Muster 2016

October 29th / 30thAnniversary winners https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-18a.jpg The two Anniversary winners together side by side and both are from Mexico, sorry Victoria. Special Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-27.jpg Brett Johnson has been coming to the Muster for years and wanted 1 of these 500’s for himself. He finally got 1 and with a little TLC, came up with this gem and with it, took out the best “Special Award” and was also the winner of the “Peoples Choice Award”. This is the only category that you can win a 2nd trophy for with the same bike. Best 1978 TT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-29.jpg John Gersch was the winner of the “Best 1978 TT 500” award as well as the winner for the “Best 1980 TT 500”. That’s back to back for John. Best 1977 TT 500D https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-28.jpg Kym Miller was the recipient for the “Best 1977 TT 500D”. Kym had a good year this year. Feral Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-26.jpg David Hutcheson was the lucky person this year to receive the “Feral Award” for his 1978 TT 500E. It’s a diamond in the rough. Best HL https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-23.jpg This year saw Paul Meginley travel all the way down from sunny Qld to participate and take home the trophy for “Best HL” on the day. Well done and what a great effort. Long Road Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-25.jpg Michael Horner rode his bike from Sale in Victoria to here in stages. For his efforts, he won the “Long Road Award”. On the morning of the Show’n’Display, He rode up from Adelaide and then rode back, big effort indeed. Best Sidecar Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-24.jpg This year, the “best Sidecar Award” goes to Bradley Hunter who dug this out of Craig Saegenschnitter’s shed and got it ready for this year’s Muster. Best 40th Anniversary TT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-19.jpg Warren Simpson won this trophy for his TT 500C As the “Best 40th Anniversary TT 500” Best Original TT https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-21.jpg Warren Simpson took out the “Best Original TT” again with his 1978 TT 500E . I’m sure there is someone out there who may be able to beat this one. It will be hard though! Best XT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-20.jpg Kym Miller was the man to win this category again but with his very clean and tidy XT 500E for the “Best XT 500”. I wonder if he has a XT 500F for next year’s Muster. Best 1979 TT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-30.jpg Kym Lehmann won the “Best 1979 TT 500” and the “Best 1981 TT 500” award. Best 1980 TT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-31.jpg John Gersch was the winner of the “Best 1978 TT 500” award as well as the winner for the “Best 1980 TT 500”. That’s back to back for John. Best TT500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-17a.jpg Kym Lehmann was the lucky winner with his TT 500E to receive the trophy for the “Best TT500” Best 40th Anniversary XT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-18.jpg Peter Taylor was the lucky person to win the “Best 40th Anniversary XT 500” trophy. Committee Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-40.jpg With Halloween being the next night, Brian “Spanner” Spencer decided to dress up the 500 accordingly. With this he got the 3rd committee award for his efforts. Committee Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-41.jpg The last “Committee Award” went to Chris Green for his beautifully presented Motard. He was all ready to go when I caught him for the photo. Foundation 97Award https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-43.jpg Steve Glynn got the Foundation 97 award for being the person who travelled the longest distance to be here. He brought down from Queensland with him 2 beautiful 500s. A TT 500E and a XT 500C for which he got the award. Best 1979 XT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-35.jpg Nigel Pickering won the “Best 1979 XT 500” award. Best 1980 XT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-36.jpg Dave Hutcheson won the award for “Best 1980 XT 500”. Best 1978 XT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-34.jpg Graeme Climas was the winner of the award for “Best 1978 XT 500”. Best 1981 TT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-32.jpg Kym Lehmann won the “Best 1979 TT 500” and the “Best 1981 TT 500” award. Best 1977 XT 500 https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-33.jpg Shane Kraft took out the Award for the “Best 1977 XT 500”. I’m sure there are a few more out there that will be at next year’s event. 40 years for this model. Best Original XT https://ttxt500muster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/Winners/Photo-22.jpg Another fine example of the type of bikes that Warren Simpson has in his collection He won “Best Original XT” with his XT 500C. Previous Image Next Image info heading info content

DAY 1

The Road Ride

This year saw 19 riders take part in the road ride through the hills of the Barossa and Adelaide hills. After a short riders briefing on how the day was going to run, we left just after 10am with Paul from Qld having problems due to leaving his keys at home. That being back in Qld, so he followed us in his Ute for a short while.

We travelled through Tanunda and out through the picturesque Seppeltsfield before taking a stop at the Greenock oval. This is where we discussed on this being an alternate venue to the Bethany Reserve. This is also where Paul followed 1 of our committee riders, John, back to his place to get a loan of 1 of his bikes, they join up with us as we past through Nuriootpa. From here it was off to Angaston and Keyneton and then on through Eden Valley with us then stopping at the Herbig tree in Springton. We stopped here in 2006 and it was nice to stop here again.

Then it was off to Gumeracha for lunch at the big rocking horse, but first a quick stop in Birdwood to top up the tanks.

Here is everyone enjoying their meal at the Big Rocking Horse. It was 2008 when we were last here.

After lunch it was time for the return trip but using roads that we haven’t used for a while. It was off through Gumeracha with a left off towards Lobethal and then to Cuddly Creek. This is where the corner man system really came into play and worked well. We headed back towards Williamstown but not before going over Checker Hill Rd which quite regularly gets used by the Tour Down Under, then on to Williamstown and then for a quick stop at the Whispering Wall, (Barossa Reservoir).

After the boys finished their ice creams, it was time to get back to Bethany going via Cockatoo Valley and Lyndoch. We arrived back at the Bethany Reserve at around 4pm and had travelled close on 180kms. That seemed to be enough for these people that only do short rides a couple time a year.

Saturday Night Dinner

Saturday night saw us go back to the popular Tanunda Club House for our dinner get together. This year we were put out along the picturesque back wall due to having more then 36 coming along for the meal. It was a great night with great food and great friends catching up on small talk and about the days ride. Some of the attendees decided on having deserts which then encouraged others to do the same. Everyone must have enjoyed them as there were no complaints. Everyone left by about 10.30pm so it was an early night to get ready for Sunday’s “Show’n’Display” day.

Day 2 Sunday

On Sunday, we saw 82 bikes turn up for the show’n’display day with 21 new bikes on the registrations being taken at the sign in.

After a beautiful warm spring day on Saturday the weather turned and it was a lot cooler with a few showers later in the day. It was great to see the 82 bikes that turned up to help celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the TT and XT500s this year.

We decided to set up a little differently this year knowing that there should be a lot more “C” models there for the celebrations. We lined them all up in 2 rows with the TTs be the dominant number so they had front row. It still looked very impressive with the 82 bikes there on display but we do believe that the weather change kept some of the locals away.

The day got underway from 10.30 with nearly all the bikes here on display and at 11.30am the first of 2 Moto Trial displays got underway. After the 1^st demonstration, the judging got underway just before the 1^st of the showers arrived. At 1.30 the 2^nd demo took place over some wet and slippery obstacles which made it very interesting viewing. Then at the completion of the demo, the silent auction was closed and at 2pm the awards were given out.

Here we have Sofie Kraft wearing her Australian colours showing us some of her skills that are required to be able to compete on the world stage. Sofie competed in the 3 world rounds for women as well as represented Australia in the Trials Des Nations which was held in Italy.	Here Hayden Ahrens is showing us his skills over the barrels. These photos were taken just after it had rained so the barrels were quite slippery and he did have a spill a little later on
Our monster raffle went off very well and was extremely well supported with more than 80 prizes to pick from. This is the major part of our fund raiser to help pay for the trophies and venue hire.	There were 7 items up for grabs again this year in the silent auction. This too also helps our funds and was well supported.

This bike was built by WF Racing earlier this year for Shane Kraft to ride in the 2016 “Swann Insurance 24 Hour” which he did. This year was a very tough ride when rain settled in round 9.30pm and continued throughout the night, right up to the finish. Shanes finish time was 11:36am Sunday morning, 24 hours after he started. The bike didn’t quite look like this at the end but it did clean up again very nicely. After having a few minor problems through the night, Shane finished 30th outright and won his class.

Once again Kym Lehmann out did himself with another magnificent batch of trophies for this year.

The committee would like to thank all out sponsors that help us out and to all the people that attend this event. Without you it wouldn’t happen and it wouldn’t be the same. We have made so many friends through the running of this event and make even more new 1’s each time we run it. This gives us so much pleasure and satisfaction that we just keep on going and 1 day we will reach that magical 100 bikes at The Muster.

In 2017, the TT/XT 500 Muster will be staying in the Barossa Valley at the Bethany Reserve as we have picked up a sponsor to remain at the favourite location. We can say that it will be again held on the last weekend in October on the 28^th and 29^th.We would love to see as many 500 enthusiasts here as possible (with your bikes) and join in the festivities of the Yamaha TT XT 500 Muster 2017. So please let your friends and other 500 enthusiasts know of this event or even put them on to this web site to see for them what a great weekend it is.

Once again the Muster team would like to thank Rob Francis for many of the additional photos used and a thankyou to Chris Caust for looking after and setting up the new web site for us.