TO THE BLACK STUMP … and beyond!
MANY WAYS TO THE Big Eye there are,” said Yoyo (Yoda’s bikie brother). “Ride them all you cannot. Of the Highway Patrol you must beware.”
He was right, of course, on all counts. He had been along on a ride along the Golden Highway to the Black Stump, testing half a dozen of the then-current big cruisers, when were pulled up by a NSW Police officer, by his stripes a sergeant. He was checking exhaust compliance (this was when you had to have noise levels stamped on the pipe) and couldn’t come to terms with the fact that the muffler on my bike was original.
“You’ve put a custom pipe on this bike.”
“No, sorry, this is how it comes from Honda.”
“No it’s not.”
“Yes it is,” I said, feeling as if I’d become trapped in a Monty Python sketch.
“Where is the compliance information, then?” I don’t even remember what the bike was, but the information was hidden by a large heat shield. I didn’t know that, unfortunately. “If it doesn’t have the information on it it’s not standard.”
“I’m really sorry. It’s…” I was about not say ‘It’s not my bike’ when I realised
