Newsgroups: aus.motorcycles From: mtc@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Michael Trevor CUTTER) Subject: Falls Rally Report (long) Message-ID: <9430510.21970@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU> Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia Date: Mon, 31 Oct 1994 23:17:57 GMTHi people,
Thought I'd jot down a report on the rally I went to last weekend. It's bloody long, I hope at least some of it is worth plowing through :-)
Falls Rally is organised by the Gippsland Tourers, 11th time around, this year.
It's held at Narracan Falls, which is sort of south-east of Trafalgar, off the Princes Highway, in Gippsland, Victoria, and is a lovely place to camp out, barring the rocks 3 inches under the surface which destroy tent pegs, especially when you forget a hammer - but on with the events of the weekend...
I took off work early to go, it was Alison's (my wife) turn to ride to a rally, (I rode to the last one) so I got to drive my Mum's station wagon. Unfortunately due to having to find a strap the right length to fit the baby capsule in meant I spent most of the afternoon tearing around, trying about 10 different places. Sigh. I hate cages sometimes.
After a belated roast dinner at my Mum's place we rolled off. Alison hasn't been riding since Nathaniel was born in June (barring a quick stint at the Lollypop) so we took it pretty easy on the way down. The weather was nice, not too cold, at least for me in the car :-) Oh yeah, my sister came too. She didn't want to go pillion on Al's bike, cause it's got a padded lunchbox for a seat...
When you reach Trafalgar after a boring blast down the Princes, you turn right into the hilly country, and go around lots of lovely curves, this is the road that goes to Thornton or Thornley or something. Boy I'm bad with place names. Anyway it's like an extended Kew Boulevard for those who know it, except there is the occasional logging truck and clapped out old ute flying the other direction.
Having left home at about 10.00pm, we got there just on the dot of midnight. We received a warm welcome from the people at the gate, some of whom had already started warming up for Saturday night ;) They even gave us a battery for my torch. We claimed our badges and drove down beside the river to set up the tent.
This is either the 3rd or the 4th time I've been to this rally; the precise count was a matter of great debate over Saturday lunch. The first year it was small, quiet, maybe 50 people. The second time, maybe 300! The whole tone of the rally changed to a massive pissup, so I was a little, uh, contemplative of what we'd find this year, as last time was 2 or 3 years ago.
Well, come morning light, I discovered we'd set up under a massive dead gum branch, so I spent some time getting everything out of the tent again, pulling up all the bloody pegs, and shifting it 6 feet. Meanwhile a few bikes arrived, including 3 Harley trikes, all with PanHead motors, I think. Very nice.
The weather was pleasant, if not terribly warm. Last time it was hot enough to go swimming, despite being early November. The Falls are about 20-30ft high, with a _lot_ of water flowing over them, and a massive pool at the bottom, perfect for swimming. Some people even dive in off the top, but me, I like the use of my arms and legs...
There was much entertainment during the morning as there were a few pocket bikes flying around, ridden by little kids with death wishes. Honestly, two of them were absolute maniacs. Still, I guess at that distance from the ground it's not so easy to get hurt on soft grass and clay. There were a few tumbles, but most of them were wearing helmets, and no-one was hurt. Occasionally somebody large and hairy would go for a ride, and come back white faced ;-)
By lunchtime a lot more people had arrived, so by this stage there might have been 100 people or so. There were some very nice machines around, and a lot of ratty ones too. I noticed a very nice old Triumph, in great nick. The owner liked the look of the BR250 too, he kept coming over and staring at it, saying things like "Wow, what a neat bike." "What a great little package." "It's very neat, isn't it?". In retrospect I should have offered him a swap ride, but it didn't occur to me. Oh well...
There was some drizzle after lunch, and things started to get a bit black in the cloud department, but the gymkhana got underway with a little encouragement.
First event was the Swamp Run. This involved dashing through a 50m stretch of reeds and stuff, then searching the hillside beyond for a bottle of port. Only two people went in for it, and both stripped to their undies, for reasons which became apparent. The mud was waist deep :-) The first guy got through after about 2 minutes, fairly liberally coated in mud. The second guy, Chucky, hadn't made it through after 5, and we couldn't see him in there. Eventually he arose from the murk to cheers, and headed almost directly for where the port was hidden. He definitely deserved it :-)
There was a tug-of-war, between humans, not bikes, and the men only _just_ beat the women...then there was a few people trying burnouts, with one guy on an RZ?250 with a bald back tire producing as much smoke as a Z900...
A guy with an Intruder outfit demonstrated remarkable cornering ability in a thunderous display of figure 8s and rooster tails - which struck his mates around a campfire with astonishing accuracy.
Tea was a spit roast (burgers and sausages etc had been on the go all weekend) which was very nice, especially as the rain kicked in about then. Didn't have much effect on the massive bonfire; if you wanted to stay dry, that was the place to be, as the rain never touched you for 10 meters around. The Intruder had come with a complete home stereo system, which I hope was waterproof, cause it was blasting out Barnsey and AccaDacca till about 2am, despite the pouring rain...bastard started first touch of the button on Sunday morning, too.
Some silly bugger, a 16 year old kid who was there with his cousin, had been knocking back a few beers, and shooting his mouth off. Eventually he insisted on having a ride on somebody's bike, despite all their protests, and promptly stacked it in the mud. The ambulance arriving made for lots of excitement, as he'd broken his leg. Oddly enough he got bugger all sympathy, especially as he kept trying to hit the poor drivers when they were loading him on.
Sunday dawned slightly drier but grey, with the dirt as slippery as grease. The usual awards were handed out in a completely haphazard fashion, some woman from Belgrave took home the longest distance female award despite Alison coming further, and the Youngest Rallyist award was passed around till we could agree on who actually deserved it :-)
The sun started coming out as we packed up after a pancake breakfast, and I rode home, mostly cause Alison didn't like the look of the dirt road. To be honest neither did I, but you have to be macho, right? :-)
I got overtaken on double-white lines by some Stephen Wright clone in an old Ford, then after lunch at the servo we headed onto the freeway. The BR was behaving a bit oddly, making me wring it to even get to 100 (I don't weight _that_ much :-), till I remembered that 250s have a much higher torque range, and took it up to 8 grand instead of 3 like I normally do...much better :-)
Rather than following the Princes the whole way home, we took a turn off to Pakenham Upper after Warragul. I'd never been this way before, but it is maybe 30-50k of lovely curvy roads, going through Cockatoo and Emerald, then down onto the Burwood Hwy back towards the city. There was a bit of entertainment when I got stuck behind a liquid waste truck doing 10k around the curves, but the little BR zipped past with ease.
Anyway, usual story for the highway home, teenage gurls in little white cars waving out windows, little kids on side of road waving madly, even one kid in a pub window gave me the victory sign while I sat at some lights, then waved madly when I waved back. Gee, it's a rough and tough life being a biker...
Regards,
Mike