Wing Notes

Newsletter of the

 

September 2006

Sometimes a late night can leave you confused

What’s Inside?

 

 

The Editor Writes

The President Speaks

The Secretary’s Desk

Rewarding Rekky Ride

Strike Bowl

Winter in Victoria

Jayne’s trivia

Bear’s & Jayne’s Dam Ride

Qld Ride Calendar

Vic Ride Calendar

Meeting Minutes

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www.auswingriders.com

Australian Wing Riders Association (Qld) Inc

PO Box 719, Ashgrove    Qld     4060

Wing Notes

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE AUSTRALIAN WING RIDERS ASSOCIATION QLD INCORPORATED

 

 

EDITOR:.............Bevan Bradford

Phone:  07 3822 3512

Mobile 0408 714 000

E-Mail:     mail @ auswingriders.com

 

Wing Notes is produced with the object of keeping members informed about matters of interest to AWRA members.  A electronic copy of each issue is available to every financial member of the AWRA.  Copies are also distributed to selected motorcycle dealers in the greater Brisbane area

Submissions for inclusion in Wing Notes should be with the Editor no later than the Friday following the monthly meeting, i.e.: Friday after the 1st Monday of the month.

DISCLAIMER:  Although Wing Notes will endeavour to reproduce submissions in their original form it reserves the right to edit submissions as it sees fit.  Views expressed in contributed articles in Wing Notes are not necessarily those of the AWRA or the Editor.  Wing Notes is produced with care, in good faith and from sources believed to be accurate at the time of writing.

 

 

Management Committee:

Meetings:

President

Clint Lovell (07) 3398 3437

E-mail: clinton @ lovell.com.au

Secretary

Val Thomas (07) 3848 0498

E-mail: secretary @ auswingriders.com

Meetings are held on the

1st Monday of every month

 

Vice President

Rob (Bear) Harriss 0409 052 218

E-mail: RHMRS @ iinet.com.au

 

Treasurer

Geoff Mead  (07) 5529 5034

E-mail: meady @ auswingriders.com

Next meeting:          3rd October 2006

7:30 pm

Edinburgh Hotel, Gympie Road, Kedron

 

 

Ideas for those who consider their current trailer too small

Upcoming activities:

 

 

17th September      Bunya Mountains ride

 

22nd – 24th Sept      Biker’s Dream weekend

2nd October            October General Meeting

15th October           Ride through Mt Glorious. Mt Mee, Dayboro & surrounds

Leukaemia Ride for a Cure

Turkeys

A lady was picking through the frozen turkeys at the grocery store but she couldn't find one big enough for her family. She asked a stock boy, "Do these turkeys get any bigger?"

The stock boy replied, "No ma'am, they're dead."

Speedsters

The cop got out of his car and the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window. "I've been waiting for you all day," the cop said. The kid replied, "Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could." When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket.


The Editor Writes…..

The President Speaks….

The Secretary’s Desk….

G’day everyone

 

First up, let me thank everyone who has contributed to this month’s magazine.  Not just stories but with interesting snippets of information that I reckon you’ll be interested in.

 

Now to apologise for being late.  I should have been ready last weekend but due to some personal things I had to do and some work requirements that made late evening shifts on the mag a bit difficult, I just haven’t had a chance to get it done.

 

What a couple of weeks we’ve had.  First Steve Irwin followed by Peter Brock.  Both men extremely well respected across the world. Each so different yet so similar.  Sure, one was a loud in-your-face type of guy, the other a quieter, personable bloke with time for all his fans.  Both entertainers who excelled at what they did.  Each recognised by the public and their peers as being one of the best in their fields.

 

A strange coincidence was that although born in differing years, there was 4 days between their birthdays and now there is 4 days between their deaths.

 

Just as I did, I’m sure there are many of you out there about my age that grew up watching Peter Brock drive and were still following his activities to this day.

 

While it really is a bit of a cliché, in this case both men died doing what they enjoyed most.  Long may they be remembered.

 

To top it off, a mate of mine ran into the back of a car recently, wrote the bike off and ended up with a broken collar bone.  He reckons that Val’s shoulder must have hurt ‘cause his does and it’s not as bad as hers.

 

Ride safe and keep the shiny side up.

 

‘Till next month,

Happy reading.

Bevan

Hi all,

 

There are plenty of Wing Riders in the world today.  Lots of them are computer savvy as well.  Subsequently there are many GoldWing websites out there, too many to mention.  Just enter GoldWing in Google and you’ll see what I mean.

 

But try Wing Riders and we get top billing with our site.  Note that we are hosted on a USA server so you have to go worldwide rather than Australian.

 

One I found recently is wingridersboard.com which is a USA site based in California and run by an accessory dealer wingstuff.com.  Lots of goodies for sale there, but also lots of advice on the board that you and I can use to our advantage.  A couple of other sites I regularly peruse are gl1800riders.com, a dealer-sponsored site and goldwingfacts.com, a private site based in Ireland, but very popular.

 

If you go to any of these forum sites, look out for Clintsc9.  That’s me.  I use the same userID on all the forums I participate in. 

 

It is all good fun and you can pick up lots of hints and tips along the way.  You can also come across some very strange ideas too, so it is best to keep an open mind and run everything you read on the internet past your own personal BS detector.

 

Happy surfing.

 

 

Clint

Hello everyone,

 

Excellent result this month, following a very pleasant ‘rekky ride’ to Bribie Island – we have a venue for our Christmas week-end.  Now, please put your thinking caps on for an appropriate venue for our next A.G.M.

 

 Parties seem to be the main theme for the next couple of months, and we are looking forward to all of them.  It is that time of the year as well, so watch out for those reckless drivers.  Thommo and I have been seeing a lot of ‘silly’ and thoughtless drivers lately, and that has been just while we are commuting to and from work!

 

 Club filing is up to date, so my desk is looking tidier than Thommo’s.  Look forward to seeing you all at the next ride, social and/or monthly meeting.  Meanwhile, safe riding.

 

 

Safe riding everyone.

 

Valerie & Thommo


Rewarding Rekky Ride.

A decision on our Christmas party venue is urgent, and following the decision at the last committee meeting Thommo rallied the troops for a ride to Bribie Island. Following a couple of phone calls we confirmed to meet at BP Caboolture, on Sunday morning 26th August at 9.30 am for 10 am departure.

This ride followed a very hectic and loud night at Strike Bowling venue in Surfers Paradise. I certainly cannot comment on the bowling antics that evening as I couldn’t bowl, but the brightly coloured balls together with the video screens and loud music certainly made for a very entertaining evening! I believe our club numbers overwhelmed the bar, our meal orders took an extremely long time to be fulfilled.

The Carters took the lead as they had a place to check-out as well on Bribie. What a glorious day we have for a ride, and we cruised easily up the highway. Over the Bribie bridge and then it was the handy u-turn on the roundabout to turn into the Bribie Waterways Motel. What a pleasant layout, overlooking the water, pool and restaurant and we considered that we could possibly book the whole Motel and have total privacy! We made a tentative booking, with the comment that we would confirm later that day following our checking-out the other venue.

So we duly rode over to the ocean side to check-out the Big 4 Caravan Park, but we must admit we pulled up at the gates and made the immediate decision that the Motel was a much more attractive choice for our group to enjoy the intimate locality for our party. Our next major decision was food – and we were going to check-

To the point that some of our members were refunded for the delay, and just started to enjoy their burgers when the games had started. The skittles were falling until 11.30 pm and so were our eyelids until we rolled out of the carpark and into Surfers Paradise. Wow – Caville Avenue was buzzing, and Rays eyes popped at the sights on the street. Our bikes were receiving a lot of attention, and Ray was giving the locals a lot of attention in return! Thanks to Meady we negotiated ourselves out of Surfers and then onto the highway for home. Thank you Meady for a very enjoyable and different social.

Consequently, Thommo and I were very slow Sunday morning but we made it on time to Caboolture to find 7 bikes waiting for us! What a roll-up – Charleen on the 1800 Red, Meady, Bill & Mary, Bevan & Therese, Larry & Annette, Phil & Vicki and Phil. Eric and Deb were meeting-up with us on the highway – 10 bikes in total.

out the RSL which was also a possibility for our evening meals. A very enjoyable ride along the esplanade and we made it to the RSL just in time for a very appetising and reasonably priced lunch.

We confirmed the booking with the Waterways Motel for the weekend 2nd December. So folks, that is our Christmas venue finalised and not before time as we were lucky to get that week-end. Now we have to put our thinking caps on for the ‘Secret Santa’ surprises, and even more important (what am I going to wear?).  After our very relaxing lunch we were given a guided tour around the new and luxurious canal developments


 

happening on the island. Very impressive and expensive, but give me good old Brizzie any day!  It could have been the hectic night life last night, but we were all ready to head for home at 2 pm and we were home by 3 pm and stuffed! We had a great day again with a great bunch. Mission accomplished -

thanks to everyone who contributed to that great ride. Thommo did not wash the car, and I just made a cuppa and we duly napped in our respective chairs! What a week-end.

Thommo and Valerie.

Strike Bowl

6pm saw me arriving at BP Stapleton with many bikes and riders already there for the 6:30 departure.

We all sat down and had a drink and more and more bikes turned up, in total 13 bikes and 1 more to pick up in Southport.

We headed off from the BP and travelled down the highway to Hope Island for a little tour around, included was Paradise Point, Runaway Bay, Ephiam Island then into Southport and Surfers Paradise.

We arrived at STRIKE Bowl around 7:20, and then it was inside to order drinks and dinner.  Within a short time I got the hint that the music was loud (only because every one told me so) but we all tried to overcome that part. Dinner was eaten and then onto getting the shoes and bowling.  With 4 lanes of us and 26 people bowling (4 did not bowl) we started and without too much time, most of us forgot the loud music and started to really enjoy the night.

Around 10:30 a few of us started going home and the rest of us finished around 11:20.  I then tried to get them out of town but some, (Thommo), just could not get their eyes off the eye candy around Surfers at that

time at night. Finally I got everyone up to Smith Street and they all headed home.

I hope you all had a great night, I know I did and Makiko and Kyle as well. (Makiko should come on more rides but she is so BUSY).  Bugger!!

So from me, thanks for coming and next time we shall go to a normal Bowling alley and have some more fun together as I think we all enjoyed the night and each others company.

Thanks

MEADY


The Immutable Laws of Motorcycling

·        Motorcycling is not dangerous. Crashing is what is dangerous.

·        Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

·        You start with a bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

·        Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately the experience usually comes from bad judgment.

·        Keep scanning and doing head checks. There is always something you have missed.

·        If you wear an open face helmet, avoid crashing face down.

·        In the ongoing battle between motorcycles travelling at high speeds and the ground travelling at zero, the ground has yet to lose.

·        In the ongoing battle between vehicles weighing over a tonne and motorcycles weighing less than a tonne, the rule of weight applies.

·        The only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire.

·        Tests have shown that good leathers slide on bitumen for 80 metres before wearing through. Denim slides 8 metres and everything else is worse than that. Only wear denim for short slides.

·        It is always a good idea to keep the end with the large light going forwards as much as possible

·        Stay out of fog (clouds). The silver lining is probably a Mercedes.

Notices

Ride for a Cure    Sunday 15th October 2006

AWRA Christmas Dinner

Changed to 2nd December 2006

Waterways Motel, Bribie Island.  Members to contact the Motel and make own bookings.  Please book as soon as possible and tell them you are with AWRA

27 units – Ph: 07 3410 199. Fax: 07 5497 5010.

155 Welsby Parade, Bongaree, Bribie Island. Toll Free 1800 072 080

Your choice to stay for both Friday and Saturday nights

e.mail: reception@bribiewaterways.com.au

Leukaemia Foundation

This is the former Cassie Doyle Ride we have supported over the past few years.  Unfortunately, it again falls on our ride day but for anyone interested, information will be available next meeting.

Take the ride of your life with a convoy of more than 200 bikes and cruise through the beautiful Gold Coast hinterland and support the Leukaemia Foundation.

Pillion registration of $125.00 gives breakfast, morning tea, lunch, a ride, and entertainment.  Riders get that for just participating.  Bring your own pillion or get one there.

Can Art


Winter in Victoria

Doug & Preeta and Jenny

Denny and Tim

The Victorian Members

Well it’s that time of the year when we Victorians have gone into hibernation for the winter however that does not stop us from getting together and having dinner.   In July we had dinner with most of the members

attending.  A good night was had by all with another one planned for early September.

The night also gave us the opportunity to say Farwell to Doug and Preeta who are heading back to Qld to live so, hopefully they will stay in contact I suspect Doug will have to come back to Vic to get a refill of red Wine as I am sure the Qld vintage would not be the same as a Victorian red.

I have attached some photos of the night they were taken with a phone camera so the quality is not that good. Hope this article finds you all well and riding lots more then we are at the moment.

John

J&M developing a new wireless headset.

News is that J&M has released a new range of accessories including Bluetooth attachments for GPS and phones etc.  Some specifically for the GL1800.

The announcement includes

 

“Many of you are patiently waiting for a full featured wireless helmet headset, to finally cut the cord between your helmet and the motorcycle.

 

You will be happy to know that all of us here at J&M are giving this our full attention and we expect to release our first wireless helmet headset sometime in the spring of 2007.”

 

For further information go to:

http://www.jmcorp.com/SeeProducts.asp?PF=30

More Can Art


Jayne’s trivia

I thought I would use this space this month to add to our dam ride with some facts.

 

·        Lake Dyer (Bill Gunn Dam) is a natural lake adjacent to Laidley Creek. Constructed in 1987 for irrigation purposes.  1.5 km west of Laidley. The dam wall is earth fill and is 1170mt long and 12mts high. The storage capacity is 6950ML, average depth of 7m with a maximum surface area of  108ha.

·        Atkinson Dam was a natural lagoon prior to the wall being constructed in 1970  for irrigation purposes.  18km from Lowood. The dam wall is earth fill and is 1570mt long and 12.2mts high. The storage capacity is 30500ML with a surface area of 550ha.

·        Lake Wivenhoe is on the Brisbane River approx 150km from the river mouth. The dam structure was completed in 1985 for water supply & flood mitigation. The full storage capacity is 1 150 000 megalitres and will hold twice the volume of water of Sydney Harbour. Temporary flood storage capacity is 1 450 000 megalitres

·        Somerset Dam in on the Stanley River approx 220km from the mouth of the Brisbane River. It was constructed between 1935 and 1959 for flood mitigation and water supply. Work was suspended for six yrs due to WWII. The full storage level is 910 000megalitres covering 8100 ha of land and extends 56km upstream. The dam wall is a mass concrete gravity type using 203 000 cubic metres using sheer weight to hold back the water.  The wall is 305metres long and approx 41 metres at its widest point.  Water is released from Somerset to supplement Wivenhoe, which in turn supplements the natural flow of the Brisbane River and maintains an adequate supply of water to the Mt Crosby pumping station, 132 kms down stream. The Mt Crosby treatment plant purifies the river water which is then piped to Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich and Redcliffe. 

Bear’s and Jayne’s Dam Ride

Bear & I were at BP Blacksoil just a little early in case there were some early birds!

A little after 8 Rob says ‘Oh well if no one shows we’ll still make a day of it and go anyway we’ve got our food & drink packed’. I said it’s only early yet we still have plenty of time. ‘Wings started rolling in around 8.30 and it was then I realized Rob thought it was supposed to be leave at 8.30 not 9.00. He was smiling then.

Anyway as soon as the Thommos’ arrived it was a

quick briefing and away we went, 10 bikes in all, up the highway and turned it at Marburg for some country road riding and a small town look see.

We made our way through Marburg, Tallegalla, Ashwell, Lanefield (near our place), heading up to our first dam look at Laidley - Lake Dyer. This is an ‘agricultural dam’ with not much water in at the moment of course.  When it’s full it is quite popular for recreation including skiing. 


 

When we first moved to Rosewood in ‘85 Rob actually used to go skiing with his boss here before work some mornings as it is so close to Rosewood (approx 25km) and I think from memory one of the first dams to have the dreaded ’blue-green algae’ quite a few years ago.

No stopping here just getting our obligatory U-turn out of the way. A little back tracking and through Laidley Creek West, and would you believe it on a quiet country road, Sunday morning, no traffic and what should we have but Traffic Lights! (these were to make Valerie feel like she was