In March, 36 keen motorcyclists from the finance and business sector gathered at Mittagong, in the New South Wales southern highlands, ready to ride over 1800km and 3000 corners in four days for charity. Once a year, these avid bikers swap their suits for leathers and clear their diaries for the ride. Months of planning are involved in the Corners for Kids (C4K) ride; preparations begin in October with final route selection in December, a reconnaissance ride in January and then the riders are selected by February.
The roots of C4K can be traced back to Brian Thomas and Ray Griffin having a drink after presenting at a conference in Hobart. They found they both rode bikes and the idea took off from that point. Former Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) chief executive Lynn Ralph was in the founding trio with Griffin and Thomas. The initial rally had 13 riders. This year - the eighth C4K - the number tripled. "The first year we rode from Byron Bay. It was several days of corners, zigzagging over the Great Dividing Range to Sydney, Glen Innes and Tenterfield. I for one never thought we'd still be going eight years later," Thomas said.
Next year, the C4K ride will revisit its starting point, zigzagging from Sydney to Byron Bay. For its tenth anniversary, a big ride is planned to Tasmania, which will be longer and include an overnight ferry trip both ways.This year, C4K raised more than $65,000 with more cash trickling in. Donations can be made at www.inspire.org.au. Before the ride commenced, $30,000 had already been raised for the Inspire Foundation. Each rider had to pledge a minimum donation of $500. The rally riders also hand out nightly fines, which also go to the Inspire Foundation. The fines are for various things including getting lost, losing your keys or taking a wrong turn. All up, C4K has raised close to $260,000 for the foundation.
A wide variety of bikes was on show this year, including Aprilias, Ducatis, Harley-Davidsons, Hondas, Yamahas and a Triumph. A briefing before each day's ride focuses on safety and no more than two hours passes before an organised coffee break. The riders probably spend, on average, five hours riding a day spread over seven or eight hours. Ambulance officer Shane Paul volunteers to ride last each day so if anything goes wrong, riders can stay where they are and he will be along five or ten minutes later. An aid car follows at the back of the pack. Easy riders
Brian Thomas - Perennial Investments head of retail fund management
Thomas has been in love with motorbikes since he was a little kid. "It's always been a passion of mine. It's the freedom of it," he says. "It's a nice feeling leaning into a corner and there's the challenge of getting things right: weight transfer, gears, cornering all at once with the machine. It's a Zen thing and it's a lot more fun than superannuation and investment. "The rebellion side appealed as a young kid." Thomas focused mainly on British motorcycles.
"In 1975 I remember going up to the showroom of a motorcycle shop in Parramatta and seeing the Triumph Trident. I ended up buying one 25 years later," he says. "I still have it. It reminds me of being a young kid and having something I thought I could never afford." He got his bike licence at 17 and had a Suzuki 185cc. He now has a Triumph Trident 75, Triumph 1981 Bonneville, Yamaha 350cc trail bike and Honda VTR 1000, which he says is Honda's version of a Ducati.
"I wanted to start a collection of old Triumphs and then I got very busy with work. It's a hobby I'll probably develop as I retire. You need to spend a lot of time," he says. He took the Honda on this ride and says the old Triumph and trail bikes are not used so often. "They're actually a good investment because they're rare and they don't depreciate," he says.
Ray Griffin - Griffin Financial Services financial planner
Griffin has been leader of the pack since the ride started seven years ago. His wife, Leanne Morton, has been along for seven of the eight rides - four as a pillion passenger and the past few on her own Honda 900 Hornet. "She's about 5 foot 4 inches. When we looked for a motorbike, the first thing I looked for was seat height and when she decided to get a bigger bike we found that model to be perfect," Griffin says. Griffin and Morton were one of five couples on the ride. Griffin was on his sports tourer Yamaha FJR 1300, which he has ridden for the past five years. Prior to that he was on a BMW. "This one is a bit more responsive, there's more horsepower," he says. "I just love being on a motorcycle. I find it hard to find sufficient words to describe it."
Growing up in a family that sold bikes and cycles, for Griffin to be on two wheels was to feel at home. He then progressed to racing dirt bikes. "I was a serious racing cyclist on the east coast after leaving school," he says. It was then several years before he rode a bike. "A client that had a bike and was going into surgery asked me to run it once a month while he was recuperating. Then when I went round he said he'd decided to sell it," Griffin says. He decided to buy it and five years later traded it in for his current bike.
Robert Swinton - Wesfarmers communications and PR manager
Swinton, an organiser for this year's C4K, has been riding since his late 20s, almost 15 years, and his bike is an Aprilia Tuono 1000cc sports bike. "It's about the fourth bike I've owned. I like it because it's fun," Swinton says. "I buy with my heart, what feels good. To me it's all about your personality. I read a magazine article just after it was released and it had a great write up. I was intending to buy a different bike and I rode this one and knew it was the bike for me." Italian bikes are expensive. A Ducati is leading the Grand Prix at the moment with an Australian rider. "A lot of people when they think of bikes think of Harley, but there's a whole range," Swinton says.
Swinton rode a Suzuki RF 900 on the first four years of the C4K, but this is the third year the Aprilia has been on the run. The highlight for Swinton is the friendships made on the ride. "It's a win win win situation - networking with industry, doing something good for charity and we go away and have a great time," he says. "It's a challenge in most careers to get a couple of days [off] for both those with young families and reorganising schedules. A lot of us will fit our schedules around it." Swinton missed the first year, but has been on the organising committee for seven years. Andrew Harrison - St George Bank financial planner
Harrison has been riding on and off all his life, but for the past 10 years has gone back to riding more seriously. "It's rebuying our youth," he says. His first bike was a Honda 50 at age 12. "For most of my teenage years I rode dirt bikes. I didn't do riding until later. Living in the city, I used it for transport," he says. He now rides a Ducati. "I love Ducati, it's good with corners like a racing bike. It's a pure sports bike designed for corners. It handles very well," he says.
"When I came back to riding I bought a Yamaha, as it may have been a whim and I didn't want to spend $20K on something I'd get sick of. "I bought the Ducati [900 Supersport] eight years ago and I love it. It's like part of the family." And it's a long way from the Honda 50, he says. He first went on the C4K in its second year. "The feeling of a good set of corners really lifts the feelings - it's a great sensation," he says. "It gives a great sense of achievement, an adrenaline rush," he says.
Robert Keavney - Centric Wealth principal
Keavney got his first bike when he was at university in 1972. It was a Kawasaki dirt bike. Then, like many people, when he was ready to buy his first house all the luxuries went. "In those days I used to ride mainly old English and Italian two-cylinder motorcycles with lots of character and dripping oil," he says. He says he got back onto a bike in the early 1990s and currently rides an Aprilia 1000, one of the sportiest bikes on the ride. This is the fourth time he has ridden in C4K. "People my age who ride sports bikes aren't grown up. They haven't faced the realities of aging bodies," he says. "At the end of the long day of riding, my body is feeling the unnatural position so I'm thinking of having two motorcycles for that purpose."
The most common bike by far on the ride is a BMW, because most riders are middle aged, he says. "Twenty years ago the same group would probably have been on sports bikes," he says. "The BMW is more upright and excellent for long days in the saddle." Keavney's son, David, also rides in the C4K. "So he and I get to spend four days away," he says. He rides a Ducati Monster 620. That's what's called a 'naked' bike. "He commutes and that bike is excellent for getting through the traffic in the suburbs," Keavney says.
Charles Magro - Body maintenance
This is Magro's eighth year riding with C4K. He has been riding mainly Hondas but last year for his birthday he treated himself to a Yamaha FJR sports cruiser. "I love it," he says. Starting on dirt bikes, his first bike was a Honda trail bike registered for the road, which he rode around the Foster-Tuncurry area. "I used to ride Vespas in Italy, which is where I got the taste for riding . without a licence and without a helmet," he says. Prior to the Yamaha, Magro rode a Honda Blackbird, which was more of a sporty bike. "I really believe in this. When I was a director of Skandia, and we were working hard towards starting the company, you didn't have the opportunity to put something back into the community. This is a good feeling to put something back," he says.
"We hear from Inspire that we do save lives by putting in money. $60,000 is not to be sneezed at." Magro is now relaxing, working on his suntan and body. "The suntan's looking good, the body's taking longer," he says. He stands out on the ride in his blue camouflage gear. The suit is made of fabric with Kevlar, which is the bulletproof material for police uniforms. One of the good parts of the ride is swapping bikes and you get a really good feel of them, Magro says.
John Prowse - Financial Shoebox director
Prowse rode a bike for many years in his younger days but only came back to it five years ago. In the old days he rode a Yamaha 650 trail bike, then a Honda 250 road bike then a couple of others before leaving Australia. Then in 2000, he got his licence again with a Kawasaki 250cc. "One of the things coming back was getting on top of all the jargon," he says. He then upgraded to a Honda VFR, which is a sports tourer. He has since swapped the bike for a Triumph Spirit ST. "It's absolutely the last of British engineering," he says. "When I get on a pure sports bike, mine feels like a truck, but I remind myself that if I was on them for three days I'd never walk again. There's no better compromise than mine."
For Prowse, the biggest attraction of riding is the excitement. "You're close to the ground and there's nothing in front of you. In a car, you're in a cocoon. When you have a bit of speed it's an exciting opportunity but then there is the aspect of going through the scenery. People do talk about 'did you see the sun on the river?' You really see what's going on around you. The communal aspect is good too," he says. This is only Prowse's second trip but he says it will become a permanent fixture for him. "Apart from anything else it's the research on the route that you can't replicate," he says
