Velocette Rally WA
Velocette Good Companions Rally 2015
Ninety-five Velo enthusiasts from all over Australia as well as from Germany, New Zealand and the USA met for our week long annual rally. The venue was the Swanleigh Camp and Conference Centre at Middle Swan in the Swan Valley near Perth. It was a perfect setting as it offered good accommodation, great food and plenty of room to spread out and enjoy ourselves. Also situated nearby are many fantastic wineries, chocolate factories, cheese and olive stores and craft breweries. Members from the eastern states chose various ways of getting themselves and their bikes there. Some drove and trailered, some rode. Both the Victoria and Queensland Centres sent shipping containers full of bikes over on the train, choosing to fly themselves. One couple even caught a sea cruise and stepped off in Perth.
This is the eleventh consecutive week-long annual Good Companions Rally and demonstrates how successful this format has been for our club. The rally kicked off on the Sunday with the usual unpacking, unloading and moving in along with renewing old friendships and making new ones. Then a welcome dinner on Sunday night to enlighten all of what was in store for the week. Rides radiated each day from rally headquarters, Monday to Friday, taking us on some good bike roads as well as viewing in some excellent scenery. Places visited were York, Toodyay, Avon Valley, Kalamunda including the famous Zig Zag Road, the Perth dams and much more. One stop was to the Vintage Motorcycle Club of WA clubrooms where they treated us to morning tea and a look at their members spares scheme and storeroom. The weather was warm to say the least and the pool was very popular along with a cold drink or two. On Saturday we visited Whiteman Park and displayed the bikes before returning to Swanleigh to load up and make ourselves ready for the Presentation Dinner and dancing. Many of us dressed in ‘60s clothes for the dinner and partied well into the night. Costumes were very good and some members were very hard to recognise. They literally let their hair down. Over the week of riding we had a
couple of breakdowns, but most bikes proved reliable. Always interesting is seeing and being part of the afternoon maintenance as each rider cleans and adjusts things ready for the next day. All this work is usually done with plenty of advice by onlookers with a drink in hand; very entertaining and relaxing. Congratulations to the WA centre for putting on such a brilliant well organised rally. A true team effort. The next Good Companions rally is in the Gippsland in Victoria and we only have a year to wait.