WING NOTES

Newsletter of the

March 2004

Australian Wing Riders Association (Qld) Inc

P O Box 719, Ashgrove

Queensland 4060

www.auswingriders.com

Wing Notes

March      2004

EDITOR:.............Clint Lovell

Phone:  07 3398 3437

Mobile 04 1819 2040

E-Mail:     clinton@lovell.com.au

WING NOTES is produced with the object of keeping members informed about matters of interest to AWRA members.  A copy of each issue is sent 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.

ê                   The Editor Writes & Secretary’s Desk           2

ê                   The President Speaks                                      3

ê                   Ride Report – Deb’s Birthday Bash               4

ê                   Social Report – Valentine’s Dinner                5

ê                   Ride Report – Bjelke-Petersen Dam              6

ê                   Pics from Deb’s Birthday                               8

ê                   Extra Photos                                                    9

ê                   Ride/Social Calendar                                    10

ê                   Meeting Minutes (Members Only)               11

The Editor Writes…..

Hello All

As I am currently heading for Perth in a truck, Charleen has put the magazine together this month.  We’re getting quite excited about our first Ulysses AGM.  I’ll only be home a couple of days before the club ride south begins.

(Later) I got back before it was completed.  I heard that Bevan!

Phew.  What a long boring drive that was.  I hate being restricted to 100kph.  Saw quite a few Ulyssians crossing “The Paddock” from W.A.   Gonna be a big turn-out.

Contributions for this magazine can be emailed to info@auswingriders.com or posted to 47 Breslin St, Carina, Qld 4152.  Photos and slides can be scanned and returned.

Clint

The Secretary’s Desk

February was not only a short/leap month, but a very hot one for everyone.  Luckily I was not overworked again, demands have been kept to a minimum for me.  My only priority other than the minutes for our club meeting and committee meeting was to contact the Helidon Resort to confirm the total of beds available for our AGM weekend.  Pleased to report that they can sleep 46 people, which should accommodate our club’s demands.  Just note that the beds comprise of 17 double and 12 single beds.  So at the next meeting I will make the all important list.

To all those lucky members who are making the long trip to Geelong for the Ulysses AGM, Ray & I wish you all a safe and enjoyable ride – and we will think of you all. 

Until next time – Valerie.

The President Speaks……                         

Again I'm late but Clint is away so he won't know.  At least by being late I have something to talk about.  The last couple of months I have been discussing tyres and lack of suitable service standards.  This month I intend to cover both points again but from a different angle.

Last month I mentioned how different tyres will often suit different people due to different riding styles, weight, suspension settings etc.  As a point of interest, how long is it since you had the front suspension serviced.  I am pretty fussy with mine and change the fork oil every 12 months.  About 8 months ago it was changed as part of a service.  Since then the forks had developed a slight leak around the caps so on Saturday I replaced the "o" rings.  As I haven't been happy with the front end recently, I took the opportunity to check and change the oil again.  It turns out the oil level was about 130 mm lower than I wanted and about 150 mm lower than it should have been. Both forks were the same and it had not leaked that much.  Another servicing error?  Who knows, it's certainly suspect!

What's that got to do with tyres you ask.  Simple.  I referred previously to suspension settings for tyre comparisons.  After servicing, a quick car park ride followed by about 40 km home and the difference was astounding.  The recent problems blamed on the front tyre have all but disappeared and suddenly I can steer into and go round corners with confidence again.  It also absorbs bumps again instead of crashing through them.  This had been a long-term problem with the Progressive springs but it now seems to have not been the fault of the springs.

The point of all this is, there is more to tyres than pressure, there is more to steering than tyres and there is more to suspension than springs and specified amount of oil.  Make sure you know what is happening before you lay the blame for any problem on one specific item.

Keep the shiny side up and let's go to Geelong.

Bevan

New location - 65 Jalomy St.  Boondall   Qld  4034

Please ring for an appointment

As this is a private residence - NO cold calls at premises please.

RIDE REPORTS

Ride Report – Deb’s Birthday Bash

by Eric Maderic

(Social ride to The Wharf Tavern Mooloolabah)

With the afternoon looking grey, Deb and I were having thoughts that the night ride might not be a goer.  A couple of phone calls from those that decided not to chance the weather and we again were thinking that the night might be a cancelled event.

We set of for the BP North Caboolture at 5pm still unsure of how many might turn up, and still contemplating that we may end up cancelling.

Surprise, surprise not wanting to miss out on a good night ride we had 22 starters for dinner and a ride up to Noosa.  Joining us were Ray and Anna from the Sunshine coast friends of Rusty and Maree.  Phoned through to the Tavern to give them numbers, they still had not decided (due to the weather) where to set up for us, inside or out.  Having already decided to go straight up the highway in case of any bad weather, we set off and had an uneventful but pleasant ride to Mooloolabah.  O the way Rusty and Maree joined us at the Caloundra exit.

Arriving at the Tavern around 7pm, we all settled in to a variety of tasty and well presented meals, the seafood and fish and chip meals served in wire deep fry baskets was an interesting touch.

Toward the end of the meal the raffle was drawn, first prize going to Turbo, and once again the raffle donor won, this time it was Deb, the redraw going to Rusty and Maree.  Having enjoyed a good meal, great company and good conversation, although Therese had a long wait to get hers, it was time to make a move and enjoy the rest of the night with a ride along the coast road to Noosa, led by Rusty.  Brian and Ann left us here as Ann had an early start next morning.

By the time we were ready to leave the sky had turned an ominous grey, the good thing was that it had cooled down somewhat.  Some where the other side of Coolum we were given a slight wetting down, but it was refreshing.  Over the CB came a variety of comments about the moisture falling, particularly from Thommo who obviously does not like riding in it.  Unfortunately we were to get quite a bit more later in the ride, with more comments from Thommo, but all in good humour.

At Noosa we found bike parking on the main road and drew quite a crowd of onlookers and admirers. It was a pleasant reminder of the first ride Deb and I had with the group.  Whilst most enjoyed an ice cream, the pics tell all, others talked to onlookers, or took a walk and enjoyed the evening.  We may have even converted a couple of Harley riders in the process.

We left Noosa around 11pm, however a few (not mentioning anyone God) who had been deeply involved in conversation with some locals had not noticed the group were riding off.  Luckily we hadn’t gotten too far when we discovered that some were missing.  After regrouping we had another uneventful but slight damp ride back out to the highway, saying our farewells to Rusty, Maree, Ray and Anna at the Caloundra exit the rest rode on toward home.

A bit more rain fell on the way back to BP Caboolture South where some stopped to grab a drink and say goodnight.

To all who made it along it was a great night, and Deb enjoyed the company and the happy birthday sing-along in the main street of Noosa.  To those who didn’t make it, told you it would be a good ride Eddie!

Ride Report – Valentine’s Dinner at Fishbowl Restaurant

by Valerie & Thommo

Saturday 14^th February was booked for a Valentines dinner at the Fishbowl Seafood Restaurant.  Having been advised that it had changed hands and was now owned by the hotel, they assured me that the menu was much the same, and they had a live band for entertainment, I was really looking forward to this evening.

Saturday dawned and it was hot and steamy.  Ray & I enjoyed our air-conditioned shop for the morning before hurrying home for lunch and for Ray to wash the Wing.  He also decided that he would fit the new battery in the Wing, as the current battery was giving trouble.  This is not a very good idea at 3 pm when we have to leave at 4.30 pm!  We had all these strange bits in our driveway and Ray was trying not to swear loudly as our grandson was watching the action – but it wasn’t looking very good.  So I made an urgent call to Bevan to let him know that we were going to be late and to kindly ask if he would take charge of the ride to Redcliffe.  Bevan was not totally convinced that Ray would not have the battery changed over in ½ an hour but I had to assure him that mechanics is not Ray’s favourite pastime!

We were on our Wing, with the original battery back in place at 7.30 pm!  The new battery is sitting on the garage shelf, different shaped bolts being the problem.  So we made our way up the highway, beautiful evening, enjoying the breeze and looking forward to seeing everyone, and hoping that we made it before dessert.  We arrived at the restaurant to see quite a few of our members out on the footpath waiting to greet us?  When we took our helmets off we were told that our greeting party were really out there to get cool, as the restaurant had no cooling system in place.  Oh dear, what a disappointment, not only was it so crowded and hot, some of the meals had been disappointing and the band was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself speak!

Well, we said hello to everyone as it was a huge turnout.  It is such a shame that the venue did not live up to its expectations and as I love to talk the music spoiled that as well!  So Ray made the decision that we wouldn’t sit around, we would have a night ride and the rest agreed to go and find an ice-cream in Caloundra.  Some (led by Bill & Mary) went to Mount Coot-tha!  I am really sorry that we did not get to enjoy this venue as much as we had expected too and for those who couldn’t make the night ride.  But there will be other socials we can catch-up with you all.

In the meantime, we helmeted up and headed up the highway.  Again, it was a relief to have the breeze and it was a pleasant ride with 8 bikes.  We pulled up in Caloundra to find that our sunshine holiday coast closes at 10 pm.  There was nothing open, not even the Golden Arches (McDonalds) where we all executed very neat u-turns again.  So, we headed back down the highway where we voted to pull into Moby Vics – surely they would have ice-cream!  Wrong – they had skeleton staff on who appeared not to want to serve anyone, so we resorted to finding an ice block in the freezer and paying at the petrol cashier.  What a night of calamities – thank goodness we are with friends!

Now, we really had to get home, as we wanted to be fresh for our ride the next day, Sunday to Bjelke-Petersen Dam.  So we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed for home.  We had a good run home and arrived home at 1 am.  What a day/night.

Thank you to everyone for making it to the venue and again our apologies for being so late.  It was great to see everyone even some very briefly but we will have another night.  The ride was great and thank you to those (as mad as us) who joined us on our night expedition for an ice-cream.

Better luck next time.

RIDE REPORT

by Mary & Lionel Jacobsen

Ride Report – Bjelke- Petersen Dam

After a really steamy night out at the Fish Bowl with the GoldWing crowd the night before, we really did not expect to see very many people turn up the next morning.  So we were delighted to have about nine bikes arrive when the weather was predicted to be hot, AND IT WAS!!!!!!!!  Really pleased to see Bill and Mary made it back up from the Coast.

We knew it was hot when Winston refused to come out of the shade and hid in the bushes until the last minute.  We were happy to see Lindsay with Barbie again, not that we’re trying to match-make, it’s just we love Barbie’s innovative riding gear.  It was hot pink, whereas it had been red the night before.

Lindsay only stayed with us for the ride over Mt. Glorious which was the coolest part of the whole day- very pleasant.

The shade shelter at Esk was a welcome respite for morning tea.  Wendy joined us there on “Champers”.  Having only just associated the name with the champagne colour, thought it had to with being a champion, but then I seem to see things differently a lot of the time and it gets me into strife.

The ride on through the Brisbane Valley was very picturesque.  The recent rains have really brought out the beauty of the countryside.  There were lots of other riders out enjoying the day, even though it was hot. 

As we approached the Dam the vineyards and the olive groves made particularly great viewing.  The Dam itself was pleasant to look at, but there was little in the way of a breeze to cool us down. 

Winston and Yolande and Val and Thommo had the right idea and had a snooze under a tree while waiting for the barbecue group to finish.

The ride home was hot, at one stage Lionel checked the air temperature and it was 38 degrees.  Some people turned off to go home via Ipswich and the rest of went via Kilcoy and home.

We hope everyone had a good ride despite the heat.  Those who went have some idea of how we felt on our trip home from Sydney in early January when we nearly expired from the heat.  Thanks everyone for venturing out to join us.

Ride Report – Bjelke- Petersen Dam cont’d

A few more Pictures from Deb’s Birthday Bash (Page 4)

Eric and Deb’s new “Cool” look.

Mal and Tina

e-mail: nnikki69@optusnet.com.au                                                              Turbo's Mobile 0421 304 144

RIDE DATES: Unless otherwise arranged, rides will be on the 3rd Sunday of the month,
and Social rides the following weekend.

** Ride organizers: Please check the details of your ride and let me know of any changes.

IMPORTANT: Even if you have not finalised the details of your ride, just supply the start time & location, the general direction of the ride, and the meal arrangements.

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:

It is the personal responsibility of each motorcyclist to be responsible for at least the following;

Æ      The roadworthiness of your vehicle (including trailer)

Æ      That you are in a fit condition to control the vehicle, (including trailer)

Æ      Make sure you have a full tank of fuel before departing on a ride.

Æ      That you obey all the traffic rules and ride in a safe manner.

Æ      That you ride in a considerate manner that does not endanger, or unnecessarily inconvenience other road users.

Æ      To be correctly attired for safe motorcycling.

Æ      To have fun and enjoy the day, and the company.

WOO'S WOES:

Thank you all those who supported the club at the last meeting by putting up their hands to organise Rides and Socials.

Now all I need is for some of you to send me some details.

Please note my new email address.