London to Sydney via Vega

September 1969, 3 Australians leave London and Ride to Sydney on 3 Vegas. It took them 6 months.

The 3 guys were Ken Burrows, Gary Butler and Ted Anderson.

I found Ken via detective work on the net and have interviewed Gary and Ted.

I've got the notes of one Ken.

I believe Gary is having his Diary transcribed.

If you want to see the route (well most of it as Google maps doesn't allow mapping across Afghanistan and Iraq.... I wonder why?)

I've split it up into the notes pages received from Ken Burrows. Bare in mind that each rider would go on their own occassionaly.

Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7 was getting from Madras (Now Chennai) to Perth via Calcutta (Kolkatta), Bangkok and Singapore on Planes and ships.
Pages 8 & 9

Siobhan

Amazing! It takes long enough to get to the shops on a Vega.... There are some crazy people out there

it must have been drugs that made them do it, or nagging wives
i think twice about going to the local shops on mine, then i usually take the t5
an epic jurney !

Funny thing, one of the original 3 was hiding from his wife in the UK. The ride got so much publicity, that his wife knew he was coming back to Australia, so he dropped out and someone else did the ride instead!

I've interviewed two of the guys, the third is to come. I'll be producing a DVD.

Here's a nice rare press item from my collection - its about the four Australians and was in a copu of the NA Journal from September 1969. I found it by complete fluke while looking for material for my book (The Lambretta Bible).

That's interesting. I have loads of articles on them, but that is the first one I've seen of that. What's NA? I'd like to get a copy.

So, it's not all strictly true.

There was always only 3. Ray Whitehouse was the one that was supposed to do it, and he dropped out and was replaced by Gary Butler. That article must be from just after Whitehouse dropping out. However, all the initial press was with Whitehouse and not Butler. (So far I've met Gary Butler and Ted Andersen, I've yet to meet meet Ken Burrows. They've lost contact with Ray). Think about it. How were 4 men going to travel from Istanbul to Sydney on 3 Vegas? Having said that, I don't know how 3 men did it!

Some of the stuff I've got from the guys can be found here:

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=753&mforum=lcoa


They never got their 500 pounds, when they got here. Lambretta Concessionaires Aust Pty Ltd, even though owned by Trojan Works, told them the agreement was with Lambretta Concessionaires in the UK and so wouldn't pay. Apparently the reason being that they were in serious financial trouble by then, and were looking for any reason to not pay out any money.

If you want to see the launch news letters for Lambretta Concessionaires Aust Pty Ltd:

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=593&mforum=lcoa

Most men hide from their wives in the pub or shed. The other side of world is a bit extreme. She must of been quite tasty in one way or another

Siobhan you won't get a copy of NA as I found it by complete fluke. It was a magazine for retailers who sold bicycles and small CC motorcycles and mopeds and I found mine in a stack in a magazine dealers. I had to go through about 15 boxes to find 2 Lambretta items and this was one of them. I can e-mail you a copy though as I notice that my scan on here has been cropped down so some of it is missing.

Please send me a copy, that isn't cropped. What's interesting about that is that none of the riders have mentioned it and they seemed to have virtually everything written about them.

I'm trying to find the news casts about them, too

Siobhan

Just the thought of another Vega other than my own (I had to import my two Lui's) around the streets of Barcelona makes me nostalgic.

J.