March 2005 Who’s News 

 

Congratulations to Peter and Liz on the early arrival of healthy baby daughter Danielle Laura Weyermayr with a birth weight of 6lb 6oz. She arrived 3.30 am this morning (Monday 4th April). All are well. We look forward to catching up with Danielle and proud parents soon.

 

Cliff Peters is to remain in plaster for 8 weeks with broken scaphoid bone, the result of his minor accident in Tasmania. He is a tough old coot, riding the rest of the day and all the next day down the west coast to New Norfolk, somewhere in the vicinity of 800 kilometres of very twisty roads. No-wonder he needed a day off the next day. We wish him a full and speedy recovery.

 

The MTCV Home Page took 214 hits during March and has taken 23, 459 since April 1996.  On the itinerary page I have put a link to photos with comments of the Tassie trip. Viewers are able to add their own comments. In time I will add more links for other rides. I also emailed the Tassy site www.mstcv.blogspot.com to all the members a couple of weeks ago. I received a bit of feedback:

 

Triffic idea Ben. Wonder how I can burn it to CD - wunderkind coming for pizza tonight will probably know. Great  trip too btw.  Thanks heaps for all the work you put into it. Cheers, Ern Reeders.

 

I think the site is great and the comments were OK too! Well done, you must be feeling a bit tired today! Jacinta Thomas

 

Another email from Ern Reeders, 18th April. Wonderful record! The Tassie trip did wonders for my confidence; scraped the pegs three times on Monday.  Boasting?  Nah, laying up memories for the nursing home. Cheers, Ern.

 

NEW SOCIAL SIP venue. All future Social Sips will be held at the Homestead Inn, corner of Grant St and Queens Parade (top end of Smith St), North Fitzroy, Melways Reference Map 44C2. Note: we will be in the Bulletin Room – off to the right as your walk into the bistro area. It offers views to the street and bikes parked on the footpath. Don’t forget to pay for your meal before you leave! Lucky last, I picked up the remaining $46.

 

Email from Tim Walker, 18th April. My bike (ZX7R) fell over :(  A couple of weeks ago I backed it into the kerb, leant it onto the side stand (I thought) and walked away only to see it fall over onto its right hand side. Broken footpeg and brake pedal bracket, bent handlebar, scratched knob on end of handlebar, bent front brake lever, broken front indicator, broken front fairing, scratched side fairing and dented muffler. Quote for repairs: $3152. It's times like these that I'm glad I have full comprehensive insurance. No hassles at all from Swann Insurance in accepting the claim. I should get a nice shiny 'new' bike back just before Easter. I reckon $200 of the quote might have been for cleaning! Cheers...  Tim.

 

Email from Stoimen Stojanov (Yamaha R1) 16th March re Snake Valley Ride: I forgot to mention last night apart from Jason being airborne over the railway crossing at warp speed, apparently I was also, although at a much reduced 20 cm's or so. I had slowed considerably more in anticipation prior to Jason taking off, however began laughing so much that I let go of the brake, thinking I had slowed enough. Cheers, Stoimen.

 

Email from Shane Hindle (BMW R1100GS) 22nd March:  It turns out the BM has a leaking drive shaft seal which is allowing oil to drip onto the rear wheel. I think this is a good excuse for the mishap the other week. Cheers, Shane. Of course, Shane is referring to his minor get-off on the St Andrew’s Road near the end of Trevor Harris’ Mt Macedon ride. As luck would have it, I had only just collected Shane’s membership fee at lunchtime. Welcome to the Club and the joys of motorcycling.

 

I also collected long overdue membership fees from Peter Parissis (YZF1000) after his umpteenth ride. “I thought you wouldn’t want me after my first two rides where I crashed” quipped Peter. The fact that you kept coming back and seemed to have stopped crashing makes you the perfect candidate for membership. Welcome.

 

Spotted at the Superbikes: Paul Southwell, Peter and Marny Feistl, Ben Warden, Stoimen Sojanov flag marshalling – best view in the house, and former President Marty Thompson back in Melbourne, now married with “ready made” kids, a 15 yo and 7 yo. Marty says he has bought a new ZX6 from Cosways and we might see him back riding with the Club. He has a couple of nice scars from riding trail bikes and being involved in two (!) head-on smashes with other riders – 16 ribs on one occasion. 

 

Thanks to Paul Southwell for rescuing Ben on Saturday morning after a rear tyre puncture and no plugs – his puncture repair kit sitting at home! Paul deliberately drove to the track early to catch the first two races at 8.30 am and 9.20 am, picking up Dave Ward en-route. By the time he had been to Cowes to purchase a repair kit and delivered it to Ben in San Remo, that plan was well and truly stymied.

 

The Club Participant of the Year is based on aggregate points accumulated at 1 point per ride, an extra point for leading or being rear rider, and 1 point per Magazine article (maximum 2 per Magazine). Attending 1 or more days of a weekend event scores 3 points for leading, 3 for rear riding duties and 2 points for participating. After 11 months, the top 10 scorers are: Ben Warden (86), Ian Payne (59.5), Ron Johnston (54), Paul Southwell (52), Robert Langer (38), Martin Hastie (39), Trevor Harris (33), Peter Weyermayr (30), Nigel Hellyer (29), and Joel Haley (26). Renzo Cunico (22) dropped out of the top 10 while Martin Moved past Rob, continuing his steady climb.

 

Bill Wee sent me this email on the 7th of October, 2004. Would any Club members be interested in attending the MotoGP in Malaysia next year? A three-day grandstand pass only costs approximately $18 Aus. and the return airfare is about $750 Aus. Accommodation in a three star, air-conditioned hotel in the middle of China Town would cost about $35Aus per night, twin share. Food would be about $2.50 per meal. Sounds like a fantastic deal. For more information contact Bill via email at [email protected]  So far Paul Southwell, Ian Payne and Paul Grosser have indicated their intention to join Bill – 1 week’s duration is the plan. It could be big!

 

Front Cover:  No new photos on this month’s magazine cover after my camera was taken in a burglary. I expect to replace it in a week or so. Tassie was still the biggest event for quite a while and worthy of another photo. At Strahan, people spontaneously gathered around Danny’s ZX10 during the rehydration process. In the background are: Ian Black, Dave Ward, Peter Feistl, Dave Moore and Ern Reeders. In the foreground are Cliff Peters, Danny Hawker (his ZX10) and Jason Peters. Yours truly behind the lens.

 

Spam: The end of March and the cessation of daylight saving sees a regular demonstration of everyone trying to survive with too little rest.  Some years ago Stanley Coren, Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, decided to test his hypothesis that most adults are chronically sleep-deprived. Coren believes adults typically miss an hour and a half to two hours of essential sleep every day.

 

To assess this argument, Coren analysed traffic accident data from the day after the annual conclusion of daylight saving.  Did the number of vehicle crashes decline after a weekend in which everyone enjoyed an extra hour of sleep?  The answer is a clear yes - across Canada traffic accidents decline by 7 percent immediately after daylight saving concludes.  An hour of sleep affects our ability to cope.  Coren's results were published in New England Journal of Medicine (April 4, 1996:334, 924-925).

 

Our next get together will be the Annual General Meeting, scheduled for Thursday the 5th of May. All positions on the Committee will be declared vacant and nominations called. A number of people aren’t standing for re-election, so if ever you felt inclined to give something back to the Club, now is your opportunity.

 

To entice you to come along, we have invited a guest speaker for the night, Margaret Wehl-Willet, who will provide an audiovisual presentation on her latest organized international bike tours. She is quite an interesting person, riding a number of bikes, and her presentations are fascinating. 

 

In a similar vein, new member Steve Cowburn riding a Honda CBR954 will bring along some of his motorcycle clothing for us to evaluate. See his ad on the last page of the magazine.

 

Last but not least, Stoimen Stojanov will bring along some of his helmits for us to get the feel of. A ‘helmit’ is a helmet carrying bag made from neoprene – the same stuff scuba divers wet suits are made from.