RIP Neville – by Marica

Neville had a good but short life but as of Tue 20/09, NRMA is writing him off. Thanks to the guys on the trip I have had the time and the ribbing to deal with the grief and losing one thing I always wanted and finally (8.5 years ago) had the courage to go and get!!!

The damage that I did to Neville was rather extensive:

-        the wheel was NOT 90 degrees to the handle bars – Sandra and I pushed and pulled until it was close enough to ride

-        all of the panels on the front and LHS was damaged

-        the cover on the headlight was gouged so that I it would not be safe to ride at night

-        the cover to the LHS front indicator shattered, BUT the indicator still worked so Sandra and I duct-taped it into place

-         the front panel was pushed and twisted about an inch off centre and the handle was pushed onto the centre panel, so the handles didn’t like to be turned – gotta love the fact bikes can bank to take turns

-        I apparently sheared off the exhaust – this was why it sounded like a Harley wannabe. Sam the Scooter Repairman in Perth said that if the bike had backfired, it, in all likelihood, could have caught fire

-        Glove box could not close – duct-tape to the rescue

-        Front wheel cover was just hanging there – I had sheared all of the screws/connectors

Oh, and damaged all of my motorcycle gear and my foot where the bike fell and slid on it at 100km/hour

BUT, Neville STILL kept going. He travelled the 4000 km left of our scenic trip to Perth. Ok.... he could not get up to 110 often and he didn’t like getting over that!!!!, and his fuel consumption was up 20% more than it should have been.... But... broken, he just kept going!!!

On the last leg of the Wall to Wall ride, from EPIC to the Police Memorial Wall, Neville joined the rest of the guys from WA, and No, he did not collapse into a pile of nuts, bolts and scrap metal and the end of the trip! My Neville was amazing!!! I wrote a note and stuck it on the Neville’s windscreen for this last leg. It said:

At EPIC, there were displays from motorcycle retailers and groups associated with Police. Nico from Motorini also had a display, close to the front stage. I consider it a gift from him. He displayed his vintage Vespa and a red GST250ie, like Neville. There was a message from Nico congratulating me and our (Neville and my) achievement.

So, Neville is no more, and I am still sad about that. I will be buying a new Vespa as soon as one is available. It will never replace Neville, but I am in awe of what Vespa’s can take and still keep going. I will look at the option for getting a motorbike for touring – Neville in his hay-day, would not have been able to keep up with the guys from Perth. I am not saying that they were travelling fast.... but Neville could easily do the speed limit (pre-incident)

Neville: - reliable and just keeps going. I will miss him and now the guys on the ride with us will no longer tease and torment him, not my choices. Neville will always be so special to me!

 Late breaking news: looks like I might be buying a another Vespa later this week. Nico from Motorini just told me that I can  buy Derek’s Vespa. Derek is an amazing 92 year old who buys a new top of the line Vespa every year and sells his “Old” one. Derek goes on long rides and is amazing. And.... wait for it... the Vespa is red!!!!

Perth Trip - Facts and Figures

Total kilometers travelled by Sandra and Marica -      9947.8km

Ride from Perth:

Total Number of Bikes - 25

BMW - 12

• 2016 R1200RT
• 2012 R1200GS
• 2015 S1000XR
• 2014 F700GS
• 2016 R1200RT
• 2007 R1200GS
• R1200GS
• F800ST
• F700GS
• 2016 F800GT
• 1600GTL
  
• R1200RT

Honda - 4

• 2015 Goldwing
• 2015 CTX1300
• 2016 Valkyrie
• 200? CBR1100 Blackbird

Harley Davidson -  2

• 2015 Softail Breakout
• 201? Ultraglide

Yamaha - 2

• 2016 Tracer
• 1100XVS VStar

Kawasaki - 1

• 2012 650R Ninja ER-6f

Triumph -  1

• 1050ST

Ducati - 1

• 2013 Multistrada

Moto Guzzi: - 1

• California SE

Vespa -  1

• 250ie scooter

Average motor size:   1150cc
Average number of cylinders:   2.76

Wall to Wall Day 9 & 10; 17 - 18 September 2016

Last day for the ride, extremely early start 6am, as we all had to get back to our bikes, and get ready to head of to the Domain for the service before the ride.

A beautiful Service, where the families of Curtis Cheng and Geoffrey Richardson, were asked to write the names of the men who died in the line of duty, and a short message onto a piece of parchment, which was then inserted the Baton, for the trip to Canberra, where their names will be added to the touch wall at the Police Memorial.

Then it was back to our bikes to form up for the ride to Canberra, with about 2000 riders from around the country. One stop along the way, in Goulburn for fuel and to collect even more riders, before continuing to the meetup point in Canberra.

All bikes left from EPIC with a Police escort and green light corridor through the CDB and around Parliament house, then onto the Police Memorial, for another service, where all stated presented their respective batons, and a wreath laying ceremony. Karl O'Callaghan (The WA Police Commissioner, who rode the entire way from Perth with us) spoke on behalf of all of the Police Commissioners, and gave an inspirational speech.

From there it was every one for themselves to get to the hotel, where we checked in, and went out for our final dinner / drinks together.

Farewells were said that night to some, and the rest were done at breakfast.

There ends an amazing trip for Sandra and Marica.

We will put up some stats and random information about the trip in the next day or two, so keep tuned.

Wall to Wall Day 7 & 8; 15 - 16 September 2016

Well here we are in Sydney. We arrived last night but were too buggered to write, so here we are now.

Thursday morning started like usual, all riders were out of their hotel rooms, and cleaning their bikes half an hour before we left. Todays clean was really important, cause you can't have a dirty bike whilst riding around Mount Panorama. That's right, we rode around the track. Marica went around once, but Neville, Sandra and Ninja went around twice.

The roads round the track were awesome. The roads for the entire morning and afternoon were absolutely crap. Pot holes, road works, floodways, and constantly changing speed limits the whole time.

We got to Sydney, and all left our bikes at the Sydney Police Complex in Surry Hills, and proceeded to our hotel by bus. The leg to Sydney was the most eventful the whole trip, with 3 riders dropping their bikes, due to the slow speed maneuvers, and traffic chaos.

All went  out for dinner and drinks together, and a walk around Darling Harbour.

Friday morning started with a tour of the Children's Cancer Institute in Randwick, the things they do there are mind blowing, as they are world leaders in Children's Cancer Research. Bright Blue is the Charity set up by the WA police Commissioner to support the CCII, and it is a really worthwile cause.

From here we headed of the Harbour Bridge to do the bridge climb, after being split up into 2 groups, we set of for our climb. All in all today was a great day.

Except for the separation anxiety experienced by all riders, from being apart from their bikes for the first time all week.

An early start tomorrow, so an early night for all tonight.

Wall to Wall Day 6; 14 September 2016

What a day today. The ride from Cobar to Parks was overcast from the beginning. We went through Nyngan then Bogan Shire, and the Narromine. By the time we got to Narromine it had only drizzled a bit. Stopped for lunch at the RSL, then off to the Dish in parks.
By the time we got to the Dish, the was raining, and we were all getting wet. Thankfully we stopped at the Dish to have a look around and take a break.
By the time we got back onto our bikes, it stopped raining, only to start bucketing down the entire way to the hotel.

Wall to Wall Day 5; 13 September 2016

A very late start to the morning, we all got to sleep in. This sound awesome, but everyone was up at the usual time, and so we all had a very leisurely breakfast, and then basically everyone cleaned their bikes and waited for 10am to arrive. It eventually did.

Today we had a short day, with only 460km to travel, hence the late start. Scenery was not what everyone is lead to believe the outback is like. This was probably due to all of the rain that they have been having.

Stopped in a tiny town, Wilcannia for refueling and lunch. The BP was basically in someones yard, not the most obvious place for petrol, but we needed it.

A couple of the guys had a very close call with a Kangaroo today, it could have ended very badly for both of them, but thankefully both have great skill riding, and managed to avoid it.
Also saw a couple of emu's run across the road

Tonight's stop is in Cobar, all heading to the RSL for dinner. Nothing else of note.

Wall to Wall Day 4; 12 September 2016

Marica's Vespa has had a bit of an identity crisis. The support crew have named Harley, Neville to trip ornament. Given that Neville looks completely out of place in amongst all of the BMW's, Harley's, MotoGuzzi's, Honda's, and Ninja, and we haven't got a team mascot, the support crew thought it was appropriate. Also given that the Harley riders didn't appreciate Harley being called a Harley because it wasn't a proper Harley, It has been unanimously been accepted as Neville in the group.

Throughout, comments have been made, such as anyone gets a fine for falling behind Neville. The fines throughout the trip have been brilliant, and example of which was last night when Matt fined every everyone who rides a BMW has to pay a fine, as they didn't declare at the fruit quarantine checkpoint, that they were bringing in Lemons.

Sandra had a trip in the support car today, for the first leg, we snuck out whilst everyone was still sleeping and went to Port Augusta to have her Ninja looked at. They were amazing there at Northern Motorcycles, they dropped everything and replaced the chain leaving Ninja ready for when the rest of the group arrived, and yes, for those that know us, we have kept the chain so we can make a knife out of it.

A lot of riding today through small towns and some beautiful scenery, and other than that nothing much.
We have arrived in NSW, well outback NSW, and obviously there has been plenty of rain, as this supposed desert consists of greenery all the way up to the road.

In Broken Hill for the night, all went to the 'Palace Hotel' which you all should remember from Pricilla queen of the desert. Having a sleep in in the morning, for the first time, then off to Cobar for the next day.

Having a great time, glad we did the trip