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Give me a gathering among the gumtrees .. over 70 BF folk converged on Beechworth with their Fridays, Sat RDays, Two'sDays... now, you're going to order a BF When'sDay?
Click here for a PHOTO GALLERY of the festivities.
Click here for a MOVIE: The Traveling Wheelberries sing "Handle With Care" (Movie 1 Mb). You'll need something like Quicktime (free download)
"LAST YEAR we had a guy who got up and twitched his nipples in time to music - everyone cracked up."
Nic Gellie, the Bike Friday Club of Canberra's leading light and virtuoso bazookie-plunker, is enthralling me with snippets from six past ABFC gatherings. My last visit was in 1996, at a little spot in country Victoria called Bright, where I took delivery of my very first Bike Friday, a liliputian Racing Green Air Friday. The ABFC President, Margaret Day, husband Graham, vice-president Bronwyn Laing and Dave Boyling have orchestrated a masterful program of rides and relaxation every year since the club's inception and this year was no exception.
At an ABFC gathering, the key is low-key: BYO everything, fix your own flats and falafels, drink beer and milky tea and enthuse about places you've been on your Bike Friday. This year's riding was set in the brilliant Murry to the Mountains Rail Trail system that stretches from Wangaratta to Bright, www.railtrail.com. Zipping along the 50-odd km trail is like careening along a dead straight single lane that cuts through the countryside at a barely perceptable incline or decline depending on which direction you are heading. You can almost hear your wheels choo-chooing (or huff-puffing depending that direction). "Stay on the Trail and you cannot fail!" chimed Margaret.
This year's faces from the factory were myself and Bike Friday CEO/Co-founder Alan and his wife Theresa, who arrived in a BF-filled rental car fresh from doing The Big Ride www.bicyclensw.org.au.
This was the Scholz' first visit to the land down under and I was excited to be their chief translator of 'Strine' (Aussie English). Assuming I could remember it myself after 6 years on the road! Accomodations were at Lake Sambell Caravan Park in Beechworth, in tents, simple cabins or in the case of Graham and Lorna Mogford, a very flash looking encampment your average bedouin would have approved of.
The ABFC gets more and more international each year: present were BF Club of Anchorage, (Alaska) leaders David and Betty Predeger, Alan and Marina Johnstone from the chilly UK, and Derek and little David van Hoesen from Colorado had all flown downunder from upover. David, barely 10 years old, is to be commended for not getting snotty and bored with all us oldies, perhaps because he is one of the few kids lucky enough to own a BF, and a fancy Crusoe at that.
Beechworth is an old gold town perched on a hill, so the first day's ride was down, down, downhill all the way to Yackendandah, an even quainter former gold mining town with an Aladdin's cave of a bakery. Here I was introduced to the Bee Sting: a fluffy white hamburger bun filled with custard and topped with almonds and honey, and I daresay not an ounce of fiber to speak of. Muffins have also become passe it seems - a quirky oval cupcake called a friand has taken it's place at twice the price.
The long slog back up the hill was broken by a stop at a quaint Lavender farm to snort the purple stuff, eat lavender ice cream, drink lavender lemonade and then leave before the whites of your eyes turned a whiter shade of mauve.
On returning to Beechworth I spotted a sign too intriguing to resist: "The Chinese Burning Towers". As I entered the cemetery, visions of martyred short persons of Asiatic appearance stacked high in a pair of flaming conical crematoriums flitted through my mind, but a sign emphatically explained that the towers were used for burning offerings, not the dearly departed.
The cemetery interested me because my ancestors paddled from China to Australia in the 1890's to pan for gold way up north, possibly making me more Aussie than some, despite appearances to the contrary. Saturday's riding was a long 75 km round trip to Myrtleford, proving that there are two distinct was to do the rail trail: a one-way downhill joyride from Beechworth in any direction, or an arduous, imperceptibly gradual uphill slog for hours in the other. Weird to watch Huffies zipping past while we were grinding the gears in the opposite direction.
The Saturday dinner is a real ABFC tradition, with song and dance acts, talent quests and Margaret handing out prizes in numerous categories. Nick Gellie and Tony McKitrick told of how they rode 500 arduous, fully loaded kilometers from Canberra to get to the gathering, meeting bushy "I got one of them Giant bikes" characters. "You're going to Beechworth on them bikes? Bejeeeeeezus!"
The contest was to complete beginning with "Twas Alan Scholz from Oregon..." The choicest entries are reproduced here. Mary Fanning won one of the coveted Bike Friday map jerseys for her effort. "Willie" Wilson belted out a number which knowingly added a verse about needing to leave "ample time to swear" the very first time you pack your Bike Friday in its suitcase.
The star act, however, was indisputedly "The Traveling Wheelberries", a group from Sydney and Canberra led by eminent musicologists, profs Roger and Trish Covell, and accompained by Dave Boyling on guitar, Nick Gellie on bazookie and Tony McKitrick on violin. Check out the little movie (see above!) Thank you to Margaret and Graham Day, Bronwyn Laing and Dave Boyling who made this yet another bonza BF bash!
Below are a couple of the entries in the talent quest. There were a couple more but I lost them. Please send them along so your creativity can be duly admired here!
The Traveling Wheelberries headed for #1 ...
-- Handle with Care -- performed by the Traveling Wheelberries
(Sung to the tune of that Roy Orbison song)
I've had dragsters and mountain bikes Flash road racers and great big trikes You're the only bike that I like My Bike Friday
Spare parts are available Green Gear says they're mailable Every model is adorable My Bike Friday I'm so tired of small wheel knockers I really love my little wheels Let me show you how they roll along
Everybody needs a bike stand to lean on Put your Friday next to mine and pedal on I've been mucked up and I've been fooled I've been fobbed and ridiculed From Adelaide to Liverpool Handle me with care
Been stuck in airports terrorized Thought the suitcase oversized Then the airline saw the light My Bike Friday
I'm so tired of... etc
Everybody, needs a bike stand ... etc
Been up hills that never end But I'm geared to take the bend One day my knees will mend Handle me with care
I'm so tired .. etc
'Twas Alan Scholz from Oregon, that caught the cycling craze He turned away from big wheels and began his small wheels phase They tinkered round with this and that, the customer to please An engineering marvel that would fit into a valise
He took his mount along the road from Warragamba side To Camden town and Bungendore and 'cross the Great Divide The tandem flew across the plains and into Culcairn cruised, By journey's end to Cootamundra, bottoms duly bruised,
But Beechworth was the final prize, to meet with Fridays all To wag the chin and chew the fat and generally have a ball So alan Scholz we hope you've had a trip you'll not forget, And that this was the darndest ride that you've encountered yet!
Mary Fanning, NWT owner, Canberra
Read about the the 6th ABFC Gathering
For more info on ABFC shenanigans, contact Margaret Day, Phone: +61 8 8271 5824 (Australia) Email: mday@picknowl.com.au
This and other riveting stories appear in the Summer 2003 Foldable Flyer (give us a chance to get it up there).
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