knees in behind the fairing trying to stay clear of the dreaded bugs.
Then they cleared up.
I overtook Max and Frank just
as Max was pointing to Frank’s bike.
Everything seemed OK, so I kept going to the Kojonup turn-off at
Broomehill. Nobody came for ages, then Frank and the two Johns went
past and the rest turned towards Kojonup.
The reason for the delay was Frank had a puncture, somebody had some
of that Swish stuff and stuck it in the tube, a bit of air from a
bottle and Frank was mobile again. We thought he was going to get the
trailer and take it back to Albany, but the Broomehill servo helped fix
the puncture and Frank would return to Albany under his own steam.
But the stuff that was sloshed around in the tube to keep the tyre
up made the patch leak and so he spent a long time getting to Albany
pumping up his tyre at every opportunity. Back to the
Broomehill-Kojonup Road - more locusts (great road though)!
After
arriving at Koji and filling up the tanks it was time for
lunch in the park. It was good to see Philip O’Halloran from Kojonup
and Don and Margaret from Katanning at the park as well. Don has
recently retired and Philip has been busy working on his BSA A10.
Morris Blake was also there, he was late for the start, but headed
through Frankland and then Kojonup, Broomehill etc. The opposite to
what we were riding. I think I had it down on the Calendar on page 12
that way, but inside in Future Events I had it the other way - sort of
covered both ways really. With lunch over we headed west of Kojonup
before heading down to Frankland - another great road.
After a short break there it was
onto Gilbert’s via Martagallup Road
for a cuppa, unfortunately they were full, so it was decided we’d head
for Mt Barker instead where coffee, coke and ice-creams were the order
of the day. I thought I’d better clean the bikes of dead locusts before
the ants get to them in the shed when I got home and I was quite
surprised to see the amount that were plastered on the bikes, as well
as helmet, jacket and boots etc, it took me about 3 hours to clean it
all up.
But it was a great day with brilliant roads and weather despite the
grasshoppers trying to put a damper on things.