Wrench'n Ride'n

Another selection of photos taken by Helge from when he was down here in Australia. He comes all the way from Norway and sees more of this great south land than I who live here. :-( His photos show how open and desolate the Australian Outback can be.

SteveT sent me a scan from the Launceston Examiner newspaper. The article is about Des Watts riding around Australia on a BMW R100LT. He is doing a charity ride for Rotary. Click on the image to enlarge it.




Old Airheads can still cut it as long distance mounts and be used for great causes. :-)

R100LTs are a rare beastie indeed. Rare expect for Australia. Well down under here we were the main market for the LT. Seems more of them are coming out of the wood work.

SteveT from way down in Tasmania contacted me about his very low mileage LT.

"I keep getting told that this model does not exist!!! I have a mate with one same colour as yours...it is even Vin stamped as a R100LT. I paid $7000 for this with 13,000 kms on the clock...the owner just wanted a good home for it. It comes complete with BMW radio cassette that set him back $2k when new. I looked for one of these for two years and found it by chance in the trading post.

The previous owner just didn’t use it all that much about 1k per annum — all the switches are bright and look new not faded and it has been kept under cover. When I bought it the original tyres were perishing and the battery had a collapsed cell...I replaced them and installed a BMW gel battery —half the size and no worries! The original owner was also fana…

Last Sunday my wife and I went to the Macquarie Towns Motorcycle Restoration & Preservation Club annual Motorcycle Show. The show was on at Macquarie Park, Windsor. Here is part 2 of the photos I took. This covers bikes from 1931-1940.

Photos taken from Cooktown area, Queensland. I met this guy on the old Bloomfield track, telling me that his name was Bruce and that he was a "Worldtraveler".









Wow that is one loaded bike. Would not look out of place on the roads in Asia. ;-)

Today the Macquarie Towns Motorcycle Restoration & Preservation Club held their annual Motorcycle Show. The show was on at Macquarie Park, Windsor.

The event catered for Motorcycles from 1924 to 1998. Club members and visitors could enter. Trophies were up for grabs for the best bike in category. I did not get to see who won as my wife and I left before the end of the show. I would have hated to have been a judge. So many great bikes. So many beautiful old machines. Most road registered.

If you are interested in the club here are their details.

MacQuarie Towns Motorcycle Restoration & Preservation Club.
Interest in restoration/preservation of motorcycles - 10 years old or older.Meeting: 2nd Monday of each month at 8.00pm Uniting Church Hall, Bathurst Street, Pitt Town.
Contact details
3 Evans Parade,
Lapstone NSW 2773
Ph: (02) 4739 6568

I took over a 180 photos. I have taken them in their categories. First up are the bikes from Pre 1930. Stay tuned over the next few days as the rest …

Who said we don't have MuZ bikes on this blog anymore? Did you? Phil from New Zealand has sent in some photos of his wonderful yellow Sport.

I live in New Zealand and have owned a MZ Skorpion 660 Sport for going on a year now (1994 model. I am only the 2nd owner of this awesome bike which is in amazing condition considering it was one of the first off the block.

The first owner was a guy in his middle years who mainly used it for commuting and told me he had never red lined it since he had owned it from new. It had done a genuine 36000ks when I got it and has now done just under 40ks.

I ride Muz to work every day the weather lets me which is a 50 km round trip on a really good country road for a bit of fun with no cops around. I have only just got back into bikes at the age of 54 and am enjoying every minute of it especially having the pleasure of riding such an awesome machine. The bikes I rode in my youth were enduro type from the 70s with no better handling on the roads than a ho…

Dan Wright, of NYC took these great photos at the Finger Lakes rally in the USA. This amazing conversion is a R1150/2. Take a BMW /2 vintage bike. Take out the original engine and drop in a very modern R1150 one. Result. One stunning bike. Maybe BMW themselves should consider giving us say a 'modern' R69.

Thank you Dan for letting me put your photos on my blog.

Welcome Helge Johannessen from Norway to my Blog. Helge toured down under here for 5 months in 2006. Doing 36.000 k's all around Australia. He did Cape York, Plenty Highway, Alice Springs and some of the northern National Parks like Litchfield and Bungle Bungle.

Helge is planning on returning to Australia to again ride this great southern land on another BMW G/S.

We must get together when you do come back down here mate.

Here are a small selection of some of the stunning photos he took.

Blue Mountains.


Adelaide River Roadhouse.


Helge near Alice Springs.


Helge at Cape York.


On the road.


The Outback.


The Twelve Apostles.


Swapping address with German couple touring Australia.


Sunset Kunurra.