The Hunter Valley branch held their Top of the Valley Run to Denham on the 23rd/24th August. The following is Bob's account of the weekend.
The previous weekend I ventured forth on the Newcastle veteran & Vintage MCC girder fork run on the mighty 16H. It went like a jet on our previous Dungog run, so off I went in earnest to threaten the NV&VMCC Enthusiasts with the sidevalve Norton. At the BP in Cardiff I met up with another gent on a girder forked Velo who was also off to the aforementioned so I teamed up with him for the ride to Morpeth Park where it was all supposed to start. It's fun letting someone else lead, you often get to go on roads you've never been on before and this was the case with the Velo man. I had to stick it into the 16H a bit to keep up with the OHV Velo, his riding style was a bit different to mine, and with the OHV Velo delivering a few more horses, I had to keep on my toes with the 16H especially on the hills
The NV&VMCC puts on about 4 or so girder fork runs a year. Yabby pump front ends as Reddo calls them are definitely not allowed to come along. There was a good cross section of bikes from about 1912 right through to the death of girders around 1946 /47. A nice 1200 Indian & sidecar, 1927 AJS (first year for OHV) Beezas everywhere including a prewar military M20 Beeza (they were a bit different to the cannon fodder variety) and heaps of others I can't recall. We did three hub rides separated by almost infinite sessions of chat. A great day out and a chance to see lots of bikes that normally don't get ridden.
On the way back from Morpeth I was giving the old 16H some down the freeway and having trouble keeping the thing in gear. At the Unapproachable Rally at Nundle it had been jumping out of third, with the occasional jump out of fourth, by now at 90kph blasting down the freeway trying to hold my own against B doubles, it wasn't wanting to stay in top for long at all. During the week I pulled the gear selector cam plate detent and spring out and experimented with a few different spring tensions. The detent in these upright boxes is at the top of the box and can get a bit dry and tends to wear. This didn't look to be in too bad a condition, so I added a spacer and tested it out and it seemed to stay in gear. I still wanted to do a couple more things to the bike, like alter the jetting, but just didn't get it done for the TOV.
Saturday morning dawned fairly dull, overcast showery and cold. However there was a faint dash of blue sky way out on the western horizon in direction Denman, so I loaded the Model 18 on the trailer, threw a few things in the car and was off.
Got out there a bit late, most others were ready to go, but while I was getting ready Dave made a few last minute adjustments to a leaking AJS carby bowl. It was great to see a good mate Dave Parker turn up on his early Honda 500four. Dave is a huge Norton enthusiast owning a couple of early Norton twins including a very nice Model 7. Dave rode the Honda out from Newcastle, this was one of Dave's furthest rides since suffering a bad stroke a couple of years ago, so was a big one for Dave. Good on you mate, we were to have a few good rides together over the weekend.
We headed out on a favourite back road and across toward Scone. Not long and Reddo's Ariel was blowing smoke and slowing. He did this twice and decided to turn around and head back. A couple of years ago it was my Model 18 that was blowing smoke and slowing till it finally blew a piston trying to keep up with Reddo on another Ariel out on the Moonan Flat side of Gundy. Reddo didn't risk it and headed for home. We trundled on. Gary was on his '49 Inter, brother Rod on the Atlas, Dave on the Honda and Dave on the AJS. A relatively new member whose name I can't remember, apologies, on a Norvil tanked fastback and his wife riding a large cruiser type 250 kwaka and John on the monster three cylinder Rocket. Blasting across these roads is god zone to these old bikes, the landscape is undulating with only the occasional hill. There are a few potholes on corners rigid framed bikes should look out for, but overall, it's perfect riding country for the older clunker. We soon got to the trendy horse Linga Longer pub at Gundy. We usually make a short stop here and continue on for a counter lunch at Moonan Flat, but a few of the boys started to dig in. We'd probably only come about sixty or seventy klms from Denman, not far for a ride at all. Moaning and groaning about bad road conditions and expensive meals at Moonan saw most not wanting to go any further, in fact, they were already talking about heading back to Denman. For me, I was out for the ride, so jumped on the Model 18 and with Dave on the Honda we did the extra 30klms to Moonan. It's what we came for, the roads aren't bad, the scenery is fantastic and the Victoria Hotel at Moonan is a great pub with terrific atmosphere. Dave and I had a drink and a yarn and headed back. Past the Linga Longa and on to Aberdeen another 25 klms away, another 5 or so klms to Muswellbrook and the last 25 klms to Denman. Without the ride to Moonan, it shortens up quite a bit. Still, as exciting and fun as it is on an old clunker it's probably a bit on the boring side, for late model bikes even on a Commando.
Dinner and a few drinks at the pub and with the band blaring away it was time to call it a day. Next morning the three older bikes saddled up for another ride while those with newer bikes all decided to go home. Dave on the Honda, Dave on the AJS and myself on the Model 18 headed out toward Sandy Hollow and off to the fabled railway tunnel. Five of us did this ride last year. It's seventy klms from Denman to the tunnel, over more great roads, undulating across the countryside, around swooping bends, drafting each other and having a great time. The tunnel is at the end of the sealed road, just before reaching the tunnel the road goes up over a sharp steep pinch with about half a dozen 25klm corners. This is where you realise how widely spaced the gears are in these old gearboxes. Drop back to second for the steep hairpin and that's where your stuck, because it's too much of a jump to hit third, because by the time you get it into gear the bike has slowed on the steep corner and third just doesn't cut it, so back to second and hold it at respectable revs till the steepness eases off enough so third can pick up.
It's easy to go straight past the dirt track that leads in to the tunnel, and that's just what we did, so turn around and go back and find it. We rode up alongside the cutting beside the track so we were looking down on the railway and the coal train that was making slow progress into the tunnel mouth. The scream from the steel wheels on the carriages as the train rolled around the tight radius curve was deafening to say the least. We could see the train was slowing more and more, so some of the scream would have been from the brakes. As the train slowed more the screaming didn't abate at all. Did I say deafening!! Finally the train stopped and so did the screaming. It was like flicking a switch from absolute full volume to silence. We looked at each other without a word, listened to the leaves rustling in the faint breeze and a few birds twittering. The contrast from full noise to no noise was amazing. A few more minutes and the scream began again and a few more carriages and the train disappeared into the tunnel leaving us in silence once more. We stood around wondering at the beautiful warm day and nature and the huge railway scar into the mountain and all sorts of far out stuff like that that gets inspired by the bush, then jumped on our bikes and were off once again across those glorious roads made for old British singles and had yet another fun ride back to Denman, where we packed up, said our cheery fair wells, till the meeting next week and were off home to our wonderful normal lives...............
It's a great weekend and while maybe being a bit on the boring side for new and later model bikes, it's paradise for the old clunkers. It's what the Top of the Valley Run was all about right from the beginning. I would have covered something like 300klm for the two days ride, which, this year I was on a rigid framed bike with telescopic forks, the past couple of years I've had a rigid girder forked bike, you know it after a ride like this. Chasing Dave on the AJS, back from the train tunnel, made me think of racers back in the thirties. The Model 18 can get up and sit on 60mph. You've really got to watch the bumps in the corners at that speed on a rigid framed bike. To think that in the thirties, race bikes were doing up around 100mph with this suspension technology. Coming down the mountain at the IOM, flat on the tank, throttle wide open and going for it, jumping and bucking all over the road.They musta been brave. See ya next year.
Bob
