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"I was in the lead and had three guys behind me. It was at night in the country side; no moon, no street lights and thick forest on both sides of the road. I was coming down the hill and there was a bend in the road and I realised I was going too fast. The foot peg was scraping hard on the bitumen and the thought went through my head that the guys were going to have to look for me in the bush 'cause I was convinced that's where I would end up. Luckily I did not run out of bitumen but the adrenalin rush left me feeling very weak. I guess what I learned can be expressed simply as 'adjust your speed to the conditions', if you can't see where you are going - slow down." - Ann

Pink Ribbon Ride Reports

WIMA Qld raises funds annually to aid Breast Cancer research. Currently the Qld Cancer Fund benefits from the funds raised by our Pink Ribbon Ride.

Pink Ribbon Ride 2006

The Queensland WIMA 2006Pink Ribbon Ride for breast cancer research was held on Sunday 29 October. This charity ride is an annual event run by WIMA Qld with all our proceeds going to The Queensland Cancer Fund. Please leave your feedback on this form to let us know your thoughts about this year's PRR, and any ideas for next year's PRR.

STATE REP'S REPORT ON PRR2006 - Leanne Gorman
Well, what a day it was! Members, new and old came out of the woodwork on the day to help make it happen (thank goodness). Over 1,000 registrations were taken, and the final donation to Queensland Cancer Fund will be in the vicinity of $8,500 after expenses. Many calls and emails have been received relaying positive feedback and congratulations - "well organised" is the common theme. Griffith Uni Mt Gravatt Campus was a much better launch-pad and the Griffith Uni Lions Club�s sausage sizzle and guest coffee vans were fairly well patronized, which added to the final total donation. Many riders went to the Nathan campus (last year�s venue) and were grateful to be directed back by Ann Stewart and the security staff there.

Kat Salotti did a brilliant job of leading the convoy and designating the corner-markers� positions. Karen Henderson was absolutely awesome in her role as primary organiser and Mistress of Ceremonies both at Griffith, where she rose to the occasion (literally, in the fire-truck's cherry-picker) and at the Bearded Dragon where she spoke of her experiences as a (very young) survivor of breast cancer and then took us through the process of drawing the many generous raffle prizes.

For those members who attended and contributed, you are real gems � Jen O, Kathryn C, Anne C, Sandy D, Ann S, Marg H, Tash E (newsletter ed/photographer), Kerrie O, Karen S, Carol, Nerida, and Zinnie. If I�ve not mentioned you here, please forgive my memory. As hard as it was to bring everything together, the rewards were plenty on the day, and you can all feel very satisfied with a job well done.

For those who weren't able to make it, we did you proud. WIMA has earned the respect of the motorcycling community and of our commercial partners this year. At the Bearded Dragon, the legendary prizes were very well received - even by the big hairy bloke who won the Vers Boutique voucher for fashion accessories; and the bemused fella who was lucky enough to win the furry purple seat covers donated by Aussie Auto Alderley. The only tix sold were those in the packs given out at registration with the patch and ribbon, but many people were asking to buy more raffle tix at the Dragon, so next year we won't be so worried about being short-handed, and we'll definitely collect much more money from the raffles.

I made a short speech to close, firstly giving acknowledgment to Kerrie Smith for the virtually single-handed work she did in 2005 which directly resulted in the great exposure this event now enjoys. Thanks were given to all our sponsors, supporters and partners, as well as being given links on our website sometime soon. We were all very pleased with the result and have many ideas about future improvements.

Leanne Gorman

State Rep for WIMA QLD 2006

PINK RIBBON RIDE 2006 - Report by Kath Salotti (Ride Leader)

Another Pink Ribbon Ride has been run, and from my official position as ride-leader I'll begin this report with the most important thing. I want to say THANK YOU to all the BrisHOG members and associates who joined us! (And more about you lot later.)

If you don't know about the annual Pink Ribbon Ride, (maybe you're a new member, or been hiding under a rock), here's a little info. The '06 ride was the 5th one, and again it was HUGE with over 1000 bikes registered. It's a charity ride organised by WIMA (Women's International Motorcycle Association), and all proceeds go to breast cancer research. Morgan & Wacker has been a major sponsor of every PRR, and two M&W staff - Jen Oliver and myself - are on the organising committee.

It's a short, fun ride, with a noticeable and growing theme involving dressing-up in pink. This year, if you were under that rock, you were spared the sight of many men - including huge, tattooed, bearded ones - wearing pink skirts and pink wigs.

But it's all for a very worthwhile reason: from the ride this year WIMA raised around $8,500 for breast cancer research.

New this time was a different start venue, with much more room for the 1000+ bikes to form up, an easier and safer exit, and a safer route to the freeway south.

Carpark marshals were from Griffith Uni Lions Club (and yes, I did teach them how to belt unruly bikers), and these Lions also provided the breakfast sausages. Kemp Place firefighters again brought out the Big Red Truck so we had a PA system, and Chicks in Pink (a breast cancer support group and charity associated with Mater Hospital) brought loads of hot-hot-pink clothing to sell for additional charity funds. We also doubled the number of coffee vans�(very important that!)

BrisHOG loaned a bunch of delicately-fluorescent corner marker vests, thanks to John Taylor and Perry, and I again imposed our corner marking system onto the ride.

Now...all of this new start-point, marshals and corner markers routine was aimed at greater safety for such a big ride. So, I'm delighted to report that WIMA�s efforts brought this emailed comment from our esteemed Nifty: �I'd like to highlight the very orderly ride that occurred this year. The new carpark was a great start and the marshalling was excellent, resulting in a calm orderly departure. I did not see a single instance of the silly aggressive overtaking and jockeying for positions that marked last year�s ride. Kath and the girls deserve top marks.�

Thank you Nifty, I'm grateful for that.

BrisHOG members Tony and Sandy Jansen donated a great raffle prize�a large and comprehensive basket of goodies from their business, The Coffee Club at Browns Plains. The end-of-ride raffles are enormous and getting enormous-er each ride, with big big mobs of prizes given away.

Every year Morgan & Wacker donates two Harley-Davidson jackets as major raffle prizes, and this year Mark Wacker and Phil Heath added a new prize from M&W too...a trophy and gift voucher to be presented to the motorcycle club with the largest number of participants on the day. And the winning club was...Brisbane HOG! Over 60 of us were on the PRR, we have a new shocking-pink trophy, and the club can now raffle the M&W voucher to raise funds for ourselves. Again, my thanks to all who joined in.

Plus�one special thank you. At the end, Zinny (BrisHOG and WIMA member) and I were on the last intersection, just before the finish at the Bearded Dragon, for a long, long time shepherding the ride through safely. Carl, another BrisHOGgie, without being asked, rode out of his way and spent his own cash to bring us much needed bottles of water. Thanks mate, you're the gear.

Overall, what a rush! While it didn�t get any easier leading such a huge ride the second time around, it's also true that the thrill didn�t lessen either. And I'm still tickled pink (heh heh) that it�s a Buell�a Milwaukee V-Twin�thundering along at the front. I�ll keep you advised during 2007 about the next Pink Ribbon Ride.

Kath Salotti - PRR Ride Leader

Pink Ribbon Ride 2005 Report

October 30 2005, some 1,200 plus people joined with us in making the ride leaving Griffith University and traveling down the M1 heading for the final destination of The Bearded Dragon at Tamborine.

In total for the 3 Breast Cancer Charities involved, we raised over $9,000.

I do not know a single person who has not been affected by cancer at some point in their life, be it themselves, a family member or friend. Being women, we feel very strongly for this cause and can’t begin to tell you how much your generosity and support means to our ride. We have had many, many comments about the fantastic prizes given away at the event and on how many wonderful sponsors we have for the event, without whom we know we’d get a much lesser turn up!

We will be in touch in 2006 with the details of the 2006 Pink Ribbon Ride.

We look forward to your continued generosity in supporting this fantastic cause.

It was a great day and we look forward to seeing you on future WIMA events. For photos from the day, please go to our WIMA Ride Day Pics page.

Kind Regards,

Kerrie Smith, Pink Ribbon Ride Co-Ordinator 2005, QLD

2007

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2005

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Pink Ribbon Ride 2006