Australian Motorcycle Week (Long)

I wanted to put some thoughts down in writing while it is still clear
in my mind so here's an afternoon read for you lot:

I've been contracted to make a video of the first Australian
Motorcycle Week. I know the guys organising the event and we often
ride together so I had been asked to come in on the event a couple of
months ago as they knew my TV background and that I had done a few of
the early Targa Tasmania videos.

The Busa is fitted out with a dual Ventura pack and I've also got a
backpack and a tankbag, but don't want to have to use the backpack and
tankbag if I can get away with it. I'll need to find the most
convenient vehicle to carry camera cases, battery packs and tripod.
I'm using two MiniDV cameras (the pro cameras being to big to carry on
the bike) one is a Sony VX2000 which I'll shoot most of the footage on
(I've also hired another cameraman with a VX2000 to follow the dual
sport guys) and a Sony TRV8 which is hooked up to a pro lipstick
camera that has been provided by Southern Cross TV (one of the major
sponsors). I would have liked to shoot on DVCPro, but budget was not
going to allow it this year not too mention the camera wouldn't fit in
a Ventura.

About 10 weeks ago 3 of us did a reconnaissance ride to check out the
road tour section of AMW and I knew the guys from the mainland were
going to be in for a fun week. Anyway, come time for the event and
I've got the next 10 days riding around the best roads in Australia,
what a shame

Day One - Friday

Ride to Launceston after putting my camera gear on the bus, still not
sure how I'm going to cart all the gear around. Start the event with
the most boring ride in Tasmania, straight up the midlands highway…

Arrive in Launceston in time to have a quick shower and head out for
the dinner that opens the proceedings. A fairly formal event (within
reason) with a few speakers, probably the most interesting of them
being Kevin Magee. All speeches are kept pretty short and Yamaha
Australian Motorcycle Week is under way.

Day Two. - Saturday

Head out to Richardson's Harley Davidson in Launceston to talk to the
owner, Simon Richardson. A really nice guy. His shop has twice won the
national dealership award and is more like a bike museum than a bike
shop. Very friendly staff, a great place to have a look through if you
are in that area. Simon is also providing us with a support van (a
large, expensive looking Mercedes no less!) to follow the road tour in
case of breakdowns. I grab an interview with him and get some shots
around the store then head for Symmons Plains.

At Symmons Plains, Mal (Wally) Campbell and Kevin Magee are running an
advanced rider training day and there are quite a few bikes booked in
(I'd guess around 60+?). Wander around getting general bike shots
(some nice toys there too) and grab an interview with Wally and Magoo.
Can't believe how much Magoo chain smokes! For an athlete too … Wally
later told me Magee took up smoking after the accident …

I hook up the lipstick camera to my helmet and slot in with one of the
groups out onto the track. Got pulled up by one of the marshalls in
pitlane wondering what the hell I was doing going out on the track
with a dual Ventura and backpack on Only did one lap, enough to
get some shots without getting in anyone's way.

I left there late afternoon and headed out to Latrobe Speedway where
there was the final of a championship of some sort. Got a few shots of
bikes in dirt going sideways, sorry guys, I just can't get into the
speedway thing, I'm sure they would be a rush to ride though.

Day Three - Sunday

Australian Vintage (or Veteran - never remember which one is which)
Motorcross Championships at Deloraine. Jump on Busa for a ride down
the river with Mal Campbell leading on a shiny black CBR600RR (after
two hours in a coffee shop before departing mind you). Nice sunny but
brisk day early. Wally has been brushing up on local history and gives
some interesting details on the Tamar River area to the small group of
us silly enough to get up early on a Sunday morning. A quick dash up
the Frankford Highway and across to Deloraine gives us a small sample
of what is to come on the road tour. Nice quiet roads with LOTS of
corners. Mind you I would get behind the cow truck when it is going up
a hill. At first I thought the spots on my visor were cowshit but
thankfully turn out to be bugs. (Mind you I wasn't too upset about the
cowtruck as while I was idling along behind it, two bike cops rode
past on brand new ST1100s - more about them later).

Get out to the track and head for the grass VIP parking area where our
trucks are. Park the Busa after checking that the sidestand feels firm
on the grass. Let go of the handlebars and stand up (still straddling
the bike) and find that there is a hole in front of the bike in the
grass that I couldn't see. Front wheel rolls forward into hole pulling
bike off sidestand! I caught it past 45°, amazing what adrenaline will
do.

Wander around the infield getting more shots and a nice dose of
sunburn. Turned out to be a hot weekend - in the 30s on Saturday. Lots
of Queenslanders walking about moaning that they didn't bring their
shorts with them.

Head back to Launceston and help the guys pack the road tour packs
with maps, passes, etc. til around midnight, then head off to prepare
bike and cameras, etc.

Day Four - Monday

First day of the bits I've been looking forward to. The 5 day road
tour. We meet at Launceston's Civic Square for a nice breakfast
provided by Banjo's (a local bakery franchise) before a police escort
moves us quickly out of town and we head for the East Coast. About 150
bikes are participating. A good size where there is enough time to
meet nearly everyone. The bikes range from Harleys and Wings
(including a massive sidecar outfit) through a range of Jap sports and
tourers to an MV Agusta F4. Average age of the riders is 43 and almost
all have quite a few years of riding under their belts.

We are accompanied for the week by two constabulary on brand new
ST1100s, Pete and Errol. There was some early consternation amongst
riders who didn't like the idea of having to constantly monitor
speedos, but everyone learned very quickly that if you behaved like an
idiot you would be treated like one, but if in general everyone was
able to have their fang and enjoy it. By lunchtime I was starting to
hear stories along the lines of , "We sat on 100ks on the straight
bits, but in the twisties, you can't keep up with him". Bit
embarrassing when the speaker is fully kitted out in red and white
Dainese leathers with a matching red and white R1. They eventually
learnt that Pete had spent quite a few years racing superbikes and
that ST1100s aren't that slow after all

The route for today takes us over the Sidling (unfortunately now so
broken up it is no longer much fun, with the additional pain of a
diesel spill on the downhill side) with the lovely green rolling hills
that take us to a couple of spectacular passes before dropping down
onto the Coast at St Helens. A quick stop after the passes at the Pub
in the Paddock at Pyengana to check out the famous beer drinking pig
(and quick shot of an officer of the law feeding a stubby to said pig
- no comment). I'm holding off having lunch til as late as I can as I
try to head off before the bikes each day, stop and get a few shots of
bikes passing then move on, stop and get more shots, move on, etc.
Eventually this means I end up down the back of the field unless the
others take coffee stops or lunch which allows me to get ahead again.
Ever tried riding 2500 ks with a stop every 10 ks or so? Gets tiring I
tell ya! Including the climbing up embankments in full leathers in hot
sun … The cure each evening? More beer!

We are supposed to regroup at St Marys so I plan to use that chance to
get in front of the group again and head straight for Elephant Pass
and the pancake barn (a must if you are around that way). The run up
St Marys pass is great - I usually find that road a bit scratchy, but
this time the corners are clear of gravel and I encounter zero traffic
on the entire pass. Woohoo! I refuel at St Marys, but can't see any
bikes regrouping (I didn't think I had got that far ahead, but a fair
number had stopped at Pyengana and St Helens) and ride the 5kms to the
pancake barn. It seems after a while that quite a few bikes have
decided to bypass the two passes (so _that's_what bypass means) and
head along the coast road (a lovely smooth sweeping piece of tarmac
that you take at 200 km/h plus if you were a naughty person) so I
decide to head down the pass to get a few shots. As I'm about to leave
we have our first bike down, a Varadero leaving the pancake parlour
slips on the loose gravel on the exit of the driveway and drops it on
its side (can't blame him, I went close to doing it in exactly the
same place a couple of months earlier). No real damage, broken
indicator was the worst I think.

The weather is perfect until we get to Bicheno where clouds roll in
and a change comes over. No rain, but the temperature drops
dramatically. Everyone books in to their rooms then about 20 or 30 of
us meet again for a ride to Coles Bay and back, then head for the
Seaview for dinner and a band. A good chance to catch up and chat, a
lot of people haven't ridden Tassie roads before and you can see by
the grins on the faces that they have had a ball. I grab a mike and
interview a dozen or so and everyone is raving (they ain't seen
nothin' yet). Wally is mingling amongst the crowd creating havoc with
a water pistol (do _not_ feed this man alcohol when he is in charge of
water squirting devices!). The band (Pete Cornelius and the DeVilles)
rock up some great music and everyone wanders off by about midnight.

Day Five - Tuesday

Cloudy start which is disappointing as the scenery along the East
Coast is magic when the sun is out, the water is a brilliant emerald
colour and the ride along the Targa Stage at Mayfield Cliffs has to be
seen to be believed. We group outside Le Frog (of Mad Max and
Fournales fame) and head south around 9am. But yes! The clouds are
lifting and the sun lights up the water. Heading to Port Arthur with
about 200km of sweeping roads that dodge in and out of hills with
perfect riding conditions, sunny, mid-20s and not a lot of traffic.

Just north of Sorell I encounter the second bike down for the event.
This one could have been a bit more serious but thankfully wasn't. We
had been riding inland from the coast for the last half hour on some
fairly wide open roads with high speed corners. However this is
interrupted by a drop through the hills at Black Charlie's Opening.
This is a fairly steep descent down a hill with a hidden _very_ tight
turn. A Gixxer has come down expecting the normal turns only to find
the road tightening up very rapidly. I didn't stop as there were
already four bikes stopped with him and it was obvious he was OK, I
checked at Port Arthur and again thankfully it was just a scratched
fairing and broken indicator. I'd say he nearly managed to stop and
just dropped into the ditch.

By the time I've neared Port Arthur I've managed to get nicely ahead
of the field and can stop a few times in the twisty bits to get some
shots of the train of bikes winding down through the hills. It's weird
light as there are quite a few bushfires burning across Tasmania at
the moment, one of which will cause the dual sport guys problems a
couple of days later.

We arrive at Port Arthur and the bikes are allowed down onto the grass
area in front of the ruins, giving us a great shot of the convoy on
the lush green of the old cricket pitch. We lunch on BBQ'd burnt
things (sorry, that's as good as I can describe the lunch there) and
stay for a couple of hours as people head off on tours of the area or
a boat ride around the Isle of the Dead. Some of us just sit on the
grass in the sun (I really do need to remember sunscreen) and catch
some zeds.

We then head back up the road we came in on to head for Richmond, an
historic tourist town just out of Hobart and a regular bike meeting
spot on the weekends. The plan here is to wait until after peak hour
before a police escort leads us through controlled traffic lights into
Hobart's Salamanca Place. A fair number head to Joe's Garage, a local
motorsport hangout, to tell tall stories and dodge Mal's water pistol
(I gotta get me a Super Squirter before next year). There weren't any
burnouts or wheelies outside Joe's Garage because that never happens
there. Never. Ever. Ummm.

Day Six - Wednesday

This is one of my favourites. A long run from Hobart to Strahan with
everything from long sweepers to super tight gorges and of course the
famous 99 corners on the drop into Queenstown. Again a cloudy start
but the clouds will clear before lunch and it turns into the hottest
day of the ride. 32°C at Mt Arrowsmith (I had ridden through snow
there 10 weeks earlier). Anyway, we again get a police escort out of
Hobart and head towards New Norfolk, unfortunately being led by
Policeman Pete up the wrong side of the river and totally bypassing
Lou Martin (European GP photographer extraordinaire) who had
positioned himself there for a shot of the train of bikes - oops. Pete
stops at New Newfolk expecting all the bikes to stop behind him, but
no, they continue on straight ahead. Thankfully I was about 6th from
the front and diverted them to the right and across the river to the
correct course.

A great run up through the Derwent Valley with a coffee break at
Hamilton and on to Tarraleah. Tarraleah is an ex-Hydro town, parked
spectacularly on the edge of a steep valley overlooking the power
station. The drop down to and out of the power station is 10ks of
wonderful tight curves. After Tarraleah there is a half hour run
across the plains to Derwent Bridge where we stop for fuel and lunch,
most people heading to Lake St Clair to check out the scenery. After
Derwent Bridge we head into Mt Arrowsmith. We are running the reverse
of Targa Tasmania on most days and this is 50kms of the longest Targa
stage near the end of that event. It is also one of the most grueling
of the Targa stages and my main hope is that no-one comes to grief on
it, especially in the early part of it as we head through some tight
switchbacks down the mountain. I stop several times during the stage
to get shots as there is some great scenery here, changing from
rainforest to buttongrass plains. The stage ends (or starts in Targa)
at Lake Burbury, a manmade but spectacular lake formed when the Gordon
River was dammed in the 80s. This leads along the edge of the lake to
the drop into Queenstown. I stop at the top of the hill to get some
shots and to interview Robert Smith, a freelance Canadian journalist,
who heard about AMW on the internet and decided that, as he had always
been interested in coming to Tasmania, now would be a good time. He
told me that he would be doing a 7 page spread for the biggest
Canadian bike mag and a 4 page spread for a British bike mag. Great
stuff. He's hired a Yamaha Diversion 900 and is having a ball,
absolutely loves the roads.
I'm just about to head down a few more corners when a notice a blue
Blackbird heading up the turns. He pulls in where I'm standing and I
hear this voice say "I can't get enough of this - whooo!" as he dives
off back down the road again. He's down from Queensland with two other
mates on an annual tour. All three bikes have Australian Tour 2003
stickers they had made up.

Shortly after Pete comes through on the ST1100 with a YZF1000 and a
VFR750 ridden by two of my mates (both ex-race riders too) flying down
the hill. Quite a sight to watch, dunno how Pete is going to explain
the scrapes along the touchdown points of the brand new bike

It had to happen. I get near to the bottom and there are two bikes and
the Pete on the side of the road. I can see a skid mark heading
towards the wire barrier and my immediate thought is that someone has
gone under the wire and over the edge (it's quite a drop). But
thankfully the bike standing up is the one that had crashed, I just
couldn't see the damage from behind. The rider is OK, I talk to him
later that night and he has a sprained wrist which is bandaged up, but
his GPX250 (the only 250 on the ride) is pretty badly damaged and will
spend the rest of the tour in the back of the Yamaha truck. Looking at
the accident scene, it seems an almost perfect case of target
fixation, he looked at the guide post when he was over-cooking the
brakes and rode straight to it (my interpretation, he didn't want to
talk about it on camera and I didn't ask him off camera). Almost
perfect that is because the perfect case was the Harley that rode into
exactly the same post soon after. "Oh look, a guide post with skid
marks leading into it - mustn't hit that!" Smack! I didn't see that
bike, but believe it must have been minimal as the bike wasn't in the
truck and was obviously still rideable. We also had a Bimmer with a
minor off that day, I don't know the details there but again it was
only minor with no injuries. Thankfully that was our quota of drops
for the event. Considering we had thrown a lot of bikes onto
unfamiliar roads and conditions, everyone was thankful that we had
come away so lightly. We still had one injury to go though …

Everyone grabbed a coffee or cold drink at Queenstown as it was bloody
hot. I grabbed a quick icecream and hit the road again. The last 38 km
into Strahan is another wonderful bit of road with zero straight bits
and some great scenery. I stopped about 8-10 times through this
stretch arriving near the back of the field into a sunny Strahan. I
had hoped we'd get good weather here is the town is beautiful when the
weather is right (which can be hard to get on the West Coast).

Everyone booked in and headed to the Hilltop Motel where we had set up
a marquee and the hotel had cooked up a great BBQ with steak and
Atlantic Salmon. I grabbed the other cameraman and my mike and
wandered around the riders getting their opinions on the roads.
Everyone was ecstatic, most saying they would be back next year and
would be telling friends about it. As usual, Pete and Errol were in
civvies and mingling with the riders. They did a great PR job for the
police. Very approachable, sensible about how the road rules were
being interpreted and having as much fun as the rest of us, and
getting paid for it. Errol was later to tell me that he thinks there
will be quite a queue for the gig next year ...

By now we realise the Wally has picked up two shadows, Danny on a
GS1100R and John on a FireStorm. They've become inseparable on the
road and in the bar. Who said Bimmers were slow? This ended up a late
night as we knew we weren't leaving until 3.30pm the next day so that
people could go on the river cruise or the rail trip or go quad
riding.

Day Seven - Thursday

A wet morning, bummer. Book out and head down to Banjos in the centre
of town for coffee and see what is going on. I don't need to go on the
cruise trips so sit at the coffee shop getting rather bored for 4-5
hours. There was a few of us there for a while, including Pete who had
nothing to do either, Errol having headed off early as it was his
wedding anniversary that day and we didn't expect to see him til the
following morning.

The night before I had come up with an idea for the opening of the
video (after admiring the wonderful tail of the Agusta) - I would get
close up shots of the different bike bums as the engines started. So
that gave me something to do as everyone filtered in and out of the
coffee shop.

It was here that we had our major injury of the week. Danny (Wally's
shadow and event comic) was telling a group some gruesome injury story
not realising one of them had quite a week stomach for that sort of
thing. He fainted, unfortunately falling and hitting his head on the
edge of a low brick wall badly cutting his jaw and rupturing his
eardrum. This required an ambulance trip 40km up the road to Rosebery
where he was stitched up and released later that afternoon. His bike
was loaded into the Yamaha van and he was back on the ride the next
day.

A lot of riders decided that as the weather was so shitty they
wouldn't wait for the 3.30 departure and headed off early. What they
didn't know was that if they had waited until 3.30 they would have
ridden dry roads all the way to Burnie, our overnight stop. Again, I
headed off early to find a good camera spot to grab the first bikes
through. I knew it would be difficult this time as 2/3 to 3/4 of the
field had already gone, so my chances of leap-frogging the field were
low, also as there were no coffee shops on the route. The Dual Sport
guys had headed off in the morning to take a parallel route called the
Road to Nowhere, but were turned back half way up it when a fire that
was though under control flared up again and was burning across the
road.

I headed through Mt Black and doubled back down into a Hydro road into
an area called Lake Plimsoll. This bit of road has to be the best 30km
of road in Tasmania. Spectacular highland scenery and a perfect bit of
tarmac. I grabbed a few quick shots of bikes through here and headed
off again, hoping not to lose touch. The next major spot I wanted to
get shots at was Hellyer Gorge, about 60km north of there. Halfway
there a thick fog set in for about 15 minutes of ride. I stopped and
grabbed a couple of shots of the bike lights needling through the
mist. Back on and into Hellyer Gorge to grab the last few bikes
through then a leisurely cruise through the farmlands into Burnie for
a free night for everyone to head where they wanted.

The hotel where a lot of us were staying had decided they would put on
a band for us. Nice thought. Shame about the delivery. The guy playing
piano looked as though he had escaped from the home for the terminally
elderly. Young guy on drums, another octogenarian on bass and a guy on
sax in his 50s with a ponytail who was the lead. I don't mind sax, but
this was at 100dBA and was there for every tune … we left for a steak
restaurant.

Day Eight - Friday

Last day of the road tour. Breakfast in middle of Burnie where the
council had closed off the road for us to park. I headed out early
again, positioning myself by the seaside and waited for the bikes to
arrive. It was overcast but not real cold. Again it would clear by the
end of the day. We really had been lucky with the weather, with only
the guys that left early on Thursday encountering any rain for the
whole week.

By the time I had my pictures and was back on the bike, the whole
field was past me. Bugger! Now I was going to struggle. But luck! As I
turned inland from Ulverstone, I noticed the field going up the B17
instead of the B15. Nasty me didn't correct them coz I figured I could
gain a heap of time on them going up the correct road. I was right. By
the time I got to the next camera spot, there were only 10 bikes ahead
of me. I set up just in time to find the field who had eventually
turned around when they worked out they were on the wrong road. I
wasn't really nasty, they would have got to the right place in the
end, would have ridden through some really nice roads, but they would
just be a little late that's all, just behind me which is what I
wanted. Dum de dum.

Nearing Cradle Mountain we turn left at Moina into another Targa Stage
(Cethana - where halfway through Mick Doohan made a mess of a Merc a
few years back). This is a magic piece of road. I wanted a shot from
the top of Mt Claude, about 1/3 of the way in. We initially drop down
into a gorge then up out again, before a short steep climb up to Mt
Claude then a run across the top of the mountain before slowly
dropping down into the back of Mole Creek, exiting the mountains near
King Solomon's Caves. As I turned at the T junction to climb up Mt
Claude, I saw Pete coming out of the bushes on the side of the road -
obviously having a pee stop. I gunned the Busa up the hill, figuring
he was about 10m from his bike. Could I get to the top before he
caught me? I knew there was no way he was going to go slowly up the
hill and I also knew there was no way I would be as quick as him if we
had started together but I was determined that I was not going to get
caught on the road. Success! I had stopped and was just taking off my
helmet when Pete crested the top of the climb - neither of the two
bikes with him at the bottom of the hill were anywhere near him

Got some nice scenic shots here and then decided I didn't need any
more shots before Deloraine, about 1/2 hour away. So put my head down
and had some fun across the mountain. Near the end of the run I had
just rounded up a VFR800 and a Gixxer 750 when coming hurtling around
a corner (I know this road quite well) to find two ST1100s on the side
of the road looking straight at me. It must have looked funny to them,
all these bikes hurtling around a corner then instant throttle
shutdown. We just can't help ourselves. Guilty consciences. They were
just directing the field to take the turn to the right. Actually I was
causing the same consternation for the first few days. My camera
looked a lot like a speed camera and me dressed all in black leathers.
I have some wonderful shots of rapidly decelerating motorcycles from
the first day or so til they got used to me.

A lot of guys stopped at Deloraine so I got a few shots there and then
headed on to Longford for the lunch break. We had arranged to block
the road briefly at the Country Club Hotel on the corner of the old GP
circuit. Hay bales and old cars were arranged around the area and an
early 250 GP bike (TD1A Yamaha) was let loose up the street and around
the hotel corner, noisy and smoky as hell. Great scene. I tee'd up for
the other cameraman to get the shots of the road bikes up through
Poatina and on to Bothwell for the regroup for the run into Hobart.
Lou Martin (the stills photographer) and I then made a beeline down
the midlands highway to the airport where we jumped into a chopper and
flew back up the midland highway to meet the 1km snake of bikes around
Bagdad. We then followed them down the highway into Hobart, me hanging
out the side of the chopped wondering whether I had tied up my
sandshoes properly or not. Hanging out while Ben, the pilot, did a
tight turn on my side over Cornelian Bay I figured that if the safety
harness let go, they could just leave me there (Cornelian Bay is
Hobart's major cemetery).

We were running out of flight time (we had one hour as a sponsorship
arrangement) so we left the bikes and headed down for a shot of Wrest
Point, where we were all heading. Ben did a nice turn around Wrest
Point, informing us that his new girlfriend works there (he'd only
been in Hobart 3 weeks) thus lifting his chances that night.

Back to the airport and onto to bike to get to Wrest Point and dinner
with Mal and Lou giving the diners a few stories and answering
questions about life, the universe and water pistols.

Day Nine - Saturday

A bike expo at Wrest Point was the main event for the day, but first I
had to nip back up the BLOODY BORING midlands highway to get some
shots at Oatlands of the State Championship round of the motorcross.
Not many people there and no-one told me it was 8km up a very bumpy
dirt road. Not really busa territory, oh well. Down to Wrest Point.
Check out the new 2004 Yamaha R1 which had been flown in from Japan,
world first. Some other really nice machinery there too, but I think
I'm starting to get motorcycled out. The Joe's Garage stunt team is
there, but are only allowed to do one burnout. Quite a spectacular one
though, right to tyre pop. The strings of rubber hanging off the
number plate and brake calipers was quite a sight though.

Day Ten - Sunday

Sleep in! Head out to the Derwent Entertainment Centre for the final
round of the Australian SuperMotard Championship. This was quite
spectacular, but we didn't get the crowds we'd hoped for. Probably
only 1000 people there. The ones there had a great day though. Anthony
Gobert was competing which I thought would have been more of a
drawcard. I was hoping to get an interview with Gobert but he blew a
tyre in his last race and retired and must have got out of there fast.
Got some nice shots there, grabbed Mal and did an end of event
interview with him and even chairman Shaun Lennard and headed for the
pub. I heard a rumour that Gobert was going to Joe's Garage so went
home and grabbed the camera again, only to get there and find he had
left to get some food. I waited an hour but decided to leave as I was
tired. It was suggested that he might be down the road getting food so
I went to check it out and he was there and had finished dinner and
getting stuck into the vodkas. He didn't mind doing an interview and I
asked whether he'd prefer to do it Monday but he seemed keen to get it
done now. We went back up to Joe's and did a brief interview then I
put the camera away for the last time.

Day Eleven - there is no Day Eleven

What a week. I'm totally tired, but it was really good fun. Everyone I
spoke to had a ball and I don't think they were saying that just
because I was pointing a camera at them or because they knew I was
involved with the organisational committee. At Burnie on Friday
morning, the dates for next year were announced (3rd week of November)
and I know that at least 5 people immediately booked the boat for next
year. Being the first year and a smallish group was good. There were
teething problems on the organisational side (to be expected on the
first run), but they were fixed quickly and no-one was aware of them I
am sure. Whether the police are able to handle it with such ease in
the future is a big question. They did a great job on the road and
socially, but if we get a few bad eggs next time, the clamp will
probably have to come down. No-one did anything silly and everyone was
able to enjoy, let's hope it stays that way.

Check here for the photos:
http://www.motorcycleweek.com.au

I'd highly recommend it (and I'm not being paid to say, this event is
a non-profit event run by volunteers) if you have the time next year.

Cheers


Kevin Gleeson
Imagine It
West Hobart
Tasmania Australia
www.imagine-it.com.au

 

Great yarn Kev. When will the video be available?

©onehead

<snip>

 

<snippy snip>

<pimp>

http://mygallery.live.net.au/gallery/album24

pics of the symmonds plains ride day

</pimp>

jase

 

I don't think I'll have time to hook into it until Christmas. We've
told the guys late January. I certainly don't want to have it hanging
around much longer than that...

Cheers

Kevin Gleeson
Imagine It
West Hobart
Tasmania Australia
www.imagine-it.com.au

 

Apologies for the typos and grammatical errors in that. Just got home
again and realise how badly it read, but it is first draft.

But then, who cares?

Yaz all know what I meant.

Cheers

Kevin Gleeson
Imagine It
West Hobart
Tasmania Australia
www.imagine-it.com.au

 

Great Read Kev,
Almost wish we were there...but then again.

 

Kevin said....

KG> We are accompanied for the week by two constabulary on brand new
KG> ST1100s, Pete and Errol. There was some early consternation amongst

What's this thing about Tasmanians named "Errol"?

 

We're all in like Flynn?

Cheers



-------------
Kevin Gleeson
Technical Director
Blue Rocket Productions
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
www.blue-rocket.com.au

 

Because you root everything you touch ...

Cheers
Goaty and Moike
in drier WA

 

Just started editing this - 14 hours of footage to go through ...

Anyway - thought you lot might like a little sneak preview of bits:
http://www.burmanpools.bizland.com/burnout.mpg

minus 100 points for anyone who doesn't recognise the guy in the black
t-shirt

Cheers


Kevin Gleeson
Imagine It
West Hobart
Tasmania Australia
www.imagine-it.com.au

 

It's Hammo with a dye-job!
(I'd recognise that Gob anywhere!!)
Clem

 

well the rider weighs about 22 kg , so where is the clip with a real
human male on there and doing a similar light up ?