Meet Sophia

She is a nice Italian girl who looks good in red.  She will have her 18th birthday next week.  We can’t believe that we’ve had her for so long.  It certainly doesn’t seem like it.  She has been on many adventures with us and even travelled to Western Australia and back in the late 90s.  Sophia is a 1993 Moto Guzzi Mille GT 1000.  There were only 36 imported into Australia and of those only two were red.  All the others are black.  We feel she is pretty special.

The Vintage Motorcycle Club has a week long rally around Bathurst each Easter and we try to tag along on Good Friday.  The run is always to Oberon and then on to Tarana. Today we took Sophia out for the ride.

I haven’t been on her since Easter two years ago.  The leathers still fit…..just.  I was wondering how I would go on a solo after such a long time.  Would I be nervous?  Would I still enjoy being on the back?  Would I feel the need to hang on?  When we first got a sidecar everyone asked did I prefer the solo or the outfit, to which I always replied that I like both.

Well, I can safely say that it is like riding a bike (pardon the pun). It just felt right and I enjoyed the ride so very much.  I didn’t feel the need to hang on  and I can still honestly say that I like both.  It helps that the lovely girl is very comfortable and I trust Mick as a rider.  Mostly we just toodled along, but at a couple of spots Mick gave her her head and cleared out some cobwebs. Sophia ran beautifully and she sounded sooo good.  The weather was perfect for riding – cool enough to need some layers, but without feeling like Michelin woman.

As always, there was a wide variety of old bikes.

This year there were just over 200 entries, so it is growing each year.

There were 5  Suzuki Rotary bikes from the 70s.  This was quite something, as there were only ever 6000 made.  They were quite a radical design for their time that didn’t really take off and I had a sit on one.  They seem to be one of those bikes that people either love or hate.

One thing about being on a solo is that I can’t take photos while we are travelling along, so I haven’t many of the beautiful autumn scenery.  We did pull over at one spot though, which had some glorious coloured trees.

Don’t you just want to follow that road.

The run finished at Tarana where we had a yummy lunch in the cafe before heading home.

We should be doing things at home tomorrow but we might just head out with all the oldies again.  This time we will take Snubby out for the run and go to Burraga.