Bond Drives Again

I know, guys don't give their cars guys names, but this time I have an excuse. When you car has a vin code ending in 007 I think it gets a little lee-way. So Bond it is.
The story begins back in 1967 when the car was first purchased and continues through 45 years later with my purchase of the vehicle. John White was the first owner of the Bolwell Mk 7 as pictured in the black and whites.

Ric Kemp was the next owner of the car and proceeded to use it as it was supposed to. A little bit of track work at club level in Victoria including sprints and hill climbs, and he also proved that a Mark 7 could work in a paddock. Unfortunately he's no the only one to have driven a Bollie in a paddock, but at least he didn't drive it in to the Swan River.

Graeme Muir was the next owner of the car and he took it as a challenge to upgrade the car. This resulted in a hatched rear, sunroof and bonnet bulge being added. The reason for the bonnet modification was to ensure that the Nissan turbo 6 he put in it would have enough space. This is where some of the subsequent chassis modifications came into play later in the story. Around this time the car made its way over to Perth for one of the national Bolwell Easter Meetings.

Graeme Jenkins then got hold of the car and swapped the turbo back to an original type Holden red motor with a 5 speed supra gear box. These were the days of the car living in Bendigo.

 Then one fine day I received the car and have been enjoying it (when I can) since.

In February of 2012, Bond came across from Bendigo Victoria and was greeted with much enthusiasm and excitement in a loading yard in Welshpool. There was a low slung red car in the middle of slightly more modern and mundane commodores, falcons and camrys. A few pictures and a pre-inspection later and the car was on the road in Perth. Temporary permit wise anyway. After a weekend at home fumbling through some electrics with dad to try and get all the lights working properly and installing a window washer, it was off to the inspection centre in Midland with the thought that I would be driving the next weekend in a licensed classic Aussie car.

Nope.
Turns out that a couple of bits of the car weren't valid when trying to register a car in WA for the first time. There were 5 inspectors looking at, under and through the car at one time. But at least they were friendly. A bit of chassis rust and a notch in the frame weren't looked kindly upon. No worries there as for future safety sake these were good to be picked up and repaired. Thanks to Phil for sorting these for me.

The car was sitting 20mm too low, so some new springs in the rear end resolved this and also results in a slightly less firm ride and the tyre size matching between front and back wasn't legal for WA either. The after market fuel tank and the repairs made to the chassis needed an authorised engineering sign off and then a couple of minor bits and pieces around the engine and flywheel needed some attention. These were eventually all attended to over the next few months around work, laziness and schedules.
Around this there were temporary movements involving the odd Bolwell Car Club of WA meeting as well. Sometimes these even coincided with a nice day in the Swan Valley or a wet hockey game in Fremantle.

So, off for inspection number two. Back at Midland and this time only one person going over the car. At least the list of things to amend was shorter this time and nothing a repeat of what was on the first list. Because the seats were not the originals they needed another engineering sign off. As did the roll cage which had been in their since the car was built and the seat belt mounts due to them not being original either. The car also has a sliding drivers seat and a light to show the handbrake is on. And because it's a 1967 model, the dash is wired to mph. But the dash isn't original so the speedo says kph and he didn't like that either.
So it didn't pass try number two.

These got fixed and nearly 4 months later (after a few more club meetings, hockey games and days in the valley) bring on inspection number three. This time abandoning Midland for the new inspection centre in Ellenbrook armed with lots of engineering checklists and sign offs, lists of reported and fixed defects and a little bit of hope.

An hour later and the news is good.
YAY!!!
Down past Midland licensing centre to finalise the paperwork and receive the license plates and happy to know I'm now driving a road legal car and don't have to worry about a temporary movement permit again. At least not for Bond anyway.

Improving Perth Traffic Congestion

It seems like a great idea. The government and opposition both start promising a lot of love a few months ahead of time and start cancelling a few months past time. That said, the northern and southern corridors certainly get a bit more follow through on ideas and promises. It was only four years ago that Ellenbrook was going to have a train line installed within a few years. Here we are again and the train line is history, so we were going to get express buses which was too hard, so its still a restricted timetable using public transport between a city regional centre and the city. We are getting some traffic lights though which makes traffic even slower with the population of the area continuing to grow. Im sure the northern suburbs understand that, but hey, at least you have two lanes on a lot of your roads.
Maybe multiple lane roads with a shoulder wide enough for cyclists, some buses (preferably with some coordinated drivers) and presto, traffic congestion eases a little. Or is that all too much to ask?

Old Coast Rd Brewery with BCCWA

On Sunday the Bolwell Car Club of WA decided it was worth a trundle a little further south than usual in a bid to see some of our more southerly members. This involved the first location of grouping to be the Mundijong Rd car park just off the freeway. This wasn't too bad an idea, but with schoolies taking place the road was anything but free. So a little late our group set out from the car park to continue south to the Old Coast Rd Brewery for lunch and a catch up.

The brewery was in full flight on a glorious spring afternoon. Pretty much every table was in use, kids were playing out on the grass, and a random was playing guitar and singing, or something like that. And with 20 Bolwell associated people arriving , it made for a well talked out and relaxing afternoon. Besides which the food was pretty good and the beer certainly earns its pass marks. The only downside was knowing it was a two hour drive back home so only one drink was to be drunk. Who puts a pub in the middle of nowhere?

The three Bolwells that parked up were (in receding age) a Nagari (bottom), a Mark 7 (top) and a Mark 4 (middle). For some reason they drew a little bit of attention from the crowd, and even a relation of the founding Bolwell men themselves. But it was a good day to catch up, talk over those little projects that the cars need working on (there's an Easter meeting coming up you know) and relax. Then all that was left was the drive home, with not so many schoolies thankfully.

30th el Tour de Tucson

So work was good enough to be hosting a Geostatistics training course in Tucson with the renowned Clayton van Deutsch and I was invited to join in. This proved to be a great learning tool but also provided an opportunity for me to be in town over the following weekend when the el Tour de Tucson was taking place. The el Tour allows for cyclists to choose one of 4 distances from 40 to 111 miles with the later basically covering a lap of the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. This ride had 9000-ish people coming from about 18 countries this year and all USA states.

This is from not even half way back from the start line for the group doing the full distance. It took 10 minutes for me to "start" after the official go time and there were a lot of people still to go. One poor guy had the joy of being the first one to fall before we'd even got close to crossing the line to start. This was due to trying to pedal rather slowly and getting caught up next to the barriers. Still, at least he didn't need an ambulance. This was unfortunately the case for a couple of people out on the course, be it from clipping wheels, falling at a corner, and one or two who still managed to meet cars at intersections, despite the best efforts of the police and sheriffs who were directing bikes and cars throughout the day.

After the ride started (it's not officially a race, though there are prizes for the leaders of different categories), we had a reasonable pedal for about 16 km before the first river crossing of the day. The 111 mile ride has two of these where dismounting is required and carrying the bike through the thick sand is a wise move. Then it's back into hard pedaling again.
The upside of the ride is that it is quite scenic. Tucson is surrounded by mountain ranges in pretty much all directions, but the ride itself was reasonably flat, though there were some rolling hills throughout. But as a fan of the Saguaro cactus and the Mesquite trees, it was a good ride. Especially as the day was overcast and not too cool or warm. And the breeze was pretty reasonable until about 145 km in when we turned east and hit it. Then the next 25 km on some cracked roads was not good for the buttocks either.

The last few kilometers did involve smoother roads and when you know there isn't long left it makes it a lot easier to find that last burst of energy as well. So the pace picked up, the enthusiasm lifted, and the smiles returned. After crossing the line there was a recovery area, complete with beers, foods, massages and music which had a very festival atmosphere. People were happy relaxing, sharing stories, working away the previous hours of pain, and generally enjoying the achievement of finishing an (almost entirely) enjoyable days riding.