MOTORCYCLE REPORT

Enjoy the remainder of the summer! It won’t last forever!!

Past Events.

3 – 6th February 2023 – National Motorcycle Rally, Invercargill. Quite a number of the Canterbury riders attended this event, with varying degrees of success when it came to winning the trophies on offer.

8th February – Motorcycle Noggin. In the rush of doing stuff I forgot to attend, not sure how this went.

16th February – Old Codger’s Run. Delayed one week due to people being away for the NMR in Invercargill. Further delayed until Monday 20th due to heavy rain!! This Old Codger’s Run went out to Oxford, meeting at the Sheffield Pie Shop. About a dozen bikes turned up, including one or two bikes we had not seen for a while! A BSA Bantam, Terry Chapple’s old 1928 Harley plus side chair, plus an Oxford local on a 1930’s James V-twin; all good stuff! We’ve seen the James before, a nice bike!

18th February – Clip-on Run. Doug Watkinson and Denise McKenzie were the organisers. Linda White was on the event, so see elsewhere for her report.

19th February – OCBC + Fish and Chip Run. Brought forward so as to not clash with the Branch Annual Rally. Perhaps not a good idea, only one or two decided to take part…

25 – 26th February – Branch Annual Rally. Clash with the Fish and Chip run, so the latter was held a week early.

Future Events.

5th March – Moped Run. Graham Barnett is the organiser of this event; it will start from the New World supermarket in Halswell at 10.30 am. Please see elsewhere in this Hub for more details.

8th March – Motorcycle Noggin. This month’s noggin will take the form of a run out to the Leithfield Pub for a meal. Meet at the Bunnings car park, John’s Road, by the airport at 6.00 pm for a ride to Leithfield.

9th March – Old Codger’s Run. How about the new coffee place, Suburban Rascal, 53 Caulfield Ave, Halswell? It’s in the new suburban development south of Halswell Junction Road. Been there, nice place. Meet at 10.30am then decide the rest of the day’s run?

17-18-19th March – Jim Toohey Run. This year the Jim Toohey is going to Blenheim for a day’s riding as organised by our Blenheim members, Colin

Grant and Russell (AKA Ziggy…) Lane. We’ll be riding up to Blenheim on Friday

17th ; the main ride/garage raid day is Saturday, then back to Ch Ch Sunday

19th . More details see elsewhere; entry form in this and the February Hub and on-line. There will be a back-up on this ride.

25th March – Fish and Chip Run. Meet at PMH 10.15am for a 10.30 am departure. This month the run will be a bit shorter, out to the Café On The Green, 2597 Homebush Road, Glentunnel. This is at the Hororata Golf Club.

12th April – Motorcycle Noggin. Your committee has jacked up a visit to the Christchurch Central Fire Station, Kilmore Street. More details in the April Hub, so look out for these.

13th April – Old Codger’s Run. Just a heads up, so look out for a destination next month’s Hub.

15th April – Scooter and Under 250cc Motorcycle Run. Again, a heads up for the event, but look out for more information in the next Hub.

29th April – Fish and Chip Run. There may be a change of meeting place as we are riding to some place north of the city as we are trying to organise a run up to Waikari to conduct a garage raid off the Waikari – Scargill road up there. Look out for more information next month!

That’s it for this month, March heralds the first month of autumn, so enjoy the Indian Summer of motorcycling!

Cheers, CML

Vog Report

The VOGs

(Velosolex owners Group) will be back next month. VOG1 (Royce), and Jan are having a well earned break.

National Motorcycle Rally A Canterbury Perspective

The 2023 VCC National Motorcycle Rally was held in Invercargill over Waitangi weekend. For us the trip started on Thursday morning, meeting at Mike Becker’s place in Springston, where around 20 gathered to travel down. We headed out through Leeston to Rakaia, then down SH1 to Waitati, and over the hill to Port Chalmers, then into Dunedin. We travelled in warm fine weather with the only stops being for petrol or food and everyone’s bikes behaved themselves until Waitati. Graham’s Royal Enfield has coil ignition and either a cell or plate failed in the battery. The bike has an emergency system fitted that allows the battery to be bypassed but this resulted in a much reduced speed climbing the last hills to Dunedin. Arriving just as everything was shutting we were unable to get a new 6 volt battery so caught up with the rest of the group who were staying in Dunedin. As we were booked to stay at Lake Waihola, Harry generously gave Graham his bike to ride there, and put the Enfield in the van.

Friday, and the main group headed through Brighton and the Taieri Mouth to meet us at Lake Waihola. There Graham swapped to driving the van and Harry rode his bike. We all headed to Balclutha, then inland following the Clutha River to Beaumont where the one lane bridge with traffic lights is currently being replaced. After some refreshments we headed south through Tapanui and Gore to arrive at our motel for the next week. A few other Canterbury members arrived who had trailered bikes down travelling the whole way on Friday. A very warm day being 32 degrees, and we did get there early enough to find and purchase a battery, with the Enfield then running faultlessly for the rest of the trip.

Saturday was the Southland VCC Annual Rally catering for all branch vehicles, but swelled by the number of visiting motorcyclists. 126 vehicles took part, of which 80 were visiting motorcyclists. Starting at the VCC clubrooms, the route choices were 50 or 80 miles to lunch and we headed north though back roads, then east to arrive for lunch at Wyndham Racecourse. We had one field test to complete on the way in and another on the way out. Another extremely hot day at 32 degrees again, so everyone was parked in shade under the trees. After the obligatory look though the parts shed, the dinner was held at the VCC clubrooms and the number attending meant two sittings were required. The team in the kitchen did an excellent job despite have two power cuts during the course of preparing the meal.

Jason Roberts, 1913 BSA Model C, was third in the Veteran time trial and third equal in Veteran field tests. Somehow he had ended up at the wrong racecourse but a phone call got him heading in the right direction.

Peter and Lynette Barnett, 1986 BMW R80G/S, won the P80 time trial and were joint first equal for P80.

Sunday was the official start of the 38th National Motorcycle Rally with a display and field tests at Surrey Park. The National Rally had 131 entrants, with 32 from Canterbury Branch comprising 3 Veterans, 2 Vintage, 3 Post Vintage, 11 Post War, 9 P60, and 4 P80 motorcycles. While the day started off grey with some showers this did change to periods of heavy rain in the afternoon.

Three field tests were laid out, and the concours judging was done, though the weather reduced the public turnout to see the bikes. The final event for the day was the inter branch competition with the Canterbury team comprising Joseph McClintock, 1917 Henderson Model G; Phil Jeeves, 1924 Triumph Model P; Garth Boulton, 1939 BSA WM20; and Paul Ainsworth, 1969 Norton Commando. The event was a relay race and heats had to be held, with Canterbury not making the final after finding braking from speed difficult on the wet grass. The winner was Southland with South Canterbury a close second.

Dinner at the clubrooms again with two sittings of pies, peas, and pud using the locally famous “Fat Bastard Pies”. The branch also ran a quiz matching motorcycle model names with the name of the manufacturer which was won by Graham Barnett receiving a nice bottle of wine and tickets to Transport World.

Monday was the main rally day and was wet and very windy. Again starting from the clubrooms the first competitors set off at 10:30 heading on one of three routes to the lunch stop at Riverton Rugby Club. The short route was 80kms, the medium route, 130kms heading out to Tuatapere then following the Southern Scenic route back to Riverton. The long route was 210kms doing a longer loop through Ohai then on to Tuatapere before following the Southern Scenic route to Riverton. The weather did improve but the wind particularly made the morning ride challenging.

The National Rally finished with a prize giving and meal at Ascot Park Hotel. Those from Canterbury who received certificates or trophies were:

Joseph McClintock, 1917 Henderson Model G, third in both the Veteran time trial and Veteran field tests finishing third Veteran overall.

Brian Hayman, 1951 Ariel VH Red Hunter, third in the Post War time trial

Graham Barnett, 1961 Royal Enfield Crusader Super 5, first in the P60 field tests and second P60 overall.

Peter and Lynette Barnett, 1986 BMW R80G/S, first in the P80 time trial, second in the P80 field tests, finishing first P80 overall to win the Northland Cup, actually a beautiful piece of kauri.

Damon Page, 1941 Indian 741B, Hard Luck Prize after stopping when the motor became noisy.

Many thanks to Southland Branch for organising and hosting the National Rally.

I am sure that the busy kitchen volunteers will be taking a well earned rest. With the rally over a few headed for home, but most stayed on Tuesday. With showers continuing those that stayed visited Motorcycle Mecca, or Richardson’s Transport World, both excellent venues. We went to Transport World Tuesday and Motorcycle Mecca Wednesday including the mandatory visit to E Hayes and Sons as the showers continued.

A large group of Canterbury members left on Wednesday heading for Wanaka and returning to Christchurch via Haast and Lewis Passes. Special shout out to Joseph who rode his 1917 from Christchurch for the event in Invercargill and then home through Haast. A great distance for a veteran motorcycle. The smaller group that remained in Invercargill stayed on for the Burt Munro Challenge comprising a number of racing events over four days. The “Burt” has been running for 16 years celebrating the achievements of past local, Burt Munro.

Thursday was the Bluff Hill Climb in clearing showers. Most that attended managed to get a lift in the car. A great event marred by injuries to spectators after bikes lost control and went through barriers. The event was only completed after pulling all spectators off the hill. A few went to the Twilight Drags at Teretonga.

Friday dawned warm and without wind. The beach racing was excellent, well run, and thankfully the ambulance didn’t move all day. The beach conditions and weather were the best I have experienced in several visits over the years to the Burt.

Saturday was circuit racing at Teretonga with many club eligible bikes present or competing. From mid afternoon Oreti Speedway was also in action. Both events were well run and the day needed plenty of sun block.

The Police had a presence doing PR and recording speeds for the fastest racers of over 260 km/hr at the end of the main straight.

Sunday was the final day of competition with Street Circuit racing in Invercargill. Another hot day, with a well run event, and a number of club eligible bikes taking part.

On the Monday the group split up with most either trailering or riding home to Christchurch in a day. We chose a more leisurely pace bypassing Gore to stay away from SH1. Initially we had some fog or low cloud and north of Dunedin we struck gusty side winds so stopped at Moeraki for the night. Leaving early the next morning we made it home with only one heavy shower and no wind. So 13 days away on the bike covering just over 1,000 miles in a mix of weather, with excellent hospitality from Southland Branch. Pencil in 2025 and the next rally hosted by Manawatu.

Peter Barnett