ALBANY VINTAGE & CLASSIC MOTORCYCLE CLUB

August 2008 Club News

Raiders of the Lost Pudding

Explained by Paul Fry

It seems, after talking with many keen motorcyclists, that the story of the ‘The Pudding’ is not as widely known as I’d thought. So after being called a bullshit artist, not really that far off the mark, by many people I’ve decided to educate a few of you heathens about a sacred relic in Australia’s rich motorcycling folklore. The story is about a Big Sister Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding that goes back thirty years. It started life in Bear’s, (not Peter Thoeming’s) saddlebags and was taken to motorcycle rallys, big piss-ups around fires in the bush, as an emergency source of food if required.

It became a bit of a joke amongst those in the know that over the years it had done a lot of travelling and never been eaten. The joke continued when it started to be passed around motorcyclists and it began to criss-cross the country. It has now been travelling Australia’s highways and backroads for thirty years. Over time those who carried the pudding, the rule being it could only travel by motorcycle, started scratching their names on it and it had received a few dents. More recently the tin started to crack and the smell of the pudding inside wasn’t too flash so Beetle had the bright idea of encasing it in a block of resin as it is now. ‘The Pudding’ doesn’t belong to anyone and doesn’t stay in one place for long. The idea is it must be passed on and it must keep travelling around the country on a bike.

Some funny stories about it are that one bloke broke down but on a technicality got away with having the pudding on a truck because it was still in his pannier on the bike on the truck. Another story has a breakdown and they strapped the pannier to the roof of a car because that way it wasn’t actually travelling in the car.

Another bloke thought he do something a little different and ride to Ayer’s Rock and take ‘The Pudding’ up to the top. He was a bit disappointed when boasting of his exploit only to have explained that it had been there at least five times before. So anywhere you go in Australia there is a fair chance it has been there before you.
Recently it was carried in the Australian Safari on a bike by Fred from Jerramungup. This is amazing because in an event like the Safari Off Road Race you carry only essentials and get rid of any weight not vital.

At 100mm high and about 120mm in diameter and weighing about half a kilo it is not an inconsiderable extra load to be carrying through the scrub, but he did it. From there Dave took it to Freo, to Bear. Someone picked it up from Freo and took it to Port Pirie where someone took it to the BMW rally at Spear Creek where someone else took it to Phillip Island where it was handed to Chris who took it to Melbourne and who will take it up to Kosciusko this weekend. It’s estimated that in the last month it has travelled about 20 000km.

Someone has come up with the idea that those who carry the pudding donate a cent per kilometre to the Flying Doctor service. Seeing how a lot of motorcyclists have used this service over the years in some pretty remote locations I think it is a brilliant idea. I first read about it in an old Two Wheels mag from the 80’s in an article by Geoff Hall. Since then it has popped up in conversations at rallies and in other magazines. I’d always hoped one day to see the legendary pudding and hoped on this trip that we might cross its path. Anyway that’s my intro, a bit long-winded but I hope it sheds some light for a few people.

Other pudding links:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89693
http://www.advrider.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=32