LAST UPDATE 21/02/2010

TT/XT 500 MUSTER '09

DAY 1

For the 8^th running of the Muster, we based this year’s Saturday road rides started from the Bethany Reserve just outside Tanunda as it has done now for the last couple of years. This year there were 3 rides to choose from, dirt road ride, a sealed road ride and an off road private property ride which was held in conjunction with the Keyneton Motorcycle Club, club day held up on Mengler Hill.

DIRT ROAD RIDE

Shane Kraft took care of the dirt road ride which stared at the Bethany Reserve at 9am with 9 riders taking part. The ride covered around 250kms of dirt roads and tracks heading up to Eudunda and the down to Morgan on the River Murray. From here they went to Blanchetown where they stopped at the local road hose for a much needed rest break and lunch. After lunch the group headed towards Swan Reach when their first and only drama took place. One of the riders ended up with a massive oil leak when the plastic hex bolt below the points cover disintegrated and blew out. Fortunately Rick Jones was on the ride and didn’t live to far and went home to grab a spare and some oil. 30mins later they were mobile again. The rest of the riders had gone ahead to Cambria where the group stop for some refreshments while waiting for the others to catch up. Once the group was back together and refreshed, they headed up through the hills and arrived back at the Bethany Reserve at 3.30pm to finish there long dirt ride.

Mark Jantke does a final check before leaving on the ride. The group of 8 getting ready to depart on the dirt road ride.

SEALED ROAD RIDE

The road ride started at the Bethany Reserve at 10.30am and this year was lead by John Gersch. There were 7 riders who went on this ride with Peter Taylor on his XT 550 as he didn’t have rego or a permit for his XT 500. The riders passed through several towns such as Williamstown, Cudlee Creek, Lenswood, Balhannah, Hahndorf, Mylor, Echunga and Macclesfield on their way to Strathalbyn for lunch.

Lunch was enjoyed in the air conditioned comfort of a local café. It was a good relief from the heat of the day. The 4 bikes + the XT 550 ridden by Peter Taylor in Strathalbyn where they stopped for lunch.

The home journey saw them go back through Macclesfield, then off to Flaxley, Mt Barker, Inverbrackie, Woodside, Lobethal, Gumeracha, Birdwood and Williamstown before arriving back at the Bethany Reserve at around 4pm.

225kms of sealed roads were ridden and enjoyed by those who participated despite the weather being so hot.

The 4 bikes + the XT 550 ridden by Peter Taylor at the lunch stop in Strathalbyn.

OFF ROAD, CLUB DAY RIDE

There were 4 of us that participated at the Keyneton MCC Club Day, one being Brent Josling who made the trip from Darwin to attend the weekend. The ride day was broken up into 20min sections with the juniors broken into the groups. The 500 boys went out with the rest of the seniors in that group and rode the track that the land owner practices on and is used for the local Reliability Trial. We rode this track 3 times during the day before the 3 remaining 500’s went over to the land owner’s home built MX track. After cutting laps here for 30mins we were all stuffed as the heat also took a lot out of us. I’m sure Brent enjoyed himself and had a good day as the rest of us did. A special thanks to the Keyneton MCC for allowing us to join in at their club day, and thanks to Chris Caust for the photos.

Martin Wedge

David Boehm

Brent Josling

Kevin Steinert

SATURDAY NIGHT DINNER

In the evening we all gathered at The Tanunda Cub House for a wonderful meal and a look back at the day’s festivities. Approximately 30 people attended the dinner and had a great time catching up with everyone that were on the other rides and welcoming new comers from Melbourne and Darwin. There were some who didn't want to leave but closing time took care of that.

DAY 2

This year, the Show’n’display day was back at the Bethany Reserve with 53 bikes in attendance. The day was quite warm but still, everyone seemed to enjoy the day. Once again, the local Angaston Scout Group did the catering for us and said that they would return next year as it was a good day for them.

All the bikes lined up on on the show'ndisplay day at Bethany Reserve.

There were 8 trophies up for grabs this year as well as the Barossa Photo Company Award which was picked by Tony (of Barossa Photo Company) himself.

Shane receiving his trophy from Gary Hage (Committee Member)

Best XT500 went to Shane Sims with his 1981 XT500.

Clayton receiving his trophy from committee member Gary Hage

Best original TT500 was won by Clayton Sherwood with his 1976 TT500 C

Best TT500 went to John Gersch with his 1978 TT500 E.

Best original XT500 went to Shane Kraft with his 1977 XT500 D.

Best modified 500 was the XT 500 which went to Brent Josling. Brent also won an award for travelling longest distance to be with us on the weekend. Brent came down from Darwin for this year’s event. He will receive a 1 year’s subscription to VMX magazine.

The anniversary 1979 TT500 F trophy went to Kym Lehmann, who had only finished reassembling the bike late Saturday afternoon.

The BITSA award went to Rick Jones with his XT 500, the picture tells the story.

The sidecar award this year was won by Shane Kraft with his ’76 TT500.

The Barossa Photo Company award went to Kym Miller with his beautifully presented TT 500 D. He will receive a framed photo of his bike from Tony.

The 3 trophies that were given out for Best XT500, Best TT500 and Best 30^th Anniversary bike.

The wooden trophies which were handed out to the other categories.

There was a heap of raffle prizes that had also been kindly donated by our many sponsors. A lot of them are on are sponsor page for you to contact regarding any work or parts that you may require. This is just some of the raffle prizes that were won by many of the people present. There were more than 50 raffle prizes won on the day which was great to see.

The main people we use for our thank restorations are Eric Lange for the panel beating, if he can’t make it look like new, no-one can. Kym Lehman who does the paint work and is a member of the committee now and the stickers are done by Fred Wheeler of We’ll Sign in Nuriootpa.

The committee would also like to thank Rob Francis for taking the photos this year. As he did last year, he took a photo of every bike as a record of the 500’s that attended this year’s meeting.

The weekend for the 2010 event has now been set. It is being planned for September 18^th/19^th with a similar format to this year. It will be at the Bethany Reserve again as the venue is ideal for so many reasons. We are already talking about increasing the number of awards/trophies for some more categories to help increase the interest further. More discussions will happen when we have our next get together early in the year.

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