Wednesday 25 September 2013

Getting a bit of history.

The third and last day dawned bright and sunshiny .. yay!! To top it all off, my arm was almost normal again .. t'was like magic. So we headed towards the main street to take the car back .. and got lost .. I mean there's only one main street right .. eventually we found the place and took the car back. Then we grabbed some yummy pancakes for breakfast. Then wandered around the streets looking at some of the old buildings. We found that there are a lot of historical buildings in Broken Hill and the nice thing is that most of them are restored, looked after and used.



A lot of them are old pubs, there used to be something silly like 30 pubs in the main street (or so I've heard) a lot of them are still there but they are now used for a different purpose.


Some are still pubs though.


I love art deco anything really .. and this just caught my eye.


Then there were the just awesome buildings .. they really took their time to put in those special little touches back then .. even in a mining town in the middle of the desert.



Court was on that day so I really couldn't get a photo of the court house, there were a few people milling around who I didn't think would like it if I was pointing a camera at them .. but it was an amazing building as court houses often are.

We'd noticed a sign the day before about a show that we decided was just too good to miss, so we headed towards the civic centre. On the way I was chuffed to notice that I wasn't the only person who had trouble parking a bike in nose to curb angle parking spots ..


And the show at the civic centre?


A vintage bike show!! All of the bikes here were from Broken Hill except only about 4 or 5.


I found a lot of bikes that took my fancy.


As I often see Tiger pics from a Troubadour blogger this one had to have a pic taken. There were a lot of Triumphs.


As well as other classics.



British bikes do attract me, and with a sidecar ... wow


Terry got talking with one of the organisers .. so I dumped the camera bag with him and took more pics ...


Cruiser Love ..


What about the scooters I hear you scream .. they were there.


And of course I did like looking at the slightly newer Honda's ..



Army bikes..




It was bike heaven.


But my favourite was ..


It's a Honda 125 racing something or another .. right I read the sign and photographed it so I'd remember but the photo didn't work and I don't remember all the details. All I remember is that I loved it and wanted to take it home with me.


So with a healed arm and a heart full of bikes ... the need to ride came on strong. We rushed home and got the bikes out of the shed .. but that's a story for another day .. I'll tell you all about our ride and where we ended up in the next post :)


8 comments:

  1. Wow, great post. Great pictures and motorcycles. The best part about reading your blog is that it feels like we're with you on your journeys.

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    1. Thanks Ally :)

      I wonder if that's because I write it like I'm writing in a journal .. I have to admit that I am really selfishly writing mostly to myself .. sometimes the thought that other people will be reading it makes me step back a bit, but I am trying to capture those memories for myself so that I wont ever forget the wonderful (and sometimes not so wonderful) things.

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  2. There is nothing like a bike show to inspire you to ride on. Love those vintage bikes. We also had a vintage fair recently and it is amazing how well some of the bike were kept up. Do you like that specific Honda, or is it the looks? Are you even a closet racer and not a cruiser?

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    1. Hi Sonja, yeah I was initially drawn to the look of that bike, it was tiny but looks so sleek and sexy. I've always had a hankering to own an older bike to play with .. I think I could get used to that one.

      Not a racer tho I'm sure .. my racing days are way over! Well maybe once in a while then :)

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  3. How awesome that you stubbled upon a vintage bike show.

    And Triumphs too. I bet hubby will enjoy those pics this weekend. He doesn't have much of a chance to read blogs during the week and plays catch up on Sunday mornings.

    Thanks for sharing all the neat pics. I enjoyed the old buildings too.

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    1. I know Brandy, it was like fate was smiling on us that day.

      I thought of Brad as soon as I saw all the Tigers :) Hope he enjoys the pics.

      I loved the old buildings, wish we'd gotten to explore inside them more .. there's always next time, we'll have to go back.

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  4. Brenda:

    It's really hard to believe that most of those bikes came from Broken Hill. It's almost like they have nothing else to do except to restore old bikes in their spare time

    It's hard to park in angled spots when the ground isn't slanted the right way. I need more lean angle for my Vstrom and if I nose it in, then it may be too heavy for me to push it backwards. So many times I just take a spot farther away with flat ground

    If you buy one of those racer bikes, then you will also need a tight, form-fitting leather outfit (hint)

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. Yep Broken Hill seems to have a real bike culture, there were all kinds of bikes riding around as well.

      I do the same as you Bob when I cant get into an angle park, find a flatter place to park, I know exactly where I can and cant park in Dubbo now.

      Sheesh I dont think I could do the leather outfit Bob, I've become far too attached to my comfy baggy jeans in my old age :D

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