Christmas 2008: Sydney Toy Run

Great day!

Another good year of the toyrun. The ride went better than last year - now we knew where we were going - and was smoother all round. The raffle was a bit bluh (I won champagne glasses... which seemed to be about the best prize on offer), but the turnout was good, and by my rekoning the donations were too.

Sadly I will need to work harder to win the best-dressed bike award next year, but I'm still pleased with the result. If I had started a week earlier when I had meant to I might have been able to neaten it up and elaborate a bit, but as it was I finished at 7am that morning and didn't have a great deal more opportunity to go overboard!

From Toy Run 08

If it wasn't obvious, it's Rudolph, antlers, red (/pink) nose and all, and Yes, I did have a Santa suit to go with that hat. : )
If somebody sends me a photo they took of me (I think the bike works much better with the red) I'll post it here too.

Toyruns

Toyruns are a great affair, for those of you who don't already know. You rock up at a random shed in some backstreet, and if you're early like we were park the bikes and wonder "15-20 bikes, is that all?" But then, Sunday morning, what should we have expected!? You wander over for a coffee - cheap and cheerful -decide against buying the badge, but invest in as many raffle tickets as your wallet allows (it goes straight to the Salvos after all, and - usually... - the prizes are worth it!). You politely refuse a 'Viagra Lollypop' from a man known only as Animal, but are spurred on by his Christmassy enthusiasm.
All the club VIP's bikes are round the back, and while you don't have much fancy for Harleys (right...?), a big shiny two wheeled thing covered in tinsel and toys is well worth a squiz over a coffee or bacon and egg roll.

Some of it not so tinselly, but still so shiny it hurts!:

From Toy Run 08

The best thing about toyruns are the wonderful people you meet, and for this reason I suggest turning up alone or (because it's so much easier to find the place as a group!), just wandering around independently. Random people make conversation (this year I got the 'Where's the belly Santa Clause!?' introduction a million times), and there are always friendly bikers to let you know the details of the day.

By the time you wander back out onto the street because you forgot your camera, the crowd has grown to 50, and finally there's a bit of hot sportbikeage to keep your more base desires kindled. The morning's getting more exciting at this point, with groups of bikes of all sorts flowing in:

From Toy Run 08

Soon, while you've returned out back to the clubhouse, the call to leave is announced. You head back out onto the street - the attendance has swelled remarkably and the exciting bit is about to begin! Hundreds of bikes start up and fill the cul de sac, some of them taking the opportunity to leave extended reminders of their presence down the road (all the more impressive on a Harley!).
I've witnessed plenty of burnouts, but this was actually the first time I've seen it with a cruiser, and I can tell you it is as impressive as it seems improbable.

Then the riding!
There's something about riding in a massive group of riders that is special. Riding down the M4, four bikes wide, no end to the line of bikes in either direction: it's impressive. Something everyone should do at least once. Actually kept quite busy staying together navigating traffic and ignoring red lights... until the cars get in and you're forced to stay put: I am proud to say, however, I personally 'broke the seal' twice, and Yes it is something worth repeating!
While it can get a bit chaotic, new riders - or those just plain nervous - are well looked after, and a remarkably unintimidating experience. JUST DO IT.

Then you rock up at some park, somewhere (if you're lucky), and donate your stuff. It's great to be able to give to people that need it, and also great to get all the stuff you're carrying off your hands. The day lingers on after that - the raffle is started quite quickly, amid well-intentioned jeers of rigging and favouritism, the best-dressed competition announced eventually (Animal, again), and with a bit of luck you leave an hour or two later with a few neat prizes and only mild heatstoke (this year was actually quite mild, so no heatstroke necessary).

It's quite hard to get a good shot of the extent of the attendance, all the bikes being strewn throughout the park and parking lot, but these give some estimation of the atmosphere:

From Toy Run 08

From Toy Run 08

From Toy Run 08

At the End - It's Christmas

If you're still reading, you must be pretty keen!

At the end of the day the Toyrun is about giving shit away. Giving things to people who need them - to people you don't know, will never meet. It's a charity thing, in other words. But it's not just a charity thing (I'm not really a charity person myself...), it's a revision of Christmas. My sentiment really isn't unique on this point: donations are increasingly being viewed as viable 'gifts' to people you need to donate to - this is just my experience of that.
Christmas is about giving, right? That's the rhetoric, but it seems more like a retail slogan than anything else. And it is! Giving is a waste of time if you're giving things people don't want, to people that don't need it. I assume, irrespective of your mortgage stress or your position within the current 'financial crisis', that you are pretty well off: and really, we all are, aren't we - we all have everything we need and plenty we don't.
The Toyrun then really kills three birds with one stone: you give something meaningful, rather than obligatory; you don't need to think up things to give people who already have everything!; and you aren't put out of pocket because you've already saved money for everybody else's presents anyway (right?).

So there you go. My present to you this Christmas, is a present that might actually mean something: it's a present to somebody else.

Merry Christmas!