The Steamtug Blog

What an awesome weekend! I have just returned from a bike run to… The Ponde sand drags 

about 1 hour up the Murray river from Adelaide, South Australia.

www.ponde.com

With perfect weather, it was ironic that Mitch was going flying for his solo navigation flight as part of his full pilot’s license, and would be following the same route as me for the first part of his trip. He would fly and land on his first ever bitumen runway in Hamilton. It would take him only 1 hour, while it would be 3 for me.

I headed off after lunch on Friday with my mates Charlie and Jack leaving by car a little later from Melbourne to chase and meet me up the highway. But Charlie was called to a last minute meeting with his boss and didn’t get to start his part of the 9 hour journey until late in the afternoon.

So I took my time, stopping for an hour in Hamilton for a coffee in the main street then heading across the rolling hills of the Western District through Colleraine and Casterton, stopping to escape the 36 degree afternoon heat in the Casterton pub’s air conditioning. I picked up 2 bee stings, one really hurt as the bee was stuck inside my helmet… oh the joys of open faced helmets!

Pressing on, the border of Victoria and South Australia soon passed and as the sun began to set, my attention was drawn to a the number of big red kangaroos lying dead beside the road with the crows standing proudly on the carcass. These were not the usual grey fellows we see round home, these fellows would be around the 150 kilogram variety and I wondered how my beloved motorcycle would look after hitting one of these. Around the next bend, I noticed a large pack of wallabies standing in the paddock wondering if they should cross the road, and I was grateful that they were still in the paddock. So when the next town of Penola arrived, I thought it would be a good idea to rest my numb bum.

I sat outside the local fish ‘n chip shop eating my flake and chips while the sun set and hopefully let the kangaroos sort out which paddock they wanted to be in now that the heat of the day was gone. While sitting there, a local lady who was waiting for her order asked me about my bike and where I had ridden from. I told her I still had a long way to go and she just looked and said… “Are you off to Ponde?”  I thought nobody had ever heard of this place, but she reckoned half the town was going to Ponde the next morning for the sand drags.

The kangaroos had all settled in their rightful paddocks, and I pressed on in the dark with Charlie SMS’ing his progress in catching me, and although he was still a long way behind, he finally caught me well after midnight at a truck stop about 1 hour from our final destination. I was happy to see them at last, reminding them we were supposed to meet in Victoria on the Friday, not in SA on the Saturday!!! We pressed on and finally arrived at 2.30am, far too late to put up the tent, so we just slept out in the open on the ground.

Only a few hours later, the sun came up and the flies awoke from their sleep looking for breakfast. They tried up my nose, and in my ears and were damn annoying! I put on my hat but that didn’t help. So I pulled my sleeping bag over my head, but they still found a way in. So, we were awake ready to face the day early. Getting dressed didn’t take long, as I slept fully clothed, leather jacket and all!

Beware of the cops!

As it was so early, we decided to go for a ride into town and headed out down the road that we had only a few hours earlier ridden in on. The property we were on was owned by the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club from Adelaide and was a few kilometres down a dirt road from the main highway. About half way back, there was a large group of police milling around settling in for the day. They were all stunned to see my fly past on my bike going the opposite way to what they expected! I watched in my mirrors to see them jump quickly into one of the police cars, chuck a quick U-ie, on with light and siren and chase me down. I decided not to put up a fight, and stopped. “I didn’t think I was speeding officers…” No, that’s not why we pulled you over as they passed me the breath tester. ‘A bit early in the day isn’t it?” I protested. They took down my license details, checked over my bike, then settled in to ask me about 100 questions about my bike. Is it really made in England? Does it vibrate much? Where is the rest of the fox? Etc etc etc… I just wanted to go, but they seemed more intent in looking at my bike than me. I was feeling guilty about all the things they could pinch me for, illegal helmet, rear blinkers too close together, illegal exhaust pipes, anti-pollution gear disconnected, rego label tucked inside my tail light… but nothing. They tipped their hats and let me go.

Coming back a few hours later was different. They had the whole road blocked off and about a dozen cops searching cars, checking exhaust systems on Harleys etc. I was just sitting there in the line of traffic not going any place, when this bloke in t-shirt, jeans and baseball cap comes out of the bushes and asked to see my license. So I asked him “Who the hell are you?” Fair question he said and turned to pull his wallet out to show me some ID when I noticed a bloody big pistol on his belt. “Oh… I see, no need to see yours, here is mine” He was quite nice about it all and asked me when I would be heading home. I said “You’re the man with the gun, I’ll go home anytime you say!” He laughed, but probably thought I was a dickhead.

Down to business… The Drags!

We went for a walk around the pits to see the keen racers already preparing their machines for the days racing. What an amazing collection of machinery! The most impressive was the purpose built sand dragging motorcycles fitted with big block Chevy V8’s and if that wasn’t enough, they were usually fitted with nitrous oxide injection too!

As the event was being run by the Hell’s Angels, there were lots of bikes with Harley engines, most of which had some interesting plumbing designs with pipes, turbo’s etc arranged in odd and awkward collections. There were superchargers and more nitrous oxide bottles than a dentist convention!

I saw 2 little 4 wheelers like the one down the farm also fitted with turbo chargers. They raced each other together, and the riders really fought hard to keep the front wheels on the track for most of the 120 metre dash to the finish line. Another 4 wheeler was fitted with a 3 cylinder, 2 stroke like the engine in the bike I used to race years ago. It looked very impressive with 3 huge expansion chambers running down the left side. When I saw this race later, it was amazing! It really went like the clappers and I imagined using it to chase the sheep down the farm!

Another bike that impressed me for it’s simplicity (anybody can stick a V8 in a bike frame!) but this bike sounded and looked like an old Triumph, and boy… did it go! And with such a nice exhaust note too! It turned out to be an old Yamaha XS650. The one the japs made in direct competition to the T140 Triumph Bonneville. Very impressive.

The races ran throughout the day with so many classes and ages. It was really great to see that even the kids got to have a go. There was one little girl who looked about 6 years old, but already had the long blond hair and knee high boots on her little pee-wee racing against the boys. The kids all did wobbly starts through the sand ruts left by the big bikes, and though looked so slow, but it was all serious competition for them!

The culmination of the day was the final showdown of the unlimited class bikes. These are the big V8 bikes with entries by the Hell’s Angels from Adelaide up against the Coffin cheaters from Perth WA, and the Derro’s also from Perth. The winning bike was Benno from the Coffin Cheaters who rode a bike powered by a 427 chev with nitro injection

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It was well dark when we all finally headed over to the stage area for the presentations where all the kids got there trophies, then the big boys too proudly took theirs with smiles as big as the kids! This was followed by the party of the century with 3 great rock bands, Daddy Walrus (very young and needing more experience) Blame Johnny were excellent, or maybe I was just impressed because they started off with a song by Silverchair, then the old foggies of rock and roll, Schnitzel Pack came out and played the traditional bikie style rock and roll. You know… like ZZ top, Radar Love, Sex Pistols, The Doors “Roadhouse Blues” and other R&B style rock and roll. They didn’t let us go to bed until 3am!

Wow, what a party. I hope you will all come with me next year! Thanks to Jack and Charlie for coming with me, and all the Hell’s Angels boys and others who made us feel so welcome. Everyone was so friendly…… 🙂

The bike ran like a dream with the new chain and sprockets I even managed to get 320kms out of a tank. But a planned fuel stop on the return trip early Sunday morning became a worry when we arrived in the town to see the petrol station had not yet opened. I usually allow 40 – 45 kms on my reserve tank, but with only 10 – 15 kms remaining, the next town was going to prove a challenge. So Charlie slowed down to 80 km/hr and I tucked myself in behind his car making use of the “vacuum tow rope” he provided for me.

The damn bike went 58 kms on reserve and still had not run out! When we finally made it to the servo, I breathed a sigh of relief as the nozzle went into the tank, and I put 16.1 litres of fuel into a 16 litre tank! How is that for good managment of my resources!!! I was glad when I finally made it home with my numb bum, but really happy that I did it.