ULYSSES CLUB WAIKATO BRANCH. October Newsletter

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1 ULYSSES CLUB WAIKATO BRANCH October Newsletter Ulysses Club Waikato Branch meets 7.30pm at the Waikato Commerce Club 197 Collingwood Street, Hamilton on the first Monday of the month except January. Visitors Welcome. Evening Meals available from 6.30 pm except Public Holidays. Waikato Ulysses website: This Newsletter plus other information is available on this website. Bruce Marx OM #4243 ( ) (Photo: Sabine) The Ulysses family was well represented at Bruce s funeral on a warm, bright, sunny last day of September. His health had been failing for some time and a few weeks ago he was moved to the Eventhorpe Rest Home in Hamilton East. Bruce joined Ulysses in 1998, was Hamilton Branch Coordinator from and in this period developed the Mentoring Scheme which was subsequently adopted by the Ulysses Club nationwide. Tributes were made by Bruce s sister, Meryl, former Coordinator John Turkington and Gilly Bingham. They recounted Bruce s full life and many interests in addition to motorcycling which included flying planes, among them DC3s, hot-air balloons and a love of jazz music. Bruce s lifelong and closest friend, Hugh Tuffy Button, the ex-husband of sister Meryl, died in Wellington just a couple of weeks before Bruce. Bruce was 1

an enthusiastic, active and energetic Coordinator, particularly keen on rider safety, training and mentoring and in recognition was awarded the Ulysses Odyssey Medal in 2009.

As chosen by Bruce, jazz music by George Gershwin and Louis Armstrong was played at his Service before his departure to the tune of Dead Man Blues by Jelly Roll Morton.

2 an enthusiastic, active and energetic Coordinator, particularly keen on rider safety, training and mentoring and in recognition was awarded the Ulysses Odyssey Medal in During his time as Coordinator Bruce did much to strengthen relationships between Ulysses and the general public, in particular Hamilton City Council, NZTA, ACC and the Police. As chosen by Bruce, jazz music by George Gershwin and Louis Armstrong was played at his Service before his departure to the tune of Dead Man Blues by Jelly Roll Morton. Some twenty riders accompanied him on his final trip to Newstead. Bruce at Sterling Point, Bluff with his favourite Honda CBR TBO alongside Tuffy s Kawasaki, about 2000 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo David Coy #4412 WAIKATO BRANCH COMMITTEE Committee Contact Details Coordinator Lawrence Gosnell g.cd@xtra.co.nz Vice Coordinator Glenn Proctor glenn_p@orcon.net.nz Treasurer Rowena Smith rowenagsmith@gmail.com Secretary Athol Thompson athol.thompson@hcc.govt.nz Committee Mick Aldred mick@eznet.co.nz Mark Empson markempson@gmail.com Anthony Mol-Krijnan penant68@gmail.com 2

3 GOOSE S GANDER Hi all, First of all I would like to thank all of you who were able to attend Bruce Marx s Funeral and let him lead us for his final ride. I know that Bruce s family really appreciated our presence and the tributes by two of our members who were close to Bruce and his family. Some of you would have noticed that there are a number of gaps in the runs calendar for the next few months. Shrek will be allowing time during the Runs Report at the next branch night to take suggestions for runs destinations to fill these gaps. I have managed to get to only one run in September being the 500 miler, the weather has been a bit unsettled lately but hopefully will improve soon so we can all get out on a regular basis. Planning for the Toy Run is in progress and the Waipa District Council has approved funding of $1,000 towards the event. Shrek will be organising the road end marshals this time around and would like anyone who will be available to marshal a road end to let him know at the next club night. Thank you Graham Smith for your efforts in organising the road end marshals for the past few years. Graham will still be organising the Friday bike display and fundraiser in Te Awamutu. I will be putting together a list of all who are involved in the organisation of the Toy Run and ing it out soon. A date has been set for this year s Christmas party Saturday 5 December 2015 at Row and Trevor Smith s place, thanks again Row and Trevor for volunteering your venue. That s about it for now, ride safe Cheers, Goose. 3

4 Waikato Branch Activities, Oct - Nov 2015 Date Destination Leave From Leave Time Rider-in-Charge Difficulty scale 1-4 Mon-5-Oct Club Night Commerce Club 7.30pm Committee 1 Thu-8-Oct Thurs Lunch Ride Cycle track, Ham East 10am David, Deauville 1 Sun-11-Oct Mystery Ride Commerce Club 10:30am Shrek, VTX Thu-15-Oct Thurs Lunch Ride Cycle track, Ham East 10am David, Deauville 1 Sun-18-Oct TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA Thu-22-Oct Thurs Lunch Ride Cycle track, Ham East 10am David, Deauville 1 Sun-25-Oct Labour Weekend Do ya own thang! Thu-29-Oct Thurs Lunch Ride Cycle track, Ham East 10am David, Deauville 1 Sun-1-Nov Gravel Ride Whatawhata Gas 10am Topher, 650 BMW 4+ Mon-2-Nov Club Night Commerce Club 7.30pm Committee 1 Thu-5-Nov Thurs Lunch Ride Cycle track, Ham East 10am Lance, NC750 1 Sat-7-Nov CKC Commerce Club 6:30am NZ Distance riders (Jim) 4+ Thu-12-Nov Thurs Lunch Ride Cycle track, Ham East 10am Lance, NC750 1 Sat-14-Nov Pureora Forest Rally Caltex Te Awamutu 10am Jim, ST CONTACTS: David Topher Shrek Lance Jim

5 12 Point Challenge Social, 12 th September The Point Challenge concluded with a Saturday evening social at the Commerce Club. Generous prizes sponsored by Honda Hamilton, their suppliers and Alan Thoresen & Castrol were drawn and awarded; lower numbers of participants this year meant that a higher proportion of attendees took goodies home. Photographs of visits to the 12 sites were displayed and prizes were awarded to the Most Elaborate (Marion Gosnell), Worst Presented (Athol Thompson), Most Disgraceful (Trevor Smith), Hard Luck Story (Weka), Best Honda (Footrot) & Best Overall (Jim Galt). Star prize, the HJC helmet, was won by Pennie Mol-Krijnan. Grant Erskine of Honda Hamilton presents the HJC helmet to Pennie Thanks to Anthony for all the organising. Grant Bennet of Honda Hamilton advised that next year they plan to open up the Challenge by inviting participation from their customers and Hamilton MCC, as well as Ulysses, with the concluding social at the Commerce Club. oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ECONOMY RUN, 13 TH September The idea of the Economy Run is to give riders an idea of (i) whether their odometer reads high or low, and (ii) how their fuel consumption changes with speed. Five riders left Cambridge BP before 11am and took a circuitous, backroad route to Raglan, via Rotorangi, Pirongia & Karamu keeping to a maximum group speed of 100 kph (on the speedometer). The range of recorded distances was from kms (Honda Deauville) to (Honda VTX1400); the range of fuel consumption was from 21.7 kpl (Honda ST1300) to 30.4 (Kawasaki W800). After a tasty f & c lunch at the Wharf, riders made their own way back to town on the main road at their preferred speed. Except for the Harley, all bikes used more fuel on the return with the biggest differences being on the VTX (12.3 kpl 25.3 OUT & 13.0 BACK) and the W800 (10.7 kpl 30.4 & 19.7). A different kind of day out, but interesting. oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Bruce Turner, Jim Galt, Glenn Shrek Procter & Rich Breem finish off at Tristram St BP 5

6 David Coy s (last?) 500 miler So we were all bright-eyed and ready to go, it being the first morning of daylight saving and David s annual 500 miler was scheduled to head off from Glenview BP at 7:00. It was 6:45, as advertised in our club runs schedule and, when I say we were all I meant they were all because my eyes were less than bright and I wasn t there yet. I got there with seconds to spare, David s traditionally thorough briefing done just as I wrenched off my helmet, breathless with anticipation. Well, breathless anyway. Our route was a gentle 500 miles, on main roads with which we were all very familiar. From Glenview we nine intrepid riders set off for Kihikihi, south to Whakamaru, where we picked up past pres. Mango Mckinnon who was too idle come up from Mangakino to attend the official start. Mango s disrespect continued throughout the day until he headed home early. One shouldn t be out after dark in Mangakino apparently From Whakamaru we cooled our digits down the western bypass to Turangi for the first official stop at Z- Turangi and some morning smoko. We stopped on the top of the Desert Road on the way to Waiouru to take a photo of our group with Ruapehu as our magnificent and majestic backdrop. Here Mango distinguished himself by taking the opportunity to dodge behind a not-very-concealing reedy, grassy, clumpy thing and wring out his incontinence pants. Hell, we were only twenty minutes from the last toilet stop! Such a clear day ensured not only glorious photo opportunities but a continuation for some of the frozen digit syndrome; whereby a bystander must be enlisted to assist with the undoing of the helmet strap, right Bruce? It really was VERY cold. It seems either hot grips are not available for Harleys, or more likely they are, they just stopped working. Perhaps the hot grip power had been transferred to the always-on brake light? We swung west at Waiouru for Ohakune, passing the Tangiwai memorial (quiet respect) then the house of my second girlfriend (quiet terror, throttle on, her Dad may still be alive), then south through Raetihi and down through the Paras to Wanga-Angeles. (Really, this penchant for folks to add vegas after their favourite nowhere-town gives me the screaming squirts). Happily, early on in the Paras I had to address a hydrological imperative of my own. Taking my time about this gave the peloton a bit of a buffer for me to catch up and I was able to enjoy the Paras at my own pace - there being bugger-all traffic and, while there were some spectacular washouts with large bits of road gone, the upside was that the road was nice and clean having been washed a couple of weeks back with a water blaster of a storm. After lunch at Wangas, we headed back the way we came and were bemused to be passed by a bloke on a long, big-front-wheeled Harley, elbows and knees akimbo, scarf flying. It was too much for Colin on his immaculate RFV400 NC35 sports-rocket who hooked off after him. Being nosey and not wanting to miss out on something different I popped off after them too. Mango no-mates hates to be left out so he came for a look as well. So we now know what the diminishing sight of the rear of a Harley looks like as it s ridden extremely smoothly and well we had to stop in Raetihi to wait for the peloton anyway. Jim, riding tail end stopped last in Raetihi and next stop being Taumarunui via Tokaanu chose to carry out preventative bladder maintenance and was left behind to catch up at his leisure. Now if he d dialed in leisure as he rode through Raetihi he wouldn't have had that enlightening chat 6

with a traffic officer of the law, who took a dim view of Jim s cavalier attitude towards the Queen s road-rules. We can be sure that will not be the first fine for the offence.

7 with a traffic officer of the law, who took a dim view of Jim s cavalier attitude towards the Queen s road-rules. We can be sure that will not be the first fine for the offence. Beetling along the highway past Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro during a long and uneventful (albeit through our spectacularly beautiful New Zealand) ride, one gives thought to why one rides. We really don t need to ride; God knows cars are warmer when it s cold, cooler when it s hot, more comfortable and, bless ACC, safer. Perhaps Robert Pirsig said it best in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: "You re completely in contact with it all. You re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. For me, the visceral involvement in riding; the feeling of being a part of a well functioning whole is only found on two wheels. The discipline required to do something well, sometimes for many hours non-stop, along with the continued effort to be just that little bit better today than yesterday gives unparalleled mental reward. And don t we all need a bit of that? Mango shot the gap past Kuratau heading back up the Western access for home rather than bother completing the ride, mumbling something about slippers and a cup of tea. Commitment! the man can't even spell it. After we d gassed up, piddled out and snacked down at BP Taumarunui the last leg was up the State Highway to Otorohanga then to the Pirongia pub for a debrief. Even if it s just one handle, I do like a nice, cold beer at the end of a ride (wasn't really the end, had to get home, hence one handle). So we d all had a great day, thanks to David s energy and enthusiasm, plotting a course, ensuring appropriate leg distances and ensuring petrol stops where they re needed. Not many are aware of how wearing it is leading a long ride; constantly scanning your mirrors, counting headlights and hoping everyone rides carefully and safely - but also has an enjoyable time. Those two briefs are often mutually exclusive and on a long ride there is no time for helping a broken down bike or crashed rider without calling off the ride - the time frame just isn t there. So, if this is indeed your last 500 miler David, after running fifteen of these distance rides please accept the heartfelt thanks of the many, many riders you ve led and whose safety and enjoyment was your main 7

8 concern. It'll be a tough act to follow. (That doesn't mean you can't change your mind and do just one more...) Topher #8217 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Thursday Freedom Rides Every Thursday, in association with Whakatane Branch, there is a casual ride to a café in Waikato / Bay of Plenty for lunch. The venue is decided at the weekend before and details are circulated by to those on the Group List. Usually about arrive for lunch, and 4 8 riders depart from cycle track lay-by at junction of Wairere Drive & Cambridge Road, Ham East at 10am. If you want to be on the Group List advise David Coy of your address (either by to: dcoy41@gmail.com or TXT to: ). THE NORTHERN oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ODYSSEY 2016 You will be given a route of approx kms of North Island roads selected for their good riding, great scenery and points of interest along the way. This year s route starts & finishes in Taupo and goes through Hawke s Bay, East Cape and Bay of Plenty. Every hour or so, you will need to stop and find the answer to a question. The questions can be completed any time between Boxing Day (26 December 2015) and ANZAC Day (25 April 2016). The route can be completed as one continuous ride or several short rides. REGISTRATION: $30.00 (includes Badge and complimentary drink at start & finish). ENTRIES: Accepted until 31 March those who enter before 13 December 2015 qualify for complimentary drinks at start & finish. Entries open to all, Ulysses members and nonmembers. SEND: Your Name & Contact details (address, , phone) either by to: dcoy41@gmail.com or by post to Northern Odyssey, PO Box 5232, Frankton, Hamilton Either enclose a cheque for $30.00 with postal entry or make a bank transfer to Ulysses Club, Waikato Branch, Westpac Account No: make sure sender s name is clear. Organisers, Jim Galt & David Coy of Waikato Branch, take no responsibility for any injuries or damage that may arise from participating in this event. GILLY S VIEW 8

9 GILLY S VIEW 9

10 Membership Host Introduction A few months ago Linda Strongman ( lynmar@xtra.co.nz ) was appointed to the new role of Membership Host for the branch. We have finally been able to coordinate with Linda and have her attend a committee meeting so that we could formally discuss the Membership Host duties which are defined below. To host new and prospective members at their first few club nights that they attend and answer any questions that they may have about what happens on club nights. To provide them with an introductory pack and key information. (When this has been developed.) To introduce new or prospective members to the committee members and appointed role holders. This role is in its infancy and further duties may be added by mutual agreement as it evolves. We welcome Linda to the Membership Host role, I am sure you will look after the new members well. Please Note: The Membership Host is not the Membership Secretary and should not be asked to contact prospective members directly. Requests for membership forms or applications should be referred to the Branch Coordinator in the first instance. AN ACCIDENTAL MEETING In Gisborne one recent Saturday about to head north around East Cape, I decided a long cold drink was required before departure. My companion stopped at the Z petrol station so I called into the adjacent Burger King an establishment I have never visited before - for a milk shake. The young girl took my order but a minute or two later, the middle-aged male manager brought out my drink, do you remember me, David?, he said. Well, after a few moments I did recall the guy who crashed in Waioeka Gorge during one of the Rusty Nuts Grand Challenges. In 2001, Graham Needham and I were making good progress through the night when we were flagged down by an on-coming car driver. A bikie has gone off the road into the river, he said. Graham scrambled down through the steep dense bush and found the bikie in a patch of sand alongside his bike rocky boulders five metres either side. He was conscious, not bleeding but couldn t move. No cellphone connection, so we agreed to stay with him while the motorist continued to Opotiki and raised the alarm. After two hours a cop arrived and then an ambulance, half hour later. The ambulance crew couldn t get him up the bank on a stretcher so a helicopter was called. Ross was taken first to Rotorua then transferred to Waikato Hospital. I visited him on the Monday, when he was in a pretty bad way in ICU. By Wednesday, he had recovered sufficiently to be transferred back to his home in Palmerston North. Half hour before he was due to be moved, his 10

11 spleen burst and he was having this fixed in the operating theatre within 15 minutes. I reckon it must have been a very close call that his spleen did not give out in the crash, which would have been curtains. Ross asked about Graham, and I had to tell him that he died in 2008 with liver cancer. Ross transferred to Gisborne from Palmy several years ago, and loved it there. We resolved to keep in touch. David Coy #4412 oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo HONDA ST1300, 2003, 39,000 miles Mint condition New tyres, full Honda luggage set, full service less than 1000 kms ago. Intercom, heated grips, plug-in battery conditioner, helmets. Health issues force sale. $10,500 ONO CONTACT: Keir Ditchburn

12 Newsletter Editor: David Coy P: E: 12

Branch Committee

Branch Committee ULYSSES CLUB WAIKATO BRANCH September 2015 - Newsletter Ulysses Club Waikato Branch meets 7.30pm at the Waikato Commerce Club 197 Collingwood Street, Hamilton on the first Monday of the month except January.