In spite of a few days of drenching rain up here on the sunshine Coast it is still a great place to lay back and enjoy the lifestyle.

The Classic Bike scene is quite active as I have seen countless examples of groups and individuals riding around on weekends but always in the opposite direction to me and hence no chance to catch up for a chat or photo session.

The Queen’s birthday weekend brought out 7,000 bikes on an 110km charity ride from the Big Pineapple to the Ettamogah Pub. A very civilized and supervised ride with Police marshalling the event.

While I was at the Haigslea M/C Museum the other week the owners gave me details of an old German chap who is into DKW’s and other continental bikes. He apparently worked at the DKW factory and now has a small business repairing rare motors including rotaries. On the phone he told me about a rally of historic and classic bikes from the Gold Coast Club and I did a 580 km round trip to attend. Alas he got the start and finish venues back to front and I tried to find the start at the finish, no luck!

I am an avid reader of overseas classic magazines and continue to be stunned by the number of bikes, which constantly emerge from backyard shedsand the prices. Some starting auction prices in the UK (aprox currency conversions), Brough Superior SS100- A$350,000, Coventry Eagle Flying 8- A$205,000, with Ariel Square Fours A$17,000 to $20,000 and with Vincent Black Shadow A$120,000.

The July Meeting will consist of the AGM, which will be short as nominations equal vacancies, and then comes the July General Meeting. Visiting members of the Vincent Owners Club have been kind enough to share their guest speaker Ken Horner with us. Then we can tuck into Rose’s calorie packed supper.

Keep your classic in top gear,

Ray Isles.