IIRA and Club plate new permit changes

 

A new change in policy of red plate permit vehicles in your Association have been reviewed, being we are now under certain conditions letting either cars/Vans/Ute’s on our register. So the certain conditions  are :

1 You must have a red plate motorcycle already with our Association

2 You must have a current RWC for the vehicle at the time of presentation for your application

3 You must have been a continuous member for at least the last 5 years

4 You are only allowed ONE vehicle only, either a car/ute or van on this scheme 

 

2023 Christmas Party

All details on calendar 3rd December RSVP we need this for catering,  BBQ lunch and soft drinks provide by the association FOC. A short ride to the event or meet us at the venue

New Members

This year with our change to the constitution introducing B.E.A to 1976 has started to see a growth in new members averaging one a month so far unsurprisingly most are Triumph owners but also BSA and Norton as well. It’s kind of history repeating itself as the original importers of Indian Milledge Bros in the twenties started the Indian-Triumph club so a full circle there, it seems that both brands share a strong bunch of enthusiastic owners so thats good. Some things will alter such as the Smoke Signals magazine will not be solely based on only Indian subjects, Martyn Goodwyn your editor has already agreed to reproduce some of the articles he produced in international OVR magazine he edited for many years as one of the most professional e-mags around so that will help in keeping interesting subjects in the magazine. The picture above is a Harley Knuckle engine in a Triumph Trophy frame, weird.

Same as us, and Crazy Horse fun

Yes the Classic Club of Vic has the same rider etiquette as us so we are not unique please acknowledge these at all rides or rallies that you attend. Speaking of which, the last weekend’s Rally seemed to be a resounding success, but for your webmaster pictured in Wangaratta Hospital at the half way point to the rally I was struck down with severe cramps and vomiting caused by Kidney stones, the first time and the worse pain ever, after 6 hours they released me and my son drove me home, so no rally for me, but Mark Barthelmie tells me the weather was great and the ride organised by Gary Hogg was fantastic I’m looking forward to it already.

Indian Pony

I’ve never seen one of these but one has turned up in Australia it looks like a Honda Z50 and I can only suppose it was a dearer product hence its rarity. The Crazy Horse Rally is on this weekend at Corryong and its been our only Association rally this year so man I’m looking forward to it.

ONLY 2 WEEKS TO GO

Two Weeks to go to the Crazy Horse Rally in Corryong , and am I looking forward to this the best part of Victoria to explore with a local Gary Hogg leading the ride on roads he has ridden for over 50 years, to top it off the weather forecast looks superb. This will be our only rally this year and considering we used to run four a year there has almost been a drought! You can still book at the Mountain View Motel right now  02060761766 the Association will be putting on a free BBQ on the Friday night so thats some of your subs back this year already please mention the Iron Indian riders so you can get a room close to your fellow members

The good old days

CHAOS ON SYDNEY ROAD

Cottman’s Triumph & Indian dealers

When I was working at Frank Mussett & Co Triumph Importers in the early seventies I noticed the older parts books were stamped Cottmans & Co and I knew they were Triumph dealers up to about 1959/60 till Frank bought them out and got the agency for Triumph & Velocette. What I never realised was they sold Indian’s post war, as Milledge Bros had done pre war these recently unearthed photos show in 1948 they proudly sold the brand with Velocette and other makes, Indian were heavily taxed post war though and only small lots would have been sold before Indian closed in 1953.  I expect with the amount of Army surplus machines for under 5 pounds and mountains of cheap spares there would be little profit in American machinery, Triumph on the other hand were selling like hot cakes and Velocette with their victorious KTT racer setting a trend would have been a nice brand promoting MAC & MSS models as well.

Wow that’s confidence

B.E.A ?

B.E.A whats that mean to IIRA members, it is British, European & American up to 1976 recently you voted unanimously on the changes to our constitution to include these different brands. Indian basically did the same with Matchless, Brockhouse, Vincent, Royal Enfield and of course Clymer models had Indian-Velo, Indian-Norton, Indian-Triumph, and Indian-Ducati as well, only thing that never happened of course was the mythical Indian-Harley which Harley considered at one time buying the trademark thank God that never happened. As you can see by the period photos above they were looking at marketing a long before times like today where machines are rarely home content and most components come from countries far from America or UK for that matter, one thing I have noticed is that most members in our Association is they all usually have other brands as well in the garage. The next question is why the age and the nationality limit, thats real easy most massive development of motorcycle design happened between the eighties and the nineties and we did’nt want that or being overun with Evolution Harley’s and UJMC (Universal Japanese Motorcycles) the Vintage Japanese motorcycle Club is excellent for these machines, and the HOG Group works well for post shovel head owners. Of course we are founded as a Indian Club and we encourage those of absolutely any era that has’nt changed nor the fact that a club run you can bring whatever, what does change is some club events that are run will be for eligible machines like the 2024 Gypsy Tour of Tassie, there will be others in the future but we are a B.E.A club and hope to cater for those members as well.