Part 3.
I got ahead of myself, Tony moved to Melbourne 6 months after I had moved there.

I'm now 16 years old, my old man had given up, he tried every thing to make his fortune here, after all that's why he came here in the first place........Come to Australia, land of opportunity, Australia is 100 years behind the times, the land is full of black fellas, that's the crap they were telling people back in 1955, I can go on more about this but I'm not going too.

The old man moved back to Ararat, when we got there he said that he wants to move back to Holland, he got Dutch passports done for me & my 5 younger siblings, I didn't want to go back to Holland so I left home, my plan was to go to Melbourne by train & then catch another train to Yarrawonga & then stay at my girlfriend's place in Mumwala, when I got to Melbourne the police were at the station waiting for me, the old man drove all the way to Melb to get me, I felt so sorry for him when he was poring his heart out to me on the way home, he was fighting back the tears while he was talking to me, after being back home for a week, he was still wanting to go back to Holland, I then left again, he never went after me again, I arrived at my girlfriend's place, I stayed there for a month or so, the little bit of money I had saved very hard for was slowly dwindling away, My older brother John was working in Canberra on the cotter dam, he got me a job there, it was the best paying job I had at that time, I was only there for 5 weeks, paying for my living expenses I still had enough money to buy a second hand 250cc Suzuki road bike cash, I had a ball riding around those great roads there, I almost crashed a couple of times because of the toe & heal gear change, the first time I almost lost it was going around capital hill, there was 4 or 5 lanes around there, I was speeding around there  one time, really enjoying the lean angle, so I kept going around there for a few laps  it was revving a bit I thought that I might have to change into top gear, that toe & heal change was a great idea when it working properly, the way it works is, when you are in top gear & you have to stop at the lights all you have to do is push the gear lever down one more time & you are back in first gear, well that's what happened to me while I was going around that hill, I changed back into i'st, the back wheel locked up smoke coming of the tyre, I've never grabbed for the clutch as quick as I did that time, I was lucky I didn't crash, I found out later after I sold it that on the gear selector drum there was a  spring loaded pin that went into a notch when you changed a gear, that pin fell out, thats why I used to miss gears a bit, when I heard that I was sorry i sold it, not knowing much about bikes at that time I thought the gear box was stuffed, the young bloke working at Ray Waysen motorcycles in Wangaratta must have known what the problem was, yeah he ended up with a cheap bike, & that's when I bought the old Tiger 110 trumpy, I've already told the story about when I had that bike.

I heard that the old man had changed his mind about going back to Holland & had moved to Gimpy in Queensland, he never sold the plaster works that sat on 2 acres of land in Mulwala, John worked in Cobram & Tony worked in Yarrawonga & I worked in Wangaratta, tony had his Puch with the Jawa motor init & John had a Trumpy Bonneville, between us we ended up with Tony"s old burnt Trumpy, John had a AJS & a  Norton, I got on to a Trumpy speed twin with a  sidecar on it, it only had a  frame, we bolted an old door on it & used to cut laps around the plaster works shed, Tony was yelling to John to go out a bit further from the shed,  you're not giving me any room when I'm hanging out, I'm going to hit the corner of the shed

So in the shed we had.
1 Norton.
1 AJS.
1 Trumpy speed twin with side car.
1 burnt Trumpy speed twin.
My BSA 350 Gold Star.

When we moved to Melbourne to work we left those bikes in the plaster works shed, we didn't have any where we could store them, about 2 years later the old man moved back from Queensland to the old plaster works shed, lived in there while he built the house, My younger brother Hank told us that the old man threw all the bikes on the tip, nothing we could have done about it then, those old bikes weren't worth much then, I reckon they would be worth a bit nowadays though.

The next 6 years there was no bikes in our lives until we got the 175 Bultaco's.

When I look back, I can't help wondering what my life would be like now if I never had any bikes, I might have a lot more money now, but then again I would most likely has spent it on something else.

I reckon having bikes has helped me get through some very dark times in my life, yes bikes has been & is a big part of my life.

The end.

PS I just thought of an other story, I'll leave it till later. or maybe later i might forget

Thanks Frankie, really enjoyed your story 

Another story time

This one is when I was 16 years old & brother Tony was 20, as I've mentioned before we had a plaster works where we made our own plaster sheets, The old man & John & Tony made the sheets & my job was making the cornice, we ended up getting a bit of work but not enough to keep going with it.

One of the jobs we had, was to re plaster an old farm house, we used the truck to take everything there to start with, after that Tony & me went by two wheels back & forth everyday, one morning Tony was warming up the Puch     ,( that was before he put the Jawa engine in it, )       while I grabbed a couple of 2.400mm tin internal angle to take with us, it was a little hard to hold in the wind, I quickly worked out it was a lot easier to hold when I held it a bit further forward from center, when we got to the narrow dirt road it looked like it could be tricky.     It had rained quite a bit since we rode along there a few days before, someone drove along that road leaving wheel ruts that went like a snake, Tony did his best to ride along in the center of the road between the wheel ruts, but two up & being slippery & also road tyres, he ended up in one of the wheel rut's, no way to hold it up right, so down we went  Tony said that while he was laying on the ground he could see me flying through the air above him  It all happened so fast, I didn't even have time to throw the Tin angle away, I still had them in my hand when I hit the dirt  I still have the scar where it cut into my hand. hey come to think of it, that was the first time we rode the dirt

Hi all.
Time for another story, I'll have to do it later, Max is getting impatient, he reckons it walkies time

This one is all about why I'm so unlucky. 

OK,  we've been for our walk, Fixed a couple of spots on my loop that needed doing, Max has had his dinner & in now laying in front of the fire
I'll give ya's a few minuets to, grab a beer or a coffee, or even a red if that's ya poison, oh & don't forget the popcorn
I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on something  I'm taking ya's back to the mid 80's, I think most of you know that I'm a retired chippie,  I was building a house frame west of Warrandyte , in the morning & on the way home I used to take a small dirt road called, Gold Memorial road, it didn't have much traffic using it, it was a nice little short cut, it was good to miss out on having to go through the main street, anyway going along that small road I spotted a track going up a steep hill, in those days that's what my brothers & I did, always looking a good hills to try to get up, not many hill's got the better of us in those days.

It was a Saturday afternoon, that the 3 of us & a couple of mates decided to give that hill a crack, you must have been on a hill climb that you could get up but one rock can put ya off line & it's all over  this hill was like that, we were having a great time taking it in turns to ride up.

We were almost ready to load the bikes up & go back home, I decided to have one more go, yes i did make it too the top  as I was coming back down, the boys in blue pulled up, some body didn't like us having some fun.....So why me !!! why me all the time,? I got booked because I was the only one riding when they pulled up, in those days, I had no reg, no licence, at least this time I was wearing a helmet , I can't remember how much it set me back, all I know is, I was really pissed off that I was the only one booked, the rest of them said that they would chip in to help pay the fine, I never saw one cent, there was no point saying anything to them about it, if they really wanted to chip in they would have, but it was fun while it lasted  

Hi all, yeah it's me again

I was hoping that some of you members would share a story or two with us, you don't have to be 60 plus to have a story too tell, you might think that nobody will be interest in a story you have to tell, don't worry about that, members that are interest will read it & if they aren't then they won't  I reckon it's a good way for members to get to know you, so get down on the keyboard & start typing,.

Here's another one, this one goes back to when my brothers & i got our first dirt bike      A Bultaco 175 Campera.

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

After we  learn't how to ride of road a bit in the Licola area, & other area's, a year went past when we found out from Bert Flood that there was a scramble track up on a hill near Lilydale, it was off Swansea road, the little road that was the way in is called Akarana road, back in those days you had to go over a narrow bridge over the creek, every time I crossed it I thought one day a wheel is going to brake a board  when we went there the first time to have a look, it was only a small track, I was told that John Burrows had a hand in building it, we walked clock wise around the track which turned out to be the right way, walking down the top gear main straight into a right hand fast narrow turn, then up a little 3rd gear straight into a left & right dog leg, then another short straight at the end of that was a right hander into a dug out off around 1200mm deep, then along the bottom of that dug out & then out the other side, it was always a great jump out of there, but ya had to be ready to get on the brakes, because the sharp right hand corner into the main straight came up fast  the track had a name,   It was called        The Ruffry's.

We ended up doing a lot of km around there on our Campera's, we were starting to get the hang of this track racing, so the 3 of us were trying to talk  each other into buying a scramble bike seeing that we are enjoying this type of riding, so the next thing we hear Tony bought a brand new Bultaco 125 scrambler, we went with him to have a ride on it at the ruffry's, boy did that thing go, when it got onto the pipe it felt like ya arms were getting longer  John then bought a s/h Bultaco 250 from Terry Vandenberg's cousin Gerry, that left me, I still didn't have any money, but as they say, where's a will there's a way  I went in to Bert Flood shop to see if there was a way I could buy a 125 Bultaco, I was then told that Gary is selling his 125, I was so excited that I could see a way clear to buying it, I was a bit nervous of it when i found out it was tuned & ran on methanol, at a $1.00 a gallon that wasn't cheap in those days.

So the next thing was, we had to join a club, the MCRCV      there club rooms was in Nunawading, so not far for us to go & besides that Bert was a member there as well, a Bultaco 250 & a Suzuki TM later, our interest's went towards enduro's.


I almost for got, There's houses built across the main straight now.

Don't despair Frankie, a lot of people are shy, or too busy, we may have to wait till they retire - ha ha

Ken R wrote:
That's the thing - I have enough trouble finding time to do ride reports!

So what's your excuse Ken, at your age you must have a heaps of stories to tell.

My next story was going to be  about, my return back to dirt bikes after being away from the dirty for 15 years, after 6 or so rides I entered the 2007 Stockmans Rally on my KTM GS 350........................

I have lost interest in telling anymore stories.

Don't think that when you are retired that you have nothing to do, I've got plenty of things to do to keep me busy.

That's it for me, I'll keep all my story's in my memory.

I hope that some of you enjoyed my story's & that it wasn't a complete wast of time.

Ok Frankie I got one, my first bike was a mid 70s DT250 bought from my girlfriend at the times brother Bart in pieces, quick paint job with some old paint I had laying around from my car and screw together and ride around the paddocks next to the Hallam MX track. Not sure who remembers the area but it's covered in factories now. It was a cant to start, but once it was going it was a ball tairer, I knew fark all about bikes and even less about ridding them but at 20 years old I had no fears.
Then after a while I got a loan an bought a new 87 88 Yamaha XT250, by this stage I was getting the hang of working on bikes instead of cars, road it to work most days, then a mate from worked talked me into going to his farm one weekend up near Hamilton, now that was a ride to remember following him in his ute, middle of winter on a rainy pitch black night to Hamilton with that awesome 80s bike headlight, boy it was cold and shitty and what a crap weekend it turned out to be. Funny though I road through all sorts of crap mud with road trail tyres and probably 30 PSI in them, but I did have a big off going over a jump as I landed heavily on the front wheel, I think I even had a few days off work after that one, not long after that I sold the bike to buy a 308 V8 motor for my HQ GTS should have kept that car but that's another story Frankie Boy then never road another bike till 2008 and hear I am today.