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President's Report | Membership Mutterings | The Rear Guard | Lust

President's Report - June

Rats in the Bedroom

I haven't had much opportunity of late to pull the old motorbike gloves on, until last Saturday night that is. Jeanne and I came home late from a night out, walked into the bedroom, switched on the light & were confronted by a guinea pig sized rat perched on our curtain rod! At ground level our cat, who was doubtless responsible for this late night visitor, was pacing back and forth frustrated that her quarry had out-smarted her and run up the curtains to escape her carnivorous endeavours. Jeanne ran screaming from the room (I swear I saw the rat's ears go back) & sat on the stairs, head in hands, exclaiming that if she hadn't had a few wines she wouldn't be able to cope. Meanwhile I was left sitting on the bed eyeballing Roland the rat who was in turn eyeballing me, no doubt contemplating his rather dubious future! A decision had to be made. Going to bed and hoping Roland would leave of his own volition didn't seem like an acceptable solution. So, the cat was dispatched from the room, I shut the door, donned my bike gloves (I was getting back to them) and made a lunge for the unwanted visitor who escaped my clutches and ended up... you guessed it, under the bed! Then I proceed to strip of the bedding & mattress allowing me to stand the base up against the wall exposing Roland once again. A game of 'Mick and mouse' ensued until finally Roland was cornered. I grabbed him by his rather substantial tail and liberated him to the outdoors where he belonged. Any amorous intentions harboured by either of us earlier in the evening were dashed as we set about re-building our bedroom! None of this of course sheds any light on any matters relating to the club so I will now move on to more serious matters!

Rising Damp

It has become apparent to the committee that in order for the club to continue in its present form we need to bring in more revenue. The reasons for this are the rise in GST last year, rising costs for postage and printing together with a fall in membership numbers. We have to plan ahead for Jampots which require deposits for venues and the like and have enough cash flow to cover investment in regalia together with other costs encountered over the year. The obvious solution is a rise in annual subs; however there are other things to consider. For example we could produce fewer magazines per year, or send them electronically. The latter has been raised previously and there were some problems associated with this option. Collectively we can all do our bit by encouraging new members to join up. Is that guy buying your unwanted AJS or Matchless a member of our club? What about that dude you were talking to who said he had his Father's old G80 in the garage? I suspect that we have the lowest membership fees of any club of our ilk in the country, as many of you will know through your association with other marques. We think a rise in subs is inevitable. This will be on our agenda for the next AGM, but in the meantime the committee would welcome your feedback and ideas, drop us a line, it is your club after all!

Christchurch Revisited

This weekend we have been in our old home town of Christchurch, catching up with family and friends & doing a bit of 'disaster tourism'. It was a sad and sobering experience. With the red zone shrinking, giving better access to the City centre it was possible to get a good idea of the scale of the devastation wrought on the City. Hundreds of locals were out exploring the changed landscape and seem to be getting on with life as best they can. We were given a small reminder of what long suffering Cantabrians have had to endure over the last few months by way of a sharp aftershock (number 6700 I believe) at around 5-00 am.It wouldn't surprise me if some of our Christchurch members may be considering trading up to a CS to cope with the roads down there! It will be a long while before things get back to normal so the sooner the re-build begins the better.

Riding a Panther 600cc Outfit

I have been reading the much lauded book 'The Rugged Road' by Theresa Wallach'. It tells the tale of the epic journey her and companion Florence Blenkiron completed in 1935 riding a Panther 600cc outfit and towing a trailer from London to Cape Town. Whilst both women were undoubtedly interesting and courageous, I found the book lacked any real depth. Like the trip, it seemed to be in a hurry to get to the end. There seemed to be few anecdotes of the woman's fears and feelings along the way, how their relationship with one another developed or deteriorated, nor how they dealt with various problems such as gearbox issues, collapsed wheels, blown big ends etc. Perhaps this was because the book was written some 60 years after the event and was not published until after the author's death in 1999 at age 90. Also, it was written from a woman's perspective and perhaps didn't satisfy my blokey lust for mechanical and practical details, both human and motorcycle. An amazing adventure it truly was, unfortunately, the book didn't take me there. However, I will leave you with one of her rather nice little poems.

'With the purr of my engine beneath me and the warmth of the high sun above, I'll go over the distant horizon, along the country lanes that I love.

Wild Wood flowers and fruit will be growing, winding rivers flow down to the sea,

On my revered travelling companion, I lay claim to a life of the free'

Take care.

Mike

Membership Mutterings

Admin stuff

Our membership, at the end of March stands at 197 members including overseas members. That is the number of paid up members. This month we welcome new members Terry Bracey Auckland, Will Henden Auckland, Jeremy Lawrence Auckland, James Mcmullan Wellington, Michael Wah Auckland, David Gemmell Te Awamutu and Robert James Auckland.

Membership renewals

Membership renewals are coming in and so far as stated above 197 have renewed. If you have yet to renew I suggest you do so now as this issue will be the last you will receive if you do not renew. A count up shows that a further 96 have yet to renew.

This month the club setup internet membership renewals and from my perspective it worked well. Our treasurer, Maurice Lubbock, has been keeping an eye on the account and between us we have kept track well enough to sort out any problems. This year was bit of a trial and I would be happy to continue with it. The only difficulty has been for our overseas members as direct crediting to a New Zealand bank account proved too difficult for various reasons. In the April newsletter you should find your membership renewal form. You can either post it to me with your money or you can renew by Internet banking and the instructions are on the form how to do this. Please ensure you include your membership number and your name in the reference fields then send me an email that you have renewed by internet banking so I can tell who has paid. (This is a double check mechanism). My email address is in side the front cover of the newsletter. Hope this makes sense. Contact me if you need clarification. Thanks.

Other stuff

Last month I said I was off on a 5 day trip around East Cape on the G80S. The ride went well and I arrived home with no major problems having done 960 miles all up in the 5 days. However the chain case was emitting noises a bit more than it should and a quick dismantle showed the nut holding the cushdrive was nearly off. The cushdrive cam was a bit worn out showing it had been loose for a while and it was only the direction of rotation of the mainshaft that had held the nut on somewhat loosely.

Have you been for a WOF lately? Make sure that when you do get a WOF, that the testing agent actually completes entering the data into the computer. Recently I went to renew the registration at VTNZ on the competition machine and LTSA (or whatever they call themselves today) said the bike had no WOF. No WOF means you can't get registration for the next year. Yes it has says I, no it hasn't says LTSA yes it has and so on. Fortunately I had kept the testing sheet from the test 5 months before and the next day took it in to show them. It turns out that yes it did have a WOF but I (note the "I" and not them), had to contact the LTSA and get it sorted. They admitted it was their mistake in not completing the computer work after issuing the WOF. After a bit of "firm" discussion I did get them to correct their mistake and sort it out with LTSA. The interesting point is had I been in an accident in the previous 5 months, I would have been in the gun for no WOF according to the LTSA records which would have been incorrect. Watch these enforcement agencies they are not always correct. OK that's it from me.

Happy riding and keep the rubber side down.

Peter Simpson Membership Secretary

The Rear Guard

There isn't one! But..., next time...

The Editor Chris de Wagt, Marlborough