NOT ALL WHO WANDER ARE LOST by Liz & Aparicio Gomez
A long life of wandering sent us on our quest to meet as many New Imperial Association members (and motorcycle enthusiasts) during our three-month sojourn to Australia this year! We were also intent on promoting the image of our local Luxembourg group, the AMAL.
We landed in Perth and were off to cover the states of Western Australia, South Australia, & Victoria on a road trip that would encompass nearly 8,500 km.
Apa – Ross – Neville – Liz – Chas
Our journey took us from Bunbury to Hayden through WA, across the Nullarbor Highway in SA, to Chas Lipscombe's home in Chiltern, Victoria and on to the exciting “Vintage “rally in Maryborough, where we were thoroughly welcomed by the VMCC Victoria. We were able to participate in the rally thanks to Chas Lipscombe's generosity in lending us his New Imperial Model 8 which actually won the "Best Vintage Bike" prize. We made many new friends and Liz was impressed with the high number of enthusiastic female riders.
First attempt to ride this machine - she did very well
The Australians are a very welcoming lot, their rides and rallies are well organised, with helpful briefings before starting, ride marshalls deployed at crossings along the road (one is duly reminded that their duty is only to indicate direction, safety when turning and crossing is the sole responsibility of the rider), assistance vehicles, well-planned stops along the road and good debriefings and group events/dinners after each ride; in short, vintage bike riding in Australia is a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
We also enjoyed meeting Mick Guilfoyle who is currently the President of the VMCC-Victoria and is a most kind and welcoming individual; equally enjoyable was meeting Andrew Cox and many other VMCC-VIC members.
Ross - Apa - Neville at an improvised workshop under a tree in Chas' backyard
At Chas and Sarah's place we met Ross Luff and Neville Babb; Neville quickly became Liz's mentor on the intricacies of riding a 1920s motorcycle.After the rally, we bid farewell to Chas, Sarah, and Neville, and headed home to Perth via Esperance and the Ocean Road. A grand total of over 8,000 km in 3 weeks! Although there were a minimum of stores, restaurants and places to lay one’s head down this was an odyssey well worth taking.
The country is very large and although vastly empty those who have the privilege of living there are incredibly open and welcoming. Just mention your love for motorcycles and the garage doors are flung wide open to display an amazing assortment of motorcycles (in EVERY STAGE of restoration and recommissioning) on display and of course tea and biscuits are always on the table!
At the Maryborough Caravan Park
We took great pleasure in meeting a good number of vintage-motorcycle, and especially New Imperial enthusiasts along the way, some of whom are noted below:
First arrivals at Chas' were Ross Luff and Neville Babb, with whom we quickly developed a close friendship; there were also a number of day visitors, such as Doug Cowie and Barry Rogers.
Apa and John Coleman looking at one of John's BMWs
Then, the members and staff of the VMCC-VIC that we were fortunate enough to meet in Maryborough, including Mick Guilfoyle, Andrew Cox, and many others.
Neville had recommended that we meet one of his friends in Western Australia, his name is John Coleman; so, upon returning to Bunbury, we duly contacted John and became acquainted with the IHC or Indian Harley Club of Bunbury, which caters to all marques of vintage motorcycles, not only to Indian and Harley. They are a jolly lot as well. We accompanied them in two of their rides and even participated in one of their monthly club meetings and in a sausage sizzle!
Gary and Liz in Gary's shed
We then made contact with Gary Leigh and visited him twice at his Margaret River home. Gary has a sizeable wealth of information, which Chas had asked us to tap in order to further his own quest for compiling a comprehensive description of Lucas electrical systems to be found on New Imperial bikes from 1930 until 1939. We were delighted with Gary's hospitality and look forward to spending time with him again.
Seen at the Bunnings Bunbury sausage sizzle
Then, on Ross Luff's advice, we made contact with Harold Dewar. Harold is an accomplished restorer who owns a good number of beautiful and fully functional bikes. Harold lives in Queensland but has family in WA. We were fortunate enough to meet him personally at his son's home in Baldivis, WA. Harold was kind enough to share a good number of technical insights and we have remained in contact since then.
Apa happened to mention to John that, in the 1980s he had been in contact with an Australian company by the name of Orbital Engine Co. One of John's friends in Bunbury had worked for Orbital and is yet another very accomplished restorer of vintage bikes; his name is Huw Jones and John arranged for us to meet Huw, visit his workshop, and spend an enjoyable afternoon talking about vintage motorcycles.
Hélas, all good things must sometimes come to a pause, so, on May 1st we returned to Luxembourg with the firm intention of getting back to Australia as soon as practicable.
The one and only Chas Lipscombe
In the meantime, we had the pleasure of taking the two New Imperial Model 2 to the Giants Run in Dorset, at the end of May.
We are happy to report that we have kept in contact with most of the people we met during this trip and have the firm intent of meeting and riding with them again in the near future.
As a short footnote, Liz has every reason to feel proud of herself, having just recently learned to ride a hand-gear-change, dual-lever throttle, manual-ignition-timing, heel-rear-brake motorcycle; we are deeply grateful to Neville for having mentored her in the early stages of learning. We hope she can be an inspiring example to other women of the fact that it takes mostly determination and avoidance of overconfidence.
