Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 115 i Old Bike Australasia

As we reported in OBA114, an incredible amount of work has taken place under the new ownership, not just on the track itself but the entire complex, including the pits and paddock buildings, but the incessant rain has made the earthworks virtually impossible. “Regretfully the event (NSW Historic titles) scheduled for August has had to be cancelled. One Raceway apologises for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding. Unfortunately the weather has been a significant factor contributing to these delays. We are working hard around the clock to deliver a world-class facility, and we cannot compromise that to hold events prior to being fully ready.” This has been a blow for the PCRA of NSW, which was scheduled to conduct the NSW Historic Road Racing Championships at One…

The strong woman in Ron’s corner was his mother, Moyna, who, like teenage Ron, worked in the motorcycle accessory shop Welbank Supplies, at Lindfield and later Willoughby on Sydney’s lower north shore. Welbank was owned by Cameron MacMillan (a former wool buyer) and his wife Judy, and shortly after the shop opened in 1972, they were visited by Moyna. In her somewhat brusque manner, Moyna announced, “I’ve come to check you out, and make you welcome to motorcycling.” There was no mucking about where Moyna was concerned, just cut to the chase. Ron joined Welbank part-time while still at school in 1973, and was full-time by 1974, when Moyna also became a staff member. Meanwhile, a racing career was developing, and under Moyna’s guidance and with strong support from his…

The Honda came to Australia in a fairly inauspicious way. Bennett & Wood, the long-establish Sydney-based importers and distributors of BSA and other marques, had taken on the Australian Honda agency back in 1958, at a time when the motorcycle market was at a low ebb world-wide. It was a shrewd move and the Honda quickly gained a foothold here, racking up sales, and scoring race wins with the fast 125 twins. Sales Manager Russ Burling visited the Honda factory in late 1960, and brought back the RC161 with him, engine number 00016, which had a Customs declared value of £6,000. Bennett & Wood had already decided on the rider for the new Honda – Sydney star Kel Carruthers, who at just 22 was clearly destined for great things, with…

The BSA S series was produced from 1927 to 1935. The 493 cc engine OHV was ‘sloped’ forward with the model being often referred to as the BSA Sloper, a term adopted by BSA when marketing the bike. The engine was a single exhaust port cylinder head with an aluminium casing enclosing the rockers with exposed valve springs. The pushrods were covered by nickel-plated tubes with later models having chrome replacing the nickel plating. The design of the cams and tappets resulted in a quiet engine (lack of valve clack) with some attributing the S meaning ‘silence’. The crankcase enclosed a large flywheel and a separate oil feeder tank. There was also a 350cc version in the range. As with all motorcycles, there are ‘improvements’ during the life of the…

There’s no doubt that the timeless classic styling and innovative décor of the now long established Royal Enfield 650s have contributed immensely to the success of the models and made the Indian-owned brand the global leader in the 250-750cc segment, but RE clearly believes that there is also a market for a more radically-styled version of the theme. The new Shotgun 650 is officially referred to as “a custom-inspired motorcycle… the ultimate canvas for personalisation… an ode to the long-standing tradition of customising Royal Enfield motorcycles.” In this case, Royal Enfield has pretty much done the customising for you, but there’s plenty of scope to add your own individual touches. Royal Enfield prides itself on being a “metal motorcycle” – you won’t find much plastic on the Shotgun. Things like…

One of the objectives of the Historical Motorcycle Club of Queensland (HMCCQ) is to support charitable causes and earlier this year the Toowoomba Area members overwhelmingly supported a donation of $1000 to 40 for Fortey, Queensland Police Service Legacy Fund. This year ‘The Misfits’ running team, will be captained by a member of the HMCCQ. The Misfits are a diverse bunch of runners who are regulars at Parkrun and Toowoomba Road Runners events, as is 40 for Fortey organiser, Detective Senior Constable Louise MacDonald. The team includes a 14 year old and his mum; a 69 year old heart attack survivor and a 76-year old breast cancer survivor! Sixteen club members and the Misfits were present, when the cheque was handed to the police, at a gathering at Elite Motorcycles.…

Back in the early ‘seventies, before he headed off to Europe, photographer Gary Reid dabbled in racing himself, as these photos depict. The black and white shot shows a typically frantic bunch at Energol Corner at Oran Park during a C Grade race in 1972, probably June 11th. This was a huge meeting, with 286 solo entries and 29 sidecars. Such was the size of the entry, the Junior C Grade race, shown here, had to be divided into three separate division races. This is Division 1 with Neil Lyons (228) and Rod Weatherhead (52) narrowly ahead of Bob Beale (311), Graham Field (101) and Andrew Piper (46). The colour photo (right) is Gary Reid on Field’s 250 Suzuki. As Gary recalls, “Graham Field was my friend, and he lent…

One of the most fun road bikes ever built, the little Bultaco Metralla is a giant killer. Built from 1966 to 1975 the Mk II Metralla was as minimalist as you can get. In 1967 Bill Smith and Tommy Robb finished 1st and 2nd in the 250 Production race at the Isle of Man and off the show room floor a Metralla is capable of reaching 100 mph. They can do this by having none of those superfluous extras we take for granted like a side stand, a battery, an ignition switch, indicators or warning lights, and it drinks pre-mix only. The Australian Metrallas didn’t have an oil tank, so you have to carry a little bottle of 2-stroke oil and work out how much oil to add when you…

Superbike Masters Round 1 22-23 March, 2024, Sydney Motor Sport Park The first round of the 2024 Superbike Masters was held at S M S P as part of the ASBK championship. The series is for Forgotten Era (1973 - 1982) and New Era (1983 - 1990) with each period having two classes. Forgotten Era had Formula 1 and Unlimited whilst New Era had 750 and F1300 with all bikes being 750cc or more. On the grid were Katana, XR69 and GSXR Suzukis, FZR Yamahas, ZX and Z1000 Kawasakis and RC30 Hondas. The Italians were represented by an 888 Ducati, 992cc TT2 Ducati and a YB6 1000 Bimota. As many will know, the Japanese manufacturers of the day produced awesome engines but lacked in the handling and stopping departments. This…

DOCQ Bevels & Bull Rally 20-21 APRIL 2024, Beaudesert, Qld. Bevels’n’Bull returned to its roots with a one-night only format this year. The weather was fine and warm on Saturday for our grand depart from the KFC carpark at Beaudesert. Sixty-odd riders gathered with a sizeable contingent of bevels and the bull started to flow. DOCQ life member and ASBK race director Tom Williams was there along with several former club presidents and distinguished bevel mechanic Paul Ducati, as well as that master of bevel electrickery, Graham Eyre. We were also joined by several riders who had come along just to see the departure including Adrian Richter on his freshly prepared green frame 750SS replica. Shirts (paying tribute to DOCQ founding member the late Bob Pashley), armbands and instructions were…

Taree and District Classic and Vintage Motorcycle Club 2-3 March, 2024, Taree NSW The first weekend in March again saw the annual rally conducted by the Taree and District Classic and Vintage Motorcycle Club. There were 76 entries for this, the 35th year which was based at the Halliday’s Point Caravan Park. Thursday saw some of the early arrivals line up and leave at 1.00pm for a short ride to Krambach via Dyer’s Crossing and return. Friday, Day 2 was a visit to the Mitchells Island Public School. Children lined up to closely view the machines. Lunch for the riders and school children was prepared by parents. Saturday Day 3 was the longest and largest number of riders with a visit to Gloucester via Nabiac. Lunch was at the Gloucester…

The annual Goodwood Members’ Meeting at the iconic UK circuit is always a popular and well supported event, and one that our long-time contributor (and resident not far from Goodwood) Alan Cathcart looks forward too. This year he was entered on his Ducati 750SS for the Hailwood Trophy race over two legs, but things went horribly wrong in the opening leg, as he explains. “I crashed the 750SS in Race 1 when I got oil on the left side of the rear tyre from what transpired to be a blown clutch oil seal on the dry clutch. Goodwood has only two left handers and I fortunately chose the slower of the two to step off at, and the fact the verdant lawns stretch down to the edge of the track…

“The Maberley auction was held over 4 days in April and apart from having to push it back by a week because of severe local flooding on day one, the auction was a roaring success,” says Oily Rag’s Antony Gullick. “As many readers would know, Vic Maberley was a lifelong Indian enthusiast and restorer and had a massive amount of parts. In fact, by the time it was catalogued there were over 2,000 lots. Rather than sell pallets of parts, parts were separately catalogued allowing buyers to get the part they needed rather than either having to buy a whole bunch, or missing out altogether. “Some interesting results were $3,500 for a J model electric light shell – with original bakelite switch, $3,700 for an Excelsior clutch and $2,400 for…

He began racing at the age of 21 and was a regular front-runner in 250 Production racing, and in the Yamaha RZ350 Masters Series. He also raced an RZ500 which was a dreadful thing that tank-slapped so violently at Lakeside it pitched him into the Armco, breaking his pelvis, among other things which sidelined him for 10 months. He came back to race the Silastic Gaskets Ducati 888 (his own street 851 fitted with the 888 kit). It weighed in at 174 kg at the Oran Park WSBK in 1989, when the factory Ducatis were a whisker over the FIM 140 kg weight limit. He qualified around 16th, did not finish the first wet race, then finished 10th in the second, with many internationals behind him. Marco Lucchinelli, then the…

Lots of famous makes have skeletons in the cupboard, models they’d rather you didn’t know they ever made. So how about the last-ever Ducati single-cylinder streetbike, of which 3,846 examples were built from 1975 to 1979, which was also incidentally the first Ducati motorcycle to be built with a left-foot gearchange? It wasn’t just the fact that the 125 Regolarità and its later Six Days variant represented the Bologna factory’s only serious attempt to target the offroad market, but it was that contradiction in terms – a Ducati two-stroke! It’s true that, like the dozens of other Italian makes trying to carve a slice of the country’s huge appetite for affordable personal transportation in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Ducati had earlier made several eminently forgettable 50-100cc two-stroke models, yet which…

In the case of Harris, that came about through the combined expertise of another set of brothers, Steve and Lester, along with designer Stephen Bayford, who formed Harris Performance in Hertford, UK in 1972. The company’s primary aim was to produce frame kits to house a variety of engines, marketed as the Harris Magnum, and from the beginning, the product gained a reputation for superb quality, with performance coming from conventional but skilfully executed machining, welding and tube manipulation. To date, over 3,000 road-going motorcycles have come out of the same factory, from one-off specials to the Magnum line. Firm believers in the old adage that “racing improves the breed”, Harris was involved at all levels of motorcycle sport from the outset. Customers have ranged from unknown individuals to leading…

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Our story on the late John Dodds made mention of John’s very early association with The Skid Kids, a bunch of aspiring youngster armed with pushbikes who frequented Speedway tracks around Sydney. Thanks to Speedway historian Brian Darby, we now have this photograph which was taken by Des Lawrence many years ago at the long-defunct Cumberland Oval at Parramatta. The track opened for motorcycles in February 1930. Speedcars arrived during the 1940s, when the track width was increased from 18 feet to 30 feet. Cumberland Oval closed down in 1959. Jack Brabham was a star of the Speeedcars before leaving for Europe in the mid ‘fifties, and in 1956, Stirling Moss drove some demonstration laps in Jack Myers’ Cooper Bristol – an occasion that was extensively covered by Sydney newspapers.…

Attending Broadford on Easter Sunday, STEWART DOIG was surprised to come across what is a quite rare Bultaco. “I spotted this rare 125 Bultaco Streaker, and the owner John McCluskey gave me the following information and permission to send photos to OBA. It is a 1978 Model, 125cc, just one of five in Australia. 750 were made in black and 290 in cream. Only one came to Australia via the importer Bert Flood, the others here are grey imports. The frame was designed by Bultaco in conjunction with British Aerospace. The machine was a tribute to Angel Nieto’s 50cc World Championship win.”…

The Great Race was part of Farm Week at Monash University and took place on July 24, 1969 – the day the Apollo 11 astronauts splashed down after the Moon landing. It was a week of student fun & madness and included “tests of ingenuity, evil & daring” as described in the University student paper, Lot’s Wife. There were prizes for suggested feats, including “pinching a celebrity and holding them to ransom”. Two of those kidnapped included Myer CEO Kenneth Myer, and actor Barry Humphries, who was released after promising to perform for the students. Humphries spent time with his captors at the Nottinghill pub, matching student beer consumption abilities. Myer paid a significant ransom, which was donated to charity. The race was to begin at the top of the…

HCMCWA Interclub Championship Round 1 9-10 March, 2024, Collie Motoplex WA The opening of the 2024 HCMC Interclub Championship saw numbers a little down on expectations with Tony Hynes, Mark Akermans and Neil Anderson some of the notable absentees in the two-wheel brigade. The Sidecar numbers were also down but for a totally different reason. Five of the stalwarts of the class were preparing to head across the ‘paddock’ to Tailem Bend for the round of the Australian Sidecar Championships. Murray Stronach, Sam Watson, Morgan Marshall, Graeme Evans and Darren Nash made the journey across. There were eight outfits entered for the round but sadly John and Chrissie Clancy had to withdraw after a gearbox failure, while father and son combo Dwayne and Damon Owen didn’t make their debut start…

Barossa Valley Classic MotorCycle Club 40th Year celebratory run. 14 April, 2024, Angaston, SA A scintillating Barossa Valley sun shone on an array of classic motorcycling’s finest gathered at the old Angaston historic railway station (home of the Barossa Valley Machinery Preservation Society’s collection). The culmination of a year’s planning, the club’s traditional Annual Run was combined with its 40th Anniversary to celebrate and acknowledge four decades of passionate motorcycling and club activity. Deciding to have the run and display at this historic venue was a nod to acknowledging like-minded Barossa heritage organisations; the Machinery Preservation Society holds an impressive collection of historic stationary engines, trucks, tractors and other machinery and is well worth a visit. Perennial ride captain, Brian Randell, led club members on a spirited run through an…

Take no prisoners It was neat to be reminded of Geoff Sim’s spirited dice with Gregg Hansford in the Improved Touring race at Oran Park 11 June 1972 on page 74 of OBA 114. To the best of my recollection, this was Gregg’s first visit to Oran Park. He was mounted on what appeared to be a standard H2 750 Kawasaki two stroke triple. Geoff was on his partner Robyn Green’s R5 350 Yamaha which had received the Paul Spooner treatment, similar to that applied to Tony Hatton’s version. The race unfurled as a full-distance scrap for the lead between the two, Geoff would out-brake Gregg into Energol Corner each lap, only to be overtaken by the big Kawasaki down the straight. Geoff’s mount had the advantage of being much…

Daniel Rushworth expressed his enthusiasm for the return of Motorcycle Speedway at Sydney International Speedway, stating, “Whilst there are still a few very achievable obstacles to overcome, we are thrilled to be working with Garry and his team to bring back the excitement and opportunity our Speedway community and riders deserve at the premier Speedway facility in the nation. Our immediate goal is to coordinate a number of trial/test events which will then lay the foundations for the facility to host significant inter-club, state, national and international events in the future. We are committed to working with Sydney International Speedway in providing a platform for riders to showcase their skills and for community members and fans to experience the adrenaline of Motorcycle Speedway racing firsthand. Stay tuned for further updates…

History-making American racer Pat Hennen has died, passing away at a care facility at Mountain View, California on April 6. He was 70. Diagnosed with cancer in August 2022, he continued to live in his native San Mateo, until the last three days of his life. Hennen made history as the first US rider to win a World 500 Championship Grand Prix, the August 1, 1976 Finnish GP, run on the six kilometre Imatra street circuit. Having by then raced four consecutive summers in New Zealand, the American was no stranger to street circuits. The Imatra win was the last for a rider who prepared his own motorcycles in 500cc GP racing and helped the American take third in the title chase in his dèbut year. Cramming a lot of…

A photo was arranged with President - John McNair (Brisbane), Vice President - Paul Rowling (Tamworth), Secretary - Amanda Carlyle (Central Victoria), Outgoing Treasurer - John King (Newcastle), Outgoing Membership Secretary - Mick Godfrey (Adelaide), Merchandise Officer - Peter Donnellan (Adelaide), and outgoing Area Representative Co-ordinator - Wayne Lavers (Central NSW). General Committee members present were Peter Douglas (Mackay), Tony Mahoney (Tasmania), along with our Librarian Dave Quinn (Newcastle).…

In 1973, Brisbane-based Danish road racer Rob Olsen rode a Bultaco Metralla into Australian road racing history. After winning on debut at Surfers Paradise, Rob decimated the Lakeside 250cc Production lap record with a 1m 9.7 second lap. Incredibly, that record stood for 9 years, making it the longest standing Production class lap record in Australian road racing history and quite possibly the longest standing class record. These were the days when “what won on Sunday, sold on Monday”. The 250cc Production class was hotly contested with Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki all vying for class honours with ‘sports’ 250cc 2-strokes - and it took nine years of bike and tyre development before any 250 proddy bike equalled Rob’s time. It wasn’t until the arrival of the LC Yamahas that replaced…

Victorian Historic Road Racing Championships 6 April, 2024 – Broadford, Vic The HMRAV conducted their state titles at Broadford, with entrants from Queensland, NSW and SA as well as Victoria. Saturday morning was one of those days where it wasn’t raining but also not drizzling which meant a damp track. The rules for some of the classes required treaded tyres so the wet track didn’t really affect qualifying other than slower lap times and perhaps a tad more caution negotiating the corners. Even so, some opted for just a few qualifying laps whilst those with slicks didn’t have an option but to change to a set of wets or start at the rear of the grid. By the time racing started after lunch the track had dried out allowing for…

Vintage Motorcycle Club of Vic Maryborough Rally 8 – 11 March, 2024 We had 51 entrants for our 56th Maryborough Rally organised by Robbie Griffiths and Mick Guilfoyle. For all of the long weekend we experienced heat wave conditions and the coolest we were was when travelling on our vintage bikes. The heat wave and a Covid19 case unfortunately meant a few entrants did not attend. Friday’s shake-down run to Talbot left the caravan park at 5pm for a ride to the hotel there and straight back on the main road with 40km covered. Saturday’s 150km run was to Clunes for morning tea then to Creswick, Smeaton, Campbelltown and then Newstead for lunch and back to Maryborough. On Sunday we had a 145km run to Maldon for morning tea where…

The Quantic is created using Arai’s new Peripherally Belted Complex Laminate Construction (PB-cLc2) outer shell with its VAS shield system and a 5mm flare around the base for easier on/off and comfort. The Quantic features the ultra-soft brushed nylon interior that feels like wrapping your head in a pillow compared to the utilitarian feel of the race-specific Corsair-X model. The Facial Contour System (FCS-2) cheek pads are removable and there are inbuilt speaker pockets and a neck roll wire pocket. The Quantic has been designed for the fitment of a communications system. And if it all goes pear-shaped, the medicos can easily get your helmet off with the Emergency Release System (ERS) cheek pad design. Arai has incoroprated a new VG chin vent, dual intake XGF top vents and a…