"Carruthers, it’s Clubby here. I hear you’re doing the Husky Trek in Tasmania? Good, write me an article.”
“Ah, okay Clubbster. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem writing about two of my favourite subjects: motorcycles and myself!”
I was blessed to be a teen in the minibike boom of the 1970s, my Yamaha YZ80C opening up a whole new world. My parents weren’t into bikes or anything mechanical, so I paid my way and learnt how to maintain a bike through the school of hard knocks. My first tyre change took two days, and when I changed the piston rings I used gasket goo on the head gasket because I thought that was what you did!
Minibike racing was a big deal at our local club, lining up with guns like Wayne Gardner and a young Chris Watson every three weeks. My mates were into off-road riding, so after five years of dirt track and motocross I started riding enduros. It took me a while to figure out how to finish an event, starting on big-bore motocross bikes before gravitating to smaller-capacity enduro bikes.
ALL YOU CAN RIDE BUFFET
I stuck at enduros for a solid five years before life got
