flipper wrote:
Friggin show off - whats that a picture of any way? - your latest game site 

Sorry about the BIG caption but my brother John did it a long time ago so there it is.

Well thats me on the way to Lake Tali Karn (spelling?) back when you could. Lots of water to cross which was great fun for all us newbie trail riders. Stopped for lunch, but some of us just couldn't stop having fun. Those early rides were just so exciting, everything was new, the bikes, the terrain, the how to. All really memorable. My lunch, water and spares would have been in the bag strapped on the back which was borrowed from the Honda 450 road bike. I never purchased a car until 1970 when I started racing and needed to transport the bike, oh yeh - I had also discovered the "Drive In"

Hi all.
Here's two funny stories, well I reckon they are funny, maybe you had to of been there to see the funny side of it, I'll do my best to put it in writing, I'm not the best in writing stories, so maybe you have to use ya imagination here & there.

As I've mention before My two older brother's & I used to ride every weekend, John being the oldest the next in line was Tony then me, & Hank & Billy, so 5 off us, at one stage the 5 off us used to ride bikes, my youngest brother Billy was always good for a laugh, he used to crash all the time, there wasn't hardly a hill that he didn't crash on  I had to hand it to him even though he always made hard work of it he never gave up : he end up getting married & moved to N.Z, & hank lost a bit of interest, so that left just the 3 of us riding/racing  together for years, oh I've got 5 sisters as well, when people asked my old man......How many kid have you got Harry, with a smile he would say 4& a half dozen, you have to think about that one  when they realized he had 10 kids, they would say, oh my God Harry you've got a big family, with a smile on his face he said yeah, back in Holland we had long cold winters

Now what was I going tell ya's, oh yeah John Tony & me were keen to go for a ride in the area where we normally camp at Xmas time, 22km past Licola at the 3rd bridge that crosses the Wellington river, just before the last bridge on the left is a day picnic area, but it wasn't back then, the road wasn't sealed back then either, anyway Terry Vandenberg the father of Ray ( Goof ) vandenberg, Terry's cousin wanted to come along as well & 3 others from the MCRCV, after unloading the bikes & geared up it was ready to hit the trails, when we got to the first river crossing, the crossing was washed away with the heavy rains they've had, we managed to get across 2 or 3 of them, when we got to the next one it was a lot wider then it usually was, so again we had to find the best place to cross, John & Tony & others were following each other like sheep, to me I could see a shorter way across, but as it was getting deeper & deeper I looked across where the others was going it looked like the better way to go, as I was slowly heading towards the others, John Vandenberg was behind me, he kept going after I decided that it was getting to deep, I called out to him to stop, it's to deep that way, like a stubborn Dutchman he just kept on going, yep he went down & down until his handlebars were level  with the water line  when we dragged his bike out to the other side & started to dedrown his bike I walked to the river edge where he drowned his bike & when the water cleared up I could see the main part of the river, it looked like about 3 meter's deep, so you might say so !! if he had of been 1 metre further over he would have gone into 3 metres of water.....He can't swim   haha, not only did he drown his bike he could have drowned with it.......He had a bike like this one       www.suzukicycles.org/photos/suzuki-histo...2_TS250J_red_500.jpg

Story 2
This was at Xmas time camping at the same place, the rivers were a lot lower
about halfway through the 16 river crossings there was a hill we had to get up, in those days the hills wasn't much of a problem for us, but John Vandenberg's Son Walter had some trouble getting up there on his SL 125 Honda, so John calls out to him to hang on I'm coming, when he gets to him he says to him ....Now Son, I'll show you how it's done  he is now at the bottom of the hill & ready to go, 3/4 way up the hill on the right side stood a big old tree with a branch broken off leaving it sticking out round 3/400 mm & here come John, he has  that SL 125 singing as he gets near the tree the bike is starting to throw John of the back  when he did end up sliding of the back he gave the throttle a good twist, the bike got air born the front wheel hooked onto the broken branch & end up swinging in the tree, some of the blokes that was with us was rolling on the ground with laughter,if ya reckon that was funny, the funnest part was  when we see Father & son shaking the tree trying to get the bike down LOL I'll never forget that, yeah boy did we have fun while out on the bikes.

10 kids!  OMG!

You're lucky you could afford bikes.

Good stuff, thanks Frankie.

Thanks mate.

I didn't have ten kids  my Dad did, I should say my Mum did

Mt Dissa Ride ,,,,lead by the loose cannon himself Peter Ross...ranks as one of my best /favourite days out there.

Braaaap

Hi all.
Time for another funny story, this time we are camping at Paddy lee's crossing,  1987/88.

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This was taken on day 3or 4 of 10 days camping Xmas holidays.
From left.
Me on a KTM lc4 600cc, best hill climbing bike I've ever had, that bike would take up hills with out having to try to get up to the top, another bike I wish I still had.
From left.
Me, Ron KTM lc4 600cc  Kym KTM 250cc   Brother John KTM 250cc      Brother Tony KTM Lc4 600cc
Getting ready to do the Licola & back trip.

Jumping ahead towards the end of our holidays, we were all sitting around the camp fire, after riding every day, trips to the Pinnacles, Licola & back & doing a couple of timed laps through the river crossings to Huggetts crossing & back to our camp site, oh yes John & I got in a bit time in to do some fishing, John is the fisherman in the family, I've been known to do a bit of it now & then  John always catches more trout then me, but I hold the record for the biggest catch 
Anyway as I was saying, we were all sitting around the camp fire, someone said it's 10:30 I reckon I'll hit the sack, I think we were all worn out, nobody got up to go to bed , we were just sitting around the fire not saying a word just staring into the fire, have ya ever done that, it nice to watch the different colour flames coming from the burning wood. I thought it was time to wake everybody up, I quietly got up & got a almost empty can of CRC sat back down, I waited a while for everybody to go back to dream world, then I started to spray a bit of the CRC in to the fire, nobody was to worried about me doing that,
Then all of a sudden I threw the can into the fire, hell it was funny, everybody at the same time tipped them  selves backwards of the chairs & ran for cover, I didn't run for cover I just moved away from the fire, it didn't take long for it to go off, I was standing about 50 feet away I felt the can fly past me like a bullet, I was lucky it din't hit me, but it was bloody funny though LOL
Yeah we have all done some stupid things in our lives, if ya haven't then you haven't lived  Hahaha  

This was on another night, we got to know a bloke from the Dandenong club he & his family & some of his mates used to camp at the same place, we always called him... IT Pete, that was his ride when we first met him, we have known him for years & don't even know his real name   they used to camp at the other end of the camp area & at some time during the night he would wonder over for a chat, he always had a skin full, never known him any different, he always amazed me that he could still ride so good the next day, My Son & 2 of my nephews wanted to have some fun, they were busy digging a big hole about knee deep, John & I wanted to know what they were up to, they said we are making a booby trap for when IT Pete comes over, just before dark they had if finished, John said to them that it wont work, they wanted to know why it wont, he said how do you know that he is going walk right were you have made the trap, John is no better then the kids  he said you have to put things around so he will take the easy way to the fire, so we are all sitting around the fire waiting for IT Pete to come over for his visit, it was getting late & no sign of Pete, we had almost given up, then we could hear him coming talking to us or himself, when he got close to where we were sitting he stopped, he was having a good look around for the best place to the fire, he spots the clear way, so of he goes with his esky in one hand & a can in the other, in he goes, we all laughed it was so funny we couldn't stop laughing, he didn't think it was funny, I thought it was going to end in an argument I'm glad it didn't he did give us a little smile the next morning  we had another laugh the next night, brother John fell in that uncovered hole


More to come.......Anybody else got any stories ? come on everybody has story's to tell.

Frankieboy wrote: What a pissa Frankie

I still remember Big River to Side of crazy hill pulling bikes up crazy hill  for hours the  Comaridy was amazing! 

Hi all.

It's pissing down here so I thought I'd share another story with ya's.
This one goes back to the Queens Birthday weekend 22km past Licola on the Tamboritha road, we arrived there on a Friday late afternoon, after setting up camp we got stuck into the coffee  yes you did see right, it was to cold for drinking beer, brother John, brother in Law Steve, & myself were riding 250cc Suzuki Savage, my brother Tony was on a Ossa 6 days.

It was a short night before I knew it, it was time to get up, our trip was up to Tarli Karng, none of us was very keen to tackle the 16 river crossings, Mt Margaret got the vote, the Dolodrook river/ creek at the Cromite Mine was the only crossing we would have to do, it's only a small crossing, in the summer time it hardly carries any water, when we got there the water level was bloody high & running very fast, you would end up down stream some where if ya tried to cross it on ya own
after the 4 off us had a talk about weather we should go on or go back, it was decided to go on, the 4 off us manhandled one bike at a time to the other side, yeah we got our balls wet  water was bloody cold, after doing some riding we warmed up a bit or was it the numbness set in  when we got to the walking track to the lake my brother in Law hadn't been to the lake before, I wasn't that keen to walk down there again, I've been there 2 times before, I made up my mind on the way back up to the bikes, that I'll never go there again, 3 times there & it always looks the same
It was now time to head back to camp, none of us wanted to go back the way we came, so we continued on up the staircase to the high plans, while we were going up the stair case there was a bit of white stuff laying on the ground & as we got up further there was more of that white stuff on the ground, when we got to the top & was following the Wellington high planes there was snow every where ya looked, with low hanging branches on the small trees covered with snow it looked quit eeeeery, first time I've ridden in the snow, it was bloody hard going, the bikes was sinking through the soft snow to the mud beneath the snow, we were digging trenches as we were going, it was around 3 in the afternoon & 13 km to the Tamboritha road.

It was the hardest ride I've ever done, you could stand up for very long, sitting down you had to keep ya legs up off the snow, It looked like that Tony's Ossa had the best bottom end power to take the lead & we would follow him, the last in line had it the hardest because the trench they digging up front was getting deeper, so we took it in turns to ride at the back.

Then John broke his chain, after much discussion, John was going to stay with his bike, we would continue on & when we get to the main road we would take the chain of one of the other Suzuki's & ride back in, but then looking around & all you could see is snow, snow every where, he wouldn't be able to light a fire, it was then decided that he would walk out with us, & pick up the bike the next day, John didn't slow us down none, we could only ride at walking pace anyway
It seemed like we were never going to get out of there, by now we were running out of day light, finally we could see a camp fire in the dark, people with 4x4's, we weren't cold, riding through the snow kept us warm, but when we cooled off a bit & then got close to the fire our fingers were getting sore, we had to keep our distance.

Tony & I rode our bikes down the Tamboritha road to our camp bloody cold, we had to stop here & there to warm our hands on the pipe, we ended up rolling down were we could, the wind was so cold, when we got back to camp, Tony would jump in his ute & pick up John & Steve, while I stayed back & try to get a fire going, the next morning the three of them went back to pick up John's bike, I stayed back at camp & keep the fire going, it seemed to take for ever for them to come back, so stopping my self form getting too bored I would jump on the bike & ride over the last bridge over the Wellington river & then take a track that ran along the river for about 2 km's before it ended back up to the main road, having a smoke wondering what's keeping them so long, after finishing my smoke I rode down the road back to camp, stoked up the fire & have a nice hot cup of coffee  I repeated this a few times, the last time I decided that I'd just roll down hill with a dead motor back into camp, as I was just starting to get a good bit of momentum going, I heard a car coming behind me, when the car got next to me I looked over, bloody hell it was a cop car, I wasn't wearing a helmet, yeah, yeah I know, no reg on the bike, in those days there was a lot of riders going around with no reg, no licence either, yeah I was a bad boy, as I've said, if ya haven't done anything stupid in ya life, then ya haven't lived  I can't remember how much that weekend cost me, I know that it was enough to hurt the pocket .