Autumn in Bathurst
Bathurst Easter Tour
29 March-5 April, 2015 – Bathurst, NSW
Unlike the usual motorcycle rally the Bathurst Tour is in fact a tour of Bathurst and surrounding districts by motorcycle taking in places such as Barry, Blayney, Burraga, Carcoar and its dam, Trunkey Creek, Newbridge, Neville, Sofala and places in between. Over the 9 days of the Tour the motorcyclist does in fact benefit in learning to know the district located in Central New South Wales in a fair bit of detail. If you ride a veteran or vintage machine like I did this year you also become familiar with some of the bumps as the back roads chosen for each day’s run do have a few hidden irregularities in them, but it’s all part of the Tour. The Tour now in its 41st year was run by members of the Vintage Motorcycle Club and capably organised by Lee Wright and Graham Froud, now that Don Liddle has decided to hand over the reins after the first 40 years. If anyone asked, it was ‘NDP’ this year, ‘Not Don’s Problem,’ enabling Don to sit back and enjoy the ride on his Harley-Davidson a bit better.
The Easter Tour as well is unlike many other motorcycle events in that it invites owners of machines of any marque to the event of 30 years old and older. This means that not only does it cater for machines manufactured in the early part of last century – indeed I saw Veteran motorcycles on the road most days – but the variety it attracts is one that almost provides an encyclopaedia of motorcycles manufactured. You can often amaze yourself just at the number of makes there have been and similarly on the Tour you are likely to find something you have never heard of before. For me it was a 1937 Montgomery Grey Hound 500cc machine; never have heard of one or seen one but there it was beautifully restored and ridden. Weather wise this year we missed only two days of riding due to wet weather although for some people they ensured no opportunity was missed; wet days of course are quite often not wet all day and this theory was again put to the test. So if you want an education in motorcycles it would be hard to pass up at least one day of the Tour with around 200 machines entered and others just coming along for the ride it is a very special event.