Great photo Simon. Pretty sure I knew the guy riding the TY250. Colin Hammond from memory. Very quick rider on what was essentially a trials bike. Ossa SDr, Bultaco Matador, may be an Alpina and an early Yamaha in the photo. I had a Kawasaki F11 at that time. better than the Yamaha of the day but occasionally it had a habit of starting backwards which caused a bit of surprise when you let the clutch out.

Ian, just like a good vinduro! I remember there was a guy on a Yamaha SC500 cursing and swearing when it kicked back hard while he was trying to start it... and a guy on a Yammie RT 3  who rode off the edge of a cliff on the main road, when I came round again on the second lap they were hauling his bike back up to the road on ropes! I have no idea who ran the event or even how we knew about it... It was two long trail loops with a timed section back to the old sand pit at the top of Frenchman's Spur Track... very exciting for a 15yo!
Would you believe it, I have a short piece of 8mm film of this event! I'm having it converted to digital and will post soon....!  GoPro...phttt - nothing new!!

simonj wrote:
Most of  my photos of that time were slides. I cant be bothered scanning them to the computer.

Ian Robinson wrote:
Well, give them to me and I'll scan them!

I think it's important to keep this kind of 'pictorial' history, of both the club and riding in general.

Ian Robinson wrote:
Talk about a bike running backwards

cybermotorcycle.com/gallery/bultaco/imag...966c-Campera-175.jpg

My two older brothers & I bought a 175 Bultaco Campera for our first dirt bikes, ( I think I have posted the story up before about how  I ended up getting one these dirt bikes, we used to call them campie's   we picked the hardest area to learn on, not because we wanted to, it was because my brother John liked to do a bit of fishing, his idea was, if I had a dirtbike I could get to places that nobody would go & hopefully catch some big trout  so off to Licola we went, we had never done off road riding & river crossings, hills & rocks, scary, scary stuff, after going out a few more times we were slowly getting the hang of it, I found out that by going down hills a bit faster then I'd been going it was easier, & that was by accident I got a bit out of control hitting some rocks the wrong way

The 3 of us couldn't get enough of riding, so after work we used to go to a place & get in some practice on hill climbing, we took it in turns going up & down that hill, yes we had a great time laughing at each other when we stuffed up, one of the runs John did up the hill he got into a bit of trouble & almost stalled the bike, then all of a sudden he flew backwards down the hill, faster then it would have rolled on it's own, after Tony & me picked John up at the bottom of the hill, we asked him what happened, we have never see anybody go down the hill backwards so fast, he said, I don't know, it seemed like I accelerated down the hill, with a laugh we said how could that happen, bikes don't go backwards, by now he was a bit pissed off & said........ well it did,........ after that we went home, some time later we were out for another ride & John was going to have a break/rest, he hit the kill switch but changed his mind & let go of the button, when he was starting to pull away the bike wanted to go backwards, he called us over he then said to Tony & me you blokes didn't believe me that the bike can & did go backwards, well look at this, it took of backwards  it has never happened to Tony or me & has never happened to John again either   

Over the years I have done a couple of trips, a little off the beaten track.    This was probably the most challenging and in the long term most remembered.      Google     Bam Road Siberia.
Enjoy,
Phil R.

My Ossa in the Avon Wilderness area, before many tracks were declared a no go zone.

Ian Robinson wrote: still plenty of good tracks to ride in the Avon Wilderness 

Ian Robinson wrote:
Bloody hell Ian, that Ossa was good, just peeled the Armco back and you were gone 

Serge C wrote:
Put the pics, and the yarns in a  book. I'll buy the first copy. 

Frankie, thought the story about the bloke with the tranny was gonna turn into a ghost story. I'm betting ya brother thought it was a ghost story for at least 10 years. Classic, Luv ya work!