G’day,

It’s been a bit of mixed bag lately. The original date for Brum’s Farewell fell just after the end of a lockdown in Victoria and permits were still needed to cross the borders of the southern state. Finally in the middle of March, the planets aligned for most of us and we gathered at Naked Racer Bar Café to share Brummories and other tall tales. You can see the pics further in this issue. It was a great event and a good chance to catch up with old friends as well as meet new friends.

Like Craig Pattison.

When we took over HEAVY DUTY, Craig Pattison was part of the crew who came along for the ride. Even though we couldn’t travel, Craig and I spent many hours on the phone talking bikes and photography. With COVID lockdowns on either side of the border, we didn’t actually get to meet face-to-face until the night before Brum’s Farewell. That was a great night with lots of laughs.

Craig volunteered to take pics at Brum’s Farewell, explaining that he’d be proud to do that.

A week later he rode over to Adelaide with his brother Dean. The plan was to shoot a few bikes while having a bit of a look around. He also met up with Doc for the first time while they were in town and hit it off.

Shortly after arriving home in Melbourne, Craig mentioned that he was heading to Wilson’s Prom for a ride. We laughed about stuff and he promised to have stories written for this issue by the end of Easter.

The week leading up to Easter became a nervous time with Queensland going into a three-day lockdown that was ending at 5pm on Thursday. My flights were booked for Easter Saturday from Sydney to Brisbane, and then on to Rockhampton so that I could collect the 2021 H-D Street Glide Special and ride it back to Sydney. It was the only way to get our hands on the bike and a 1600km trip was about the right distance for a proper road test. Plans included staying with friends Ken and May in Brisbane before catching up with David Cohen at Gasoline Alley for photos. But the question hung in the air, ‘What if they locked Brisbane down again?’ Alternate plans were made that would include a straight run from Rocky to Tamworth with lots of iPhone pics.

After landing in Rockhampton and booking into the motel, a call home brought the news that Craig Pattison had been killed on Thursday evening while riding home from Wilson’s Promontory.

Everything else suddenly became less important.

Our first email conversation was on 1st April, 2020 and 12 months later to the day, he was taken from us.

Personally, I’m sad that I won’t get to know him better.