Motorbike Friendship

Two days back I was trundling through some slow traffic in Mittagong and along side me are two guys in a ute. The passenger looks across at me and then back to his mate driving and calls "That's Phil". I've never seen either of them before but now they are both smiling and waiving at me, so I do the same, wondering what the hell is going on.

Then last night having my quiet beer at the Mitto, it suddenly starts raining outside quite heavily when a guy I've never seen before comes in the front door and says "Ya gunna get wet going home tonight Phil". And so I certainly was. I'm totally baffled but Kevin tells me a mate has seen the MkIII outside every night and so Kevin comes down to find me. Obviously a lot of folk are reading this forum but you would never know. They don't post. Kevin is a hell of a nice guy and has a 72/73 Triumph Tiger currently getting work done but will soon be back on the road. His son says the Norton and Dad's Triumph are the best looking British bikes in town. Not hard, everyone else has disappeared. Apparently there is a strong group of British bike owners here in the Southern Highlands and Kevin says they all used to ride, but sadly most have put their bikes in the shed with a sheet over them.

I was getting lonely, happy even to talk to a modern bike owner who might appear, but even they seem to go to bed with the sun.
Kevin will be a good mate and hopefully a few others out of sight will come out of the closet and join us for a beer at The Mitto.
The pub owners want the picture of the lone Norton parked outside framed so they can hang it on the wall. They feel it makes their pub look special. I hope in time they'll have a photo with British bikes lined all the way up the street.
The 60's 70's revival is alive and well. But all are welcome.

Motorcyclists share something very special that other folk just don't understand, and never will.

Phil

Where I come from, Sandgate on the northside of Brisbane its a place for lots and lots of british bikes, myself and a lot of my old school mates all got into bikes at a early age and after 40 years or more we are all still riding, we have lost a few over those years but we are all still a big group, yes some have gone to Harleys but most have stuck with our British bikes, every year a group of mates who are members of the Asplat Demons car club (most members have british bikes) put on a car and bike show at our local pub (Seaveiw Hotel) they take over the whole street with the cars and hotrods on one side and the bikes on the other side, Sandgate has a long history with motorcycles, with this show it looks like you have gone back in time, the Harley riders are way out numbered in this area, but its all good fun, good friends, great looking chicks, good music and of course lots of beer as well Bundy Rum.

Life is great and couldn't ask for better.

Ashley

ashman said:

Where I come from, Sandgate on the northside of Brisbane its a place for lots and lots of british bikes, myself and a lot of my old school mates all got into bikes at a early age and after 40 years or more we are all still riding, we have lost a few over those years but we are all still a big group, yes some have gone to Harleys but most have stuck with our British bikes, every year a group of mates who are members of the Asplat Demons car club (most members have british bikes) put on a car and bike show at our local pub (Seaveiw Hotel) they take over the whole street with the cars and hotrods on one side and the bikes on the other side, Sandgate has a long history with motorcycles, with this show it looks like you have gone back in time, the Harley riders are way out numbered in this area, but its all good fun, good friends, great looking chicks, good music and of course lots of beer as well Bundy Rum.

Life is great and couldn't ask for better.

Ashley

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Yes Ashley
Life is better than it ever was. You learn a lot in nearly 60 years. I once believed I would surely be dead at this age. But still here, and my Norton also. The next 60 years of riding will be an awful lot of fun. Just when I thought life was over, it suddenly started all over again, but this time armed with a heap of experience and a wealth of good friends. A whole forum full of Norton owners. Well, I hope they are.

Phil

I had to do an annual medical today.
Blood pressure climbing a bit and eye sight getting on the ratty side.
Doc starts to talk about this when I pull out my phone and show him the Commando.
He says, Hmm nice bike. Wish I had one.
Now pay me Phil and get the fuck out of here!
Sorry about the language, but I laughed all the way home on the Norton.
I live for yet another year of riding!!

Yep,
Thats great to hear Phil, you being so well known..
Reminds me ,back in the sixties i was at oulton Park standing next to Ago and his 3 cylinder MV 500 agusta,
Suddernly a guy come's running over to us with his autograph book, he trusts into my hand a says " John,give me your autograph!" while i was doing it, he learned over and wispered in my ear..."who's the guy with the MV? ! :lol:

john robert bould said:

Reminds me ,back in the sixties i was at oulton Park standing next to Ago and his 3 cylinder MV 500 agusta,
Suddernly a guy come's running over to us with his autograph book, he trusts into my hand a says " John,give me your autograph!" while i was doing it, he learned over and wispered in my ear..."who's the guy with the MV? !

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THAT is a great story.

john robert bould said:

Yep,
Thats great to hear Phil, you being so well known..
Reminds me ,back in the sixties i was at oulton Park standing next to Ago and his 3 cylinder MV 500 agusta,
Suddernly a guy come's running over to us with his autograph book, he trusts into my hand a says " John,give me your autograph!" while i was doing it, he learned over and wispered in my ear..."who's the guy with the MV? ! :lol:

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I had a guy do the same thing, thrust his autograph book at me and said, sign this whilst I try your bike out.
The bastard never even came back for his book!!

Interviewing many heavily involved british iron people at rallys reveals only like 10% active online. So mainly social misfits show up here chasing the rest away.

It don't matter what bike you ride, I have met some great poeple on bikes and if I see someone sitting on the side of the road broken down wheather its anybike I will always stop to help, when i broke my rear chain on my Norton a few months ago there was always someone stopping to see if I was OK, I already had the wife coming with the trailer and one jap rider stayed with me till she arrived, had to wait for about a hour and we had a good chat about bikes and all, I have helped a few on the side of the road and gone to a lot of trouble to help them with my trailer to get them home safely, its all about helping when you can and never ask for rewards when done, its all about enjoyment of motorcycling, but you always get some that don't think the same, but thats life and don't worry me because I know if I need help there will alway be someone there to help out.

After 39 years of owning my Norton a broken chain was the first time I didn't get it home without help, so not a bad record, I once hit the back of a car (no brake lights) on my 82 Triumph Thunderbird and I went over the handle bars and my left knee got hang up on the handle bars and pulled my knee out of its socket, I didn't want to leave my bike on the side of the road and got a guy to kick start it and I rode it home in great pain, was off work for 4 months after that one, the car owned didn't give to shits about me laying on the road, lucky the Triumph didn't get any damage, but there was someone there to help out, the hardest part about that was I couldn't ride my bike in that 4 months, that was 30 years ago and still suffer with that left knee, 3 injuries on the same knee.

Ashley

hobot said:

Interviewing many heavily involved british iron people at rallys reveals only like 10% active online. So mainly social misfits show up here chasing the rest away.

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Don't be so harsh on yourself hobot.
I don't think they even look at these threads.

ashman said:

It don't matter what bike you ride, I have met some great poeple on bikes and if I see someone sitting on the side of the road broken down wheather its anybike I will always stop to help, when i broke my rear chain on my Norton a few months ago there was always someone stopping to see if I was OK, I already had the wife coming with the trailer and one jap rider stayed with me till she arrived, had to wait for about a hour and we had a good chat about bikes and all, I have helped a few on the side of the road and gone to a lot of trouble to help them with my trailer to get them home safely, its all about helping when you can and never ask for rewards when done, its all about enjoyment of motorcycling, but you always get some that don't think the same, but thats life and don't worry me because I know if I need help there will alway be someone there to help out.

After 39 years of owning my Norton a broken chain was the first time I didn't get it home without help, so not a bad record, I once hit the back of a car (no brake lights) on my 82 Triumph Thunderbird and I went over the handle bars and my left knee got hang up on the handle bars and pulled my knee out of its socket, I didn't want to leave my bike on the side of the road and got a guy to kick start it and I rode it home in great pain, was off work for 4 months after that one, the car owned didn't give to shits about me laying on the road, lucky the Triumph didn't get any damage, but there was someone there to help out, the hardest part about that was I couldn't ride my bike in that 4 months, that was 30 years ago and still suffer with that left knee, 3 injuries on the same knee.

Ashley

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I think realistically, these days a lot of folk are scared to stop for fear of outcomes. Ivan Mallat comes to mind, in reverse. How long since you've seen a hitch hiker? And if you do see one, I'll bet almost no one picks them up.

At least a motorcyclist seeing another in trouble will often stop. Not many drivers in a car will. Motorcyclists talk and think their own language. The general public just stay clear.

Not as bad as the old days. I once stood on the side of the road with my broken rear chain in my hand. Was there for three days. In hind sight I should have stuffed the greasy thing down my trousers.

I had a chain failure during the test rides. I was on the MIRA high speed track one Saturday morning running about 100 mph doing high-speed endurance testing. The only other vehicle out there was an Aston-Martin, running at about 150.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, the engine stopped and the drive went away. I was able to get off the high banking before the Aston ran me down. The engine was destroyed - con-rod through the side - and the chain was missing. We went onto the track on foot after the Aston guy went home and found the chain. The split link had failed.

I'm a ugly bastard with a full bushy beard, but you be surprised I have had old poeple pull up in cars and ask if I was alright, most of the time I had stopped to have a pee on the side of the road, once I past a car down a tight mountain road, but when I got down the bottom I blew a fuse, no spare one and the car I past up the mountain stopped to see if I was alright , 3 yourg lads, I told them I was right as I had my wire cutters in my jacket, I cut a bit of wire off the barb wire fence and joined the 2 wires together, it got me home, after that I always carried spare fuses but never used them.

Ashley

frankdamp said:

I had a chain failure during the test rides. I was on the MIRA high speed track one Saturday morning running about 100 mph doing high-speed endurance testing. The only other vehicle out there was an Aston-Martin, running at about 150.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang, the engine stopped and the drive went away. I was able to get off the high banking before the Aston ran me down. The engine was destroyed - con-rod through the side - and the chain was missing. We went onto the track on foot after the Aston guy went home and found the chain. The split link had failed.

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Was that a Commando on test Frank? They would have been interesting times trying out the Commandos for the very first time. The lack of felt vibration would have been incredible on a big twin. More than anything it set the Commando apart from every other British bike. After the Atlas it was a complete revolution. And still is in my opinion. Who ever imagined Norton could come up with a twin which actually got smoother the harder you revved it.

ashman said:

I'm a ugly bastard with a full bushy beard, but you be surprised I have had old poeple pull up in cars and ask if I was alright, most of the time I had stopped to have a pee on the side of the road, once I past a car down a tight mountain road, but when I got down the bottom I blew a fuse, no spare one and the car I past up the mountain stopped to see if I was alright , 3 yourg lads, I told them I was right as I had my wire cutters in my jacket, I cut a bit of wire off the barb wire fence and joined the 2 wires together, it got me home, after that I always carried spare fuses but never used them.

Ashley

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I had a rear tube explode at 70mph with my brother on the back of the Dominator and heavy saddle bags. We weaved wildly like a clock pendulum for a good two hundred yards before coming to a halt on the opposite side of the road. My brother didn't look very well at all. I think he was tempted to jump off but was paralysed with fear for the whole two hundred yards. Anyway, we used a vulcanising patch (remember those things?), then the Norton hand pump (remember that?) failed. We flagged down a heavy truck who nearly burnt out his tyres trying to stop. When we asked him if he had a hand pump, I thought he was going to kill us. Needless to say he didn't. Long story what happened after that. But every Norton rider is equipped with ingenuity. Ten miles to the next town was a long push on a flat tyre. So we did something else.

A burning Norton can keep you warm for hours.

But getting back to friendship, my mate on his Bonneville watched the whole terrifying incident from behind. He thought it was funny, we certainly didn't. I carried the Dominator rear wheel on the back of the Bonneville to town to pump it up. Returned and refitted it. We finally got to Byron Bay at midnight and spent a horrid night sleeping on the beach being eaten alive by mosquitos.

That was motorcycling and you didn't go on trips without a buddy because peril was always around the next corner. These days with cell phones etc, it is a far more relaxed affair. Unless you want to try the Simpson desert on a Commando.

In those days, tyre tubes from England were made of rubber but you could buy cheaper Japanese ones, which were a synthetic material. From another very nasty experience, we learnt that vulcanising patches did not like Japanese tyre tubes. They tricked you into thinking they did, but peeled off rapidly at the most inopportune moments. Usually at high speed.

Mikunis work great on a Commando.
But don't fit a 70's Japanese tyre tube if you are still using vulcanising patches.
If you think a Commando can get up a high speed weave, you ought to see what a Dominator can do with a blown rear tyre.

OK, I'll ask. What's a Ute?

I think he meant "youth".
Must be the accent, right Vinny?

Diablouph said:

OK, I'll ask. What's a Ute?

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A ute is a utility.
Like a small pick up truck.
I forgot the term is not much used outside Australia.
It is a car with the back half of the cabin not there, but a truck like tray in its place.
Often used to transport a motorcycle for example.
Or a cattle dog on a chain.
Or your drunken mates from the pub, spewing everywhere (very easy to hose out - mates and spew).
Oh we are a sophisticated lot down here!