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 Started off unofficially at the motels in Maffra & Stratford when everyone checked in a renewed acquaintances after the Xmas break.
Much socializing was done, before around 60 people gathered at the Maffra Community Sports club for dinner.
It was a competition again to see who could win the most raffle draws for the night.
Saturday, With a total of 85 bikes taking part in the Gippsland Classic Rally for 2010, they gathered at The Maffra Shed for a quick cuppa & a briefing before heading off to Stratford as the Avon river had about 300 mm of water over the causeway, so a couple of Klms of highway had to be used to detour around towards Fernbank.
Go to the Gallery to see 134 photos of this great Rally
Bike failures occurred early this year with an AJS breaking down in Maffra & his brother doing the brotherly thing by dropping out with him, spending the day in Maffra waiting for us to return that evening.
The owner of the bike that had loaned it to his brother in law to ride, continued on all day as he wanted to ride the rally.
The Chinese outfit, a copy of the Ural did a drive coupling also near Maffra & him being a local limped home & picked up his BMW & met us at Bairnsdale along with two Indians from Bairnsdale.
The little 125cc James battled the winds & hills & made it into Bairnsdale, where we had the Traffic Police stop traffic so we could all cross the highway & he then escorted us into the Moto Expo under lights & Sirens.
It was quiet an entrance through a large crowd that was in attendance.
We were parked in the middle of a Horse race track with about 1,000 other vehicles of all ages shapes & sizes, from motorbikes bikes, Hot Rods, Drag cars, Race cars, a few Mad max vehicles, small to large trucks, model cars etc all on display in the centre display area.
But it was quite a walk back to the catering & toilet areas especially when it was over 30o C, to where we had lunch and looked around at the many stalls.
Many people were really just looking for shade.
The event was to raise money to build an all Abilities park in Bairnsdale.
After lunch it was into Bairnsdale for fuel then out to Walpa, & down to the Briagolong quarries for afternoon tea, with the temp still rather warm.
Cordial was the go with a few trying the hot drinks but all were tasting Jan’s cooking especially the Anzac biscuits.
From there it was a quick run back to Maffra to cool off ready for the dinner.
The little James made the entire trip with out any mishap which was a credit on such a hot day, as it worked many times harder than any other classic bike on the run.
The dinner at The Maffra Sale Motorcycle Club rooms was well attended with the rally mementoes given out, the evening was very hot with many taking their chairs outside & sitting on the lawn area.
Sunday.. Saw most of the riders meeting at 8.00 am for a 1 hr ride when the temp was already above 30o C The ride circled the rural area around Maffra through Tinamba, Newry, Boisdale, Llowalong & into Stratford , arriving at the park area beside the Avon river for breakfast.
By now the temp was getting to many riders & over 50 % of them opted to head home after their large breakfast and call it quits for the Rally.
Many riders wanted to beat the heat back to Melbourne, .
It was pleasing that most of these riders came up & said they were leaving & thanked us for a good event & that it was not our fault for the hot weather.
After breakfast the willing riders, headed out through Airly to Meerlieu & into Hollands Landing where the temps dropped 10o C as we were on the edge of the Gippsland lakes with a nice cool southerly breeze.
It was time for an ice cream as we waited for the back up trailer.
This time it was not the James, it was a modern Yamaha that had failed to keep the rear wheel turning even when the drive shaft was turning.
This is generally a easy job if you break a chain, but with a shaft drive it is terminal, so Duncan got his first customer on the backup trailer. He says his RACV Pickups are very expensive.!!!!
From here some of the Warrnambool people headed to Lakes Entrance for a few days R & R before heading home again via Omeo & over the mountains to Bright.
So now we are down to less than 25% of the field as we weaved our way around to the Newry area to inspect a bit of local history where the 12 mths old Baby Eliza Amey was buried in a bark grave back April 1867.
It was now only 6 klms back to The Maffra Shed where some inspected the collection of over 100 vehicles on display.
But this is when the action started…
1. A Honda car with no keys, believed to be locked in the ladies hand bag in the boot of the car.
After the RACV Call to open the Car & the boot, then still no Keys .!!!
These were later found to be in the pocket of the husbands pants.
2. Trying to squeeze a 7 ft long Yamaha into a 6’6’ long trailer
3. Then a modern BMW Outfit heading home started pumping petrol out onto the drivers left leg.
During the repair stage a heavy shower of rain drenched everything that they had out of the boot of the sidecar.
4. About the same time a Ballarat rider had a loss of electrical energy from his battery & had to be put on a trailer to Melbourne where he conned another battery off a fellow Vincent rider to get back to Ballarat.
Maybe we need a back up trailer starting from Melb.??
Thanks to all that supported & helped out at the event.
Ian & Jan Kennedy
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