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Motorcycle Club Newsletter Spring '01
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Someone Fought The LawSomewhere on the rumour mill is a story relating to an incident involving a motorcycle rider, the police, and some fast thinking somewhere along Oxford Street. As it is all on a need to know basis then the easiest description of the mornings chase on the said day, by the proposed assailant is a copy of a Gassit Cartoon, which aptly describes the circumstances. At this time the suspect is still at large, possibly gone to ground. At the time of writing, the suspect has not has his collar felt. Sometimes it is so satisfying to be a winner for a change.
Obviously, this incident is fictional and any similarity to persons living or dead is purely unintentional and as usual the editors of this newsletter to do not endorse any illegal activity, especially doing a runner for plod. All opinions of anonymous contributions to this newsletter are not necessarily those of the editors who take no responsibility for any views or opinions of contributors.
The story involves a rider, minding his own business early one Sunday morning cruising up Oxford Street towards a certain Caffeine House at maybe 90 clicks. Coming in the opposite direction a highway patrol car who it must be presumed had the dreaded radar on. The details from here are somewhat hazy but it appears the rider made the decision to run as he saw the blue lights flash up and the cop car trying to do a U turn half way down Oxford St. This decision nearly proved disastrous as the lights at Taylor Square turned red. Fate was clearly stacked against the rider in question. With all that Adrenalin surging through his body as the lights turned red a flash of inspirational genius must have hit him. It is rumoured at this juncture the rider, with patrol fast approaching noticed the very convenient way the south side of Bourke Street had been blocked off enough for a motorcycle. While the cops were 500 metres down the street a bid for freedom was brilliantly executed. The only problem facing this rider was where to hie? As relayed to this writer the details become very unreliable but some rumours suggest that advice was given to take off I\his (or her?) leathers and act natural once the bike was hidden. A person was spotted in the vicinity of aforementioned coffee house wearing only thermal tights and bike boots! Evidently sipping coffee in this attire in this part of the city would not procure a second glance.
It appears that the choice of submission shame and expense were quickly discarded for defiance and dignity. This writer does not in any way condone such foolhardy behaviour but …………………………. well done that person!!!
On an entirely different track it occurred to me the other week that great people with a name beginning with ‘J’ are slowly dropping like flies ……. Joey Dunlop, Joey Ramone and just the other week John Lee Hooker. Possible CIA conspiracy theories abound that they, Big Brother, are trying to kill off all the truly talented, inspirational and awe inspiring people in the world. I suspect it’s just chance.
Touching briefly on ‘yer maun’, enough has been said about such a truly talented racer but more importantly an inspirational and humble human being. Most has been said by those with vastly more eloquence than I can muster but sitting down the other night to rerun the ‘V Four Victory’ video, is a realisation of Joey’s talent. What it only hinted at was the man’s totally unassuming manner rarely found in today’s top sports stars. What is truly sad is he probably did more for his chosen charities and the welfare of some very destitute kids driving his transit van alone across Eastern Europe than some very high profile Princess with millions and millions at their disposal ever did. That is quite simply the power of the media and the cult of today’s media worship of the rich and famous. Joey’s death hardly rated a mention in the mainstream media yet the world stopped because some inbred royal is killed while speeding around Paris with a billionaire playboy and a criminally drunk and drugged driver.
Buy, beg or borrow the new video ‘Joey’. It is a great tribute to a great man.Joey Ramone played a crucial and highly influential role in the emergence of Punk Rock. Despite the hype which surrounded that era let’s thank the Ramones for a return to basic rock and roll and the 1minute 59second song. If not for them and others too numerous to mention we may have been stuck with pretentious prog. Rock bands for years. R.I.P. Joey.
John Lee Hooker. Anyone who is into any type of roots music, be it Rockabilly, Rocking Blues, R&B and all the other hybrids needs no introduction to this man. He rocked and God bless his soul.
This article was originally intended to be about the Norton Owners Club Track Day a few months ago!! Firstly a big thank you to the club for their wonderful hospitality on the day. It was a great experience to be out on the track with lots of other old bikes, especially during the first session when we were red flagged and on returning to the pits told someone was dumping oil on the track. The finger was firmly pointed at us fools on the old crap until it turned out that it was one of the modern Jap rockets, which had dispatched most of his sump on the track. One-Nil to the Pommy bikes! A good few of the boys were punting their Nortons pretty hard around the creek and showing up a fair few modern bikes. Once again it was a great day, pity more Ton-Ups didn’t show up because Track Days are great fun and a good way to push your machine just that little bit harder without the usual vagaries and dangers of riding fast on the public roads. Again thanks to the Norton Owners Club ………… see you next time.
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