Many people have asked what would possess a city girl like me to take a road trip to the small, dusty towns of northern New South Wales, swapping martinis, make-up and designer gear for beer, myriad squashed bugs and second-hand bike gear. It's not an easy question to answer.
Let me start with this: I have been a reporter and journalist my entire career because I have a deep and overarching interest in people. I believe everyone has a story and when you dig a little under your first impression of people, there's usually a very interesting alter ego.
Each week I try to provide the news, vital professional information, and a little bit extra for our readers. This week I'm featuring the Corners 4 Kids (C4K) ride as a little bit extra. So I thought I needed to embed myself in the ride to learn what it is that makes these industry professionals swapping suits for leathers tick. And in the process I found out they were really onto a good thing.
In early March, 37 people. 32 motorbikes and 2 support cars embarked on the ninth annual C4K ride from Sydney through northern NSW to Byron Bay. In four days we covered around 2000km, about 3000 corners and raised more than $40,000 for kids.
The charity benefiting from the ride is the Inspire Foundation, which focuses on young people at risk of suicide through its ReachOut program (www.reachout.com.au). The foundation has been the Investment and Financial Services Association's (IFSA) charity of choice since 2001. The Australian program has been so successful it is currently being exported to Ireland and the United States.
"It's donations like the Corners for Kids support that make all the difference and enable us to provide the much-needed support for young people going through tough times," Inspire donor relations manager Sophie Gemmell says.
"It costs Inspire less than $1 to enable one young person to seek help through the Reach Out website - therefore if Corners for Kids have raised $40,000 they have helped 40,000 young people around Australia to get the help and care that they need."
The journey opened my eyes to many things, not least of which was the thrill to be on a bike with 1300cc of power, taking corners at good speeds and being able to be closer to the environment than most other forms of transport.
From the riders there was a feeling of being able to let go of daily issues and focus on the road and the riding. It was good to see the high-powered business executives trade the confinement of suits and ties for denim or leathers and with it shed their day-to-day concerns. For me, riding pillion, the attraction was being able to take my eye off the road, and the road ahead generally. It was awesomely freeing.
I've not seen a lot of country towns, and the first real stop was Armidale. It was a place, like I'm sure many rural areas are, in need of a helping hand, especially for the young. Kris Gesling, the Inspire volunteer who accompanied us, spent time trying to raise a few dollars in the pub.
After being threatened with a "mugging", he sat down to talk to a few guys and ended up with a couple of extra dollars. But it wasn't about the money, it was about sharing experiences and being able to reach out and communicate effectively with people from different backgrounds to reach understanding.
In a small way, this expressed to me what the whole journey was about. Yes, it's about a group of blokes (mainly) who like to ride big powerful bikes.
They like to get away from things on a road trip. But they're unselfishly giving themselves a charitable goal where each must raise a minimum of $500 and most raise considerably more to help those much less fortunate than themselves.
And it's not chequebook charity - although that does have its place. This group took Gesling along for the ride to speak to the group at dinners and breaks, to collect more along the way and to get a better understanding of the charity and for Gesling to understand a little more about what the group was about.
On the C4K ride next year, the group hopes its total funds raised will top $500,000. This year's took it to around $420,000.
The common thread pulling the group together was that many were long-time bike riders who had ridden dirt bikes and trail bikes in their youth and gravitated towards their current fine specimens of German, Italian, English and Japanese bikes.
A second binding them was that many had forgone their bikes in the early days of marriage and child rearing only to be allowed back on their bikes when the kids had finished school. It wasn't the common thread for all, but for many.
For others it had become a shared passion between couples. APIR principal Andy Hutchings Broso met his wife as a consequence of his first C4K riding experience.
In 2000 Broso was riding a 1970 Triumph Café Racer, which sees the rider hunched over the bike. He was such a physical mess after the ride that when he returned to Canberra he sought a massage from his now wife Gina. Andy and the new Mrs Hutchings Broso now have matching black Yamaha RI bikes.
Financial planner Ray Griffin rode with his wife pillion for several years before she eventually decided she wanted to be up front and bought her own bike. She now rides a Red Honda Hornet 900cc.
Former Skandia head of strategy for product and innovation Charles Magro brought his partner, Dale, as pillion this year. It was a very different experience for him, he said. Denise and Steve Northey are motorcycle riding instructors based on the NSW central coast.
Tony and Barbara Harris are first timers to C4K and Tony's financial investment practice is based in Crows Nest, Sydney. Each rode a large Triumph with Tony's Rocket one of the largest motorcycles in production. It has a 2300cc engine. Barbara's Triumph Bonneville is a mere 865cc.
This year James Proctor (ipac) and Bill Stanhope (NSW Treasury) undertook the route planning with Proctor doing the reconnaissance ride over almost 2000km.
The route planning entails finding the best roads, with the most corners, checking terrain and making detailed rider notes for the others. Clearly marked were petrol stations, turn-offs and the road quality.
Road signs warned of roaming cows, deer and kangaroos. Proctor and Stanhope have done the reconnaissance for the past few rides. Proctor's dual role is group photographer. He rides ahead of the group in several spots, alights from his bike and sets up his camera to capture the riders round the bends.
Heading the organisation of next year's 10th anniversary ride is Matthew Morris, Axa NSW manager for adviser services.
Last year's IFA coverage of C4K spawned a Melbourne-based group that has undertaken informal rides around Victoria, and has raised $2000 for Reach Out. The group, headed by Asgard senior business superannuation consultant Klaus Kletzmayr, is joining next year's run to Tasmania.
Rules of the trip included what happens on the rally stays on the rally (this was especially tough for me as a journalist) and no work talk (this was considerably easier). Fines were incurred and paid to Inspire for shoptalk and assorted other misdemeanours (which will remain on the rally).
Centric Wealth's Robert Keavney (Aprilla Tuono Factory) did the ride with son David (Suzuki GSXR750), who is also at Centric. David rides daily to work, however, he said he doesn't often get to ride with his father. This is the fourth C4K ride for the two together, although Robert has done an additional two.
Other financial planners on tour included Paul Hoschke, who is currently on gardening leave after selling his Bridges business last year, Griffin, whose practice is in Tamworth, Dacian Moses, who has a financial planning practice in Coffs Harbour, Richard Capel from the Sydney CBD, Andrew Harrison from St George in Sydney, and Tony Harris, also from Sydney.
Based in financial services education are Proctor and John Prowse, now at Pinnacle Financial Services Academy.
Fund managers on tour included Brian Thomas, Perennial, Magro, and Drew Wilson, Atom Financial.
Overnighting in Kariong, the trip started down the Pacific Highway. Roads varied from busy highways to smaller roads punctuated with corners covering lush vegetation with cool country air.
On a bike you smell the environment up close. You smell rain before it starts, animals, trees and you feel the climate, not on your face, which is protected by a full face helmet - a necessary protection from kamikaze bugs - but on your legs and body.
Across the mountainous terrain the weather changed from hot to cold, wind to rain. The terrain also changed from bush and plains to lush rainforest. Stops along the way included Heatherbrae, Gloucester, Walcha, Armidale, Dorrigo, Casino, Byron Bay, South Grafton, Glen Innes and Uralla.
The bikes didn't seem to impress the locals as much as the cause. That was well received.
The journey encompassed an Indian buffet a the Kariong motel, beers in the car park of the Armidale Country Comfort, a barbecue at the back of the Byron Bay resort and late night drinks on plastic chairs outside the rooms at one of Uralla's two strip motels.
It gave insight to a great number of interesting people who offer so much more than financial advice. Many of the riders see each other only during the ride each year, yet the camaraderie they share is clear. In the past, when they were choosing which bikes to upgrade to, there was a lot of trialling of each other's machines. It's not done so much now that each has found their perfect bike.
However, this year when one rider's bike had a flat tyre, which could not be repaired until the end of the ride, several other riders offered him their bikes while they took his place in the support car.
For me as a pillion, there was a generosity in offering to give me a ride - and riders brought spare clothes for anyone who wanted a ride.
Safety was present in protective clothing, which included boots, gloves, jackets and pants. When any biker pulled over, others would slow to make sure all was okay.
There was a natural hierarchy of the fastest and most experienced riders who would claim front positions, then a middle pack who rode together and not far behind the easy riders who chose to ride their own race at the back of the pack.
Most riders knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and when I told others of my chosen rider all expressed assent that I had chosen well. I wondered what possible answers could have provided disapproving reactions. I never did find out.
For a mere four days it was a different life. An escape from reality. And finally, I could see why this group looks forward to each year's C4K adventure.
During my rides, playing in my head was a Queen song:
Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world it's turning inside out Yeah!
I'm floating around in ecstasy
So don't stop me now don't stop me
'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time.
