Rallies through the years
The good old days, were they really that good?
Let’s get into the Way-Back machine Herman and remove those rose tinted glasses and remember the sunburn, freezing cold and wet sometimes all at the same time! My first inkling of going away on a motorcycle was when the Easter Bathurst motorcycle race was on when real motorcyclists rode their Spitfires, Commandos and Bonnie’s thru the Friday night with there Army great coats, flying boots and a bottle of Stones Green Ginger Wine in your pillions pocket to help with the stamina in the unpredictable weather conditions, no heated grips, full face helmets or touring screens those days, maybe a old cop handlebar screen if you were a “Nancy Boy”roadhouses were dotted along the old Hume Highway usually for a cup of coffee a P155 (piss) or some roadside maintenance under the forecourt lights.
Then on through the night to get to your destination with coppers pulling you in to harass the shit out you and no breathalyser tests those days fortunately or unfortunately before collapsing for a couple of hours to get on the beers that means breakfast, lunch and tea and every hour in between till the last race on Sunday on you return to Melbourne for work Monday morning. You probably wouldn’t have slept much beside your bike as everyone was yahooing all night or down rioting at the police compound trying to bash or burn them out, you tried sleeping out in the open on a rough patch of dirt unless one of your mates was a weirdo and rode a sidecar then he may have brought a tent and cooking utensils which everyone befriended immediately. Yes those were the days when men were men and women were men!
Sounds graphic doesn’t it, but there were other rallies like:
The Kangaroo Rally 1975
Held in winter near Bendigo that participants went to and froze their nuts off in Spartan conditions with a huge bonfire that cooked whichever side you faced it while the opposite side was freezing, food was available in limited supply most cooked cans of baked beans on a open fire till the can nearly exploded then retrieved it to then try to open it without third degree burns, some unfortunates had the can go off like a hand grenade and scalding beans burnt them. I went to one of these Kangaroo Rallies and as soon as I arrived I was looking forward to going home.
The Keith Rally in S.Aust 1978
This rally that was a pain literally as I got bitten by a bee on the chin just before getting there so I wasn’t in great form from the start, the organisers had good meals provided at a sparsely treed sports ground that the rally was held on the cops ushered all participants into this site then read the riot act that anyone going into town would be arrested and we would be escorted out of the town when the rally finished! So entertainment was tug of wars between say a 1951 sidevalve Norton and a Z900 Kawasaki needless to say you knew what would win immediately of course the 600 cc Norton could have dragged the Kawasaki back to Melbourne, it never stood a chance. The meals were nice, breakfast bacon sausage and steak with eggs or onions optional, lunch was sausage, steak and bacon with eggs or onions optional, and dinner was steak, sausage, bacon with eggs and onions there were soft drinks or beer, no tea or coffee. Two days of this and literally being locked up was enough and my chin wasn’t happy as I couldn’t go into town to the chemist I looked like Hoss from Bonanza. The days were hot, damn hot so everyone was sunburned, parched and exasperated I was happy to see the view of Keith in my rear vision mirror and hav’nt been back in fifty years and deliberately avoid it when going over that way even now.
The Classic Club of SA Mildura Rallies 1972/78
The ride from Melbourne on a then 25 year old Vincent straight from work at 6pm with a overnight stop in Charlton around 10-30 was trying to say the least, the next morning ride the rest to Mildura in heat, dust storms and flies to reach your caravan wore me down. All this for a display of bikes on the Mirboo footy oval on Saturday in the heat with sunburn and a BBQ, then up at 6.00 am to eat breakfast to then ride straight home in the heat, flies and sand storms, it still has made a lasting impression on me and I did about 5 of them!
The Vintage motorcycle rally in Maryborough Vic 1975/80
This rally is still going to this day it’s probably the first refined event I went to, mainly fully participated by old people on very old bikes and very aloof, the fact that half of their club left to form the Classic motorcycle club because of their staunch rule on up to 1942 only military bikes up to 1945 rigidity enforced discouraged latter bikes, and I believe their membership, personally anyway I attended on a 1948 Speedtwin outfit, and was segregated to the opposite end of the oval when their bikes were on display, but otherwise good meals and motel accommodation, fantastic I was enjoying a rally without the pain of endurance and stamina at last. Eventually I bought a 1921 Indian Scout and participated in these rallies although I was admonished for riding in an unbecoming manner(to fast) so after selling that Scout I left the club!
The Classic Motorcycle Club of Vic 1977/
Great Rallies well organised to perfection plenty of riding and excellent motel accommodation, they reconnoiter each ride months before the event so it’s honed to perfection before the event, being older group they don’t rough it and everything is provided including a back up vehicle, they seem to eat at every stop and that’s often but everyone seems happy. Their accommodation is always in middle class affordability so very comfortable and usually well attended, the disadvantages are they are usually on non Classic late model motorcycles which is anomaly on their name and disappointing if your on a fifties or up to seventies machines and expected to see a group of attendees on early pre-80s machines
The BSA All British Rally 1978/
is a fairly old school rally run by the BSA Owners Club its been moved around over the 45 year stint and I’ve probably gone to 38 of them out of the 46, the club is well organised and provides wood for fires, a average band, food, and a bonfire about a 1000 people attend, lunch coupons are provided for a hamper in nearby town Maldon where the town is blocked off to display the motorcycles it’s still camping though and the weather is fortunately good on the Anzac weekend there is a shower/ toilet block so most creature comforts, limitations are no non-British bikes and no cars etc on the rally grounds the distance from Melbourne is about 2 hours so close, I like it.
IMCA (Indian Motorcycle club of Australia) 2001/09
rallies usually very good and well organised with pub meals and hotel or motel accommodation with plenty or riding one exception though was a rally they hold in a flea pit motel in Castlemaine that was on every year with no highlights except the drinking binges which is theme through most of their rallies which makes me reminisce of pub crawling in the 70’s the breakfast the club provided was excellent though.
The IIRA (Iron Indian Riders Association ) & BEA up to 1976. 2010/
Well they are altered to suit what riders wanted from 2011, decent rides, excellent accommodation, and the same with food, I am biased as I usually organise these and took on board all the things I have hated in the past and the good things retained, no excess emphasis on alcohol which doesn’t mean we don’t drink, but not every meal and in-between, with decent rides they have retained this recipe and it has gathered a group of loyal attendees. Yes they copied a lot of the Classic Motorcycle clubs ideas because they work and we more than encourage members with families to attend on eligible machines so this gets the old bikes out. Usually a meal such as breakfast is provided as a subsidy. New ideas such as the Pub & grub extend 4 day rallies that are rolling onto different accomodation are being tried and should be successful as aging members and retirement free up extra time
Guess what I’m old and now I want and need comfort hot meals, a good bed and a shower.