Tiddlers Rally 2015

Why Tiddlers? Why Windeyer?

Dave was travelling through Windeyer on his Tenere when he stopped for lunch at Windeyer pub. After some chit chat to locals he found out that the local school had closed and they were trying to get it reopened. Dave went to a one teacher school as a boy, and so the matter struck a chord with him.

Soon thereafter, Dave took his TTR to the Flinders – and doing the 5,000km trip on a tiddler was a blast and he realised that he can’t be the only one who enjoys riding small capacity bikes.

And so the ‘Tiddlers Rally’ was born.

When picking a venue, Dave thought the Windeyer would be perfect for it; he also thought it could raise some money for the local community to help fight for their school. Unfortunately, soon after, and before the idea could come to fruition, The Department of Education made the decision final and stripped out the school, meaning it’ll be closed indefinitely. It was a shame, but at least the money raised was put towards new water tanks for the local hall instead.

Ride Small, Walk Tall

36 ridders, most of whom met on the ADV Forum came down to Windeyer. The longest distance rider was ‘Giffo’ who made his way all the from the Gold Coast on a Kawasaki KLX 250! There were also riders from Canberra, the South Coast, Sydney and the Hunter Valley.

People stayed in all sorts of accommodation: cabins, tents, swags, hammocks, and even good old basic fabric shelters.

Later at night, but not time to retire yet, it started to pour heavily. Well, thank goodness for the local Pub, the Gold and Fleece Hotel: a friendly, family-run business with a warm, country-welcome and good tucker to boot! Being that the ‘Tiddlers’ was on, they had even organised a local band to perform.

The Pudding

The important highlight of the evening was an auction for ‘The Pudding’ ­…

A piece of Australian motorcycling folklore, a ‘Big Sister’ brand ‘Self Saucing Chocolate Pudding’ has been pass around by Australia motorcyclists for about 40 years! The story of The Pudding goes back to 1976 when two motorcyclists from Western Australia and one from South Australia took The Pudding to several motorcycle gatherings but never got around to eating it. It became a bit of an ‘in joke’ and started to get passed around to other motorcyclists who were travelling across this great continent, just as a sort of tradition and really for a bit of a laugh.

The Pudding has long been beyond consumption, but in order for the tradition to carry on it has been moulded in an epoxy coating. And to elaborate on the tradition, for a great cause, The Pudding is auctioned off each time it exchanges hands, with all money going to the Royal Flying Doctors Service (RFDS).

At the Tiddlers 2015, The Pudding was auctioned off by Steven (who previously won it) and was won by local resident ‘Red’ from Mudgee. Red wasn’t a motorcyclist, but just wanted to donate to the RFDS (good stuff Red!), and as such entrusted me with The Pudding.

I planned to take The Pudding to Outfit Rally at Strathmerton the following weekend, but unfortunately I came down with a bad case of the flu and I had to pull out. Fortunately, fellow ADVer ‘JBTourer’ picked it up and so it’s now back on its merry way to the rally!

PS: Dave is planning to pick a new location for next year’s rally: another small community that could use the money towards something, and of course that ‘special something’ that only a bike rally can bring to town! 

In Numbers:

Total kms: 630km

Fuel Cost: $44