Willbar wrote:
Nice little story mate, I can relate to riding at night in the freezing cold night.

Hey mate, why didn't ya put the bike in the back of the ute. 

Frankie, 1882 views on this thread.... so someone's looking!   You can't dangle a story about Stockmans  without following through!

I used to ride from Stockmans quite a bit years ago, we always seemed to head up there in the worst possible conditions - snow, flooding rain, that sort of thing...

My brother Jim and I headed up there once, middle of winter, must have been early 1980's because I still had the ex-Vandernburg Bultaco Frontera 370. Jim had an Ossa Desert Phantom 250! We rode to Enoch's Point and then across to Jamieson, Mt. Terrible and then to Woods Point by various means. It was getting dark when we got to Woods Point and we needed fuel, but there was none to be had. Someone suggested we try a house down the road, the guy there might have a bit. We did that, and luckily were able to buy a few litres of 2-stroke mower fuel, and then we headed off towards Matlock. Somewhere near Matlock there used to be a rough hut on a side track, we stopped there and my brother was exhausted. We were short of fuel to get back to Stockmans and the car, so we put all the fuel in my bike and I left my brother to have a snooze in the hut.

I rode off alone freezing cold at night by the light of a Bultaco headlight (a pale yellow glow that varied with the engine rpm....). Down Frenchmans Spur and finally found the car. I loaded up the bike, got changed, and then fuck me, can't find the car keys. I looked everywhere, felt around in the dark on the ground in case I dropped them but no good. Ok, unload the bike, start it up and use the headlight, eventually found the keys underneath the car where I must have dropped them... Load back up, start the car... hmmm less than 1/4 tank of a tank of fuel and I have to drive to almost to Woods Point and then to the closest fuel...

Anyway I headed back up to the Woods Point road, by this time fog had rolled in so thick I couldn't see the edge of the road, plus the back wheels were slipping on the muddy road, but eventually made it to the hut, picked up my brother and off we went. We decided the closest fuel would be Jamieson so we headed that way... by the time we got there everything was closed. All we could do was cross our fingers and drive as far as we could, somehow we made it to Taggerty where my family had a bush block with a hut where we slept the night....I remember driving along with the fuel needle below the 'E' mark for miles and miles just waiting for the engine to splutter and die, but it never did...

Must have got fuel at Buxton the next morning and eventually made it home. I suppose eventually we got the idea that a bit of planning might be a good idea....

Cheers, Simon J.

Will, a common theme, shit headlights and freezing cold.....!!

simonj wrote:
Thanks Simon that was a interesting read, am I right, that you didn't want to share this story earlier, because you would sooner want to forget a ride like this

Frankieboy wrote: at the time it seamed a better idea to ride

Willbar wrote:
Haha   I thought that might have been the case.

Yes Simon I suppose it's a bit unfair dangle a story in front of ya's, because I'm the type of person of always trying to do the right thing, so here it is.

As I said I gave up riding dirt bikes for 15 years because of the shit I was going through at that time, in that time I took up road riding, my mates & I used to clock up 14,000 km a year, & that was mainly riding Saturdays, I'm happy to say I'm still alive
I got an invite to go for a dirt bike ride, I was in two minds about taking him up on his offer, when he said that I could ride his spare bike, a XR 400, how could I refuse, he gave me a bike to ride & he asked me so nicely
We arrived at a friends private property near Woodend, first thing that didn't go too well, my riding gear was a bit of a tight fit  when we took of the second thing I found out, I couldn't ride like I used too
but by the end of the day I was hooked again, I didn't want to give up the roadies, but a few dirt rides would be good, I didn't want to lash out a lot of money on a dirt bike because I wasn't sure how much time I would spend on them, I got onto a KTM GS 350 for 2,000 that I've still got now, I reckon it took me a year of & on to get some sort of confidence back. riding roadies & dirt bikes was the reason for that I reckon.

I've been out riding 4,5 times when the entry for the Stockmans Rally came out, I thought it would be great to have a go, two mates from the sports bike club I was in at that time also rode dirt bikes, so the three of us went up there the day before & spent the night there, I didn't get much sleep because of the piss heads making a lot of noise through the night, one bloke got his bike out & was trying to do a burn out, instead he was digging holes, the organizers didn't put a stop to it, maybe they were MCRCV members.

It didn't take long before we had to get up, then did all the usual stuff & then it was ready to start the event, the three of us started of together, they left me behind, I wasn't worried, it wasn't a race, I was going quite well, a few passed me & I passed  a few as well  it didn't seem to take to long before I was coming to the first control, I could see some people up a head, two blokes were walking on the left of the track about 100/500 feet before two people sitting at a small table & a few people standing near them.

As i was riding towards them I could see one of the blokes running to the right side of the track & the other bloke was running around in circles & then bent down & picked something up, all this was going on as I'm getting closer to them, I was close enough to see him pick up a snake, he was holding it at arm length & bending his body as far as he could from the snake, the snake was trying to bit him, as I was getting even closer I though, shit he is brave to pick up a snake & then I though what is he going to do with it, by this time I was next to him, he then all of a sudden threw the bloody thing on my lap, F**k you've never seen anyone bail of the bike as quick as I did, then every one there all laughed there heads off, it turned out to be a rubber snake, I tell ya the way he was moving it around it looked bloody real, I wasn't very happy, straight of the top of my head I said I hope you all had a good F**ing laugh, when I then went over to pick up my bike that bloke came over to help me pick it up, he then saw that I was a old bloke, he didn't think it was funny anymore, I had a bit of trouble starting my bike, that bloke offered to start it for me, I just told him to piss off

After that I was riding along & couldn't get that out of my for a while, I rode for another few km & then I met up with one of my mates, he was on a Yamaha 450, he was keen to have a ride on my Kato, I said ok no worries, I was in front of him when we came to a fork in the track, the left fork went up hill & the track we were on went down a bit, he had a steering dampener on his bike, I've never ridden a bike with one before, he had it set real stiff, anyway as I went up that track with a few small ruts in it I got of balance & fell side ways down to the track below, when the bike & I came to a stop on the track below, the right hand radiator was damaged  we managed to get back to the finish of the first loop, I offered my mate my bike so he could do the 2nd loop, he declined & said that he didn't like my bike, so it was a expensive day for me, If I break any thing I pay for it.

That reminds me of another story about road bikes.  

Just thought I'd bump this one for our 50th year.

Tim D wrote:
Thanks Tim.

I've just wasted another hour of my life reading back through this thread.

It is/was a ripper!

Sorry guys but, how do I put a photo up again?