Moto Guzzi Club of Queensland Forum

I just have to have a rant

How bloody crazy is it that there are two bike rallies being held within an hours ride of each other on the same weekend? I refer to these;

13-14 June - Midway Rally. At the Australian Motorcycle Museum, 3 Butlers Road, Haigslea (approx 50 km west of Brisbane off Warrego Hwy). Run by the Kawasaki Z Owners Queensland.

12-14 June - Midwinter Rally. Held at the Greenmount Hotel, Greenmount Qld (30km south of Toowoomba). $20 entry. Run by Motorcycle Riders Association of Queensland

Now I don't want to get into who got in first, ah bugger it, yes I will. My belief is the Z Owners have been running Conondale on the January long weekend for many years now. I'm not sure how long the MRAQ rally has been going, but I think it is only a few years or so. I seem to recall this clash of rallies happened last year too. What a shame nobody seems to have thought to find a solution. Why is a solution needed? Well it's simple, by having these rallies at the same time both clubs miss out. The already small rally going crowd will be split, after all you can't be at both. The result is that clubs will not see as many people through the gate, this means less money coming in. God help them if it rains, they may get very lonely indeed. For most clubs this is their big event to raise a few dollars each year, it is important that we as fellow riders and club members are not screwing each other over like this.

I not sure what the solution to these kind of things is, maybe the motorcycle rally organising clubs need to get together and have a central calender claiming set date/s each year. In the event of a clash the club that has been running their event the longest keeps the date/s of their choice. I reckon as far as rallies are concerned there should ideally be at least a two week gap between them. These days it can be hard to get away two weekends in a row. This way potential attendance is maximised for everybody. Probably bugger all chance of this happening, too many hurdles in the way. Who would run the calender? How would it be done? Who would adjudicate disputes? Who in their right mind would want to take this thankless task on?

Well that's my I feel much better now I've shared

And it's the Queens birthday long weekend so some people will be going away with their families, so even less through the gate.
So far except for the uselessys having their AGM on our Budgie weekend twice we've not had a conflicting rally, the only way that you can organise not to have two rallies on the same weekend is for the organising committees for both to sit down & NEGOTIATE.

I could have editted but I can admit when I screw up (yes it's often too), that weekend is not the Queens Birthday weekend but the weekend after, still can't work out exactly why that weekend is so important & what with the Downs area, you'd think Queensland is big enough that they could have been different directions if they HAD to be on that weekend.

Guess we'll never know the reason why they had to be both on the same weekend & within a stones throw of each other.

Actually there was a conflicting rally this year. I only heard about it quite late in the piece, some kind of Triumph Rally, up north of Brissie somewhere I think. Might account for why there were so few Triumph's at the Budgie.

Thats why I didn't ride my Tiger , it wanted to go north

We got chatting to a guy on a Ducati, at a servo on the way home from the R B, and he'd been to a rally somewhere....prob the Triumph one you mentioned.
Yes, it's a pity clubs can't co-operate......is there a register of rallies etc? It's no use relying on the calendars in 'bike mags etc.

But speaking of clashes.....what about this weekend's Superbikes clashing with the Classics at Mt Coot-tha?
No probs for me deciding which one I'll attend, but it would have been nice to be able to attend both.......enjoyed the S'bikes last year, but they're a bit exxy to get into.