Bikers mourn Armier and turn to Ghajn Tuffieha

The disastrous state of the road leading to Armier has forced motorcyclists to abandon their Sunday morning haunt where they used to hang out for years.

Middle aged bikers remember coming to Armier since the mid 1960s and Sundays at the small bay used to be agog with hundreds of motorcyclists talking and reminiscing about their favourite pastime.

Their new haunt is Ghajn Tuffieha, although nostalgia urges them to go back to Armier. Yesterday morning, Armier was deserted while Ghajn Tuffieha was swarming with riders proudly showing off their shining machines.

Apart from disrupting the Sunday drive for bikers, the atrocious state of the road has hit badly the takings of bars and restaurants at Armier.

Tommy Aquilina, owner of Farlex bar and restaurant, where most of the bikers used to stop for a coffee or a beer, said his business had dried up since last October, when motorcyclists decided to give Armier a miss.

"The area in front of my outlet used to be choc a block with bikes every Sunday and look at it now, there are barely a dozen bikes.

"Business has plummeted and in winter I am barely able to cover costs. On Sundays you could get anything between 200 and 300 bikes here. But they don`t come here any more. And all this for the simple reason that the road to Armier has been left to deteriorate so badly," a hurt Mr Aquilina said.

However, if bikers and business outlets are hoping for a reprieve, they can have another think.

When contacted, Transport and Communications Minister Censu Galea said he did not envisage that the road would be seen to in the foreseeable future.

The way the ministry sees things is that no road will be done up unless all the water and electricity services are included.

"It`s no use trying to resurface the Armier road until a definite decision is taken on the building of beach houses by the government when the provision of water and electricity will become a requirement.

"Moreover, there are other side roads besides the one leading down to Armier and it would not be fair to do one and not the others," he said.

Speaking on the general state of the roads which are being rebuilt from scratch, Mr Galea said he was not pleased with the rate of progress but particularly on the Burmarrad road, several residences had to be connected to the main sewer system, which had held up works considerably.

He said the Salina road leading to it-Telgha t` Alla w Ommu and the Burmarrad road should be completed by mid-July.

Going back to Armier, Vince Balzan, 49 and an aircraft technician known by his friends as Agostini, said Armier still exerted a pull on motorcyclists, probably because they had been going there during most of their motorcycling years.

"I have been coming to Armier for the past 35 years. I remember keen motorcyclists racing Bonnevilles along the stretch leading down here.

"The condition of the road is so bad that you can hear parts of the motorcycle rattling. Fairing bikes suffer mostly because the fairing is held in place by fasteners and they can come loose and break.

"Grit and loose gravel is picked up by riders in front of you and chip the paint on your fuel tank, scratch the chromed parts and at times scratch the chromed fork, and as the shock absorber takes the shock, the grit cuts into the rubber seal, allowing hydraulic oil to seep through, eventually ruining shock absorbers.

"Motorcyclists take pride in adding as much chrome as possible to their custom bikes. Several chromed parts are clipped on and it is easy for them to come off when the machine is ridden over such uneven road surfaces," he said.

The parts do not come cheap, either, he added.

Mr Balzan, who was riding a 750cc Honda K7, owns a Triumph Thunderbird 900 and a 125cc Honda. His son Clayton owns a DTR Yamaha 125.

Bikes cost a packet these days with prices reaching between Lm5,000 to Lm6,000. The really large bikes are even more expensive.

John Ghirxi, 43 who has been riding motorcycles for the past 25 years and owns a TDM Yamaha 150 said the road leading to Armier caused damage even to his bike, which was `part off-road` and `part on-road`.

Asked why bikers had given up on Armier now when they had been going there for so many years, he said that the state of the road had deteriorated to an insufferable degree during the past year.

"When you keep hearing of the amount of damage that motorcyclists have to make good for, you cannot keep using such roads. The other Sunday a friend of mine told me that a bracket holding the cylinder of his machine had fallen apart.

"My wife Lina, who rides with me, asked to stop going to Armier because she could not bear the pain in her back," Mr Ghirxi said.

Last summer, Mr Ghirxi rode all the way to Holland, which he described as a truly relaxing experience. He said bikes cost too much money "to subject them to so much punishment going to Armier".

So many things come loose when driving over an uneven road. Replacing a damaged fairing set could cost up to Lm900, depending on the make of the bike, he said.

Mrs Ghirxi said bikers spent a lot of time and money keeping their machines in top shape. Bikes, she said, held a certain allure for women, particularly those with an adventurous streak.

"Riding a bike keeps you young. You have to keep fit and that is an added reason why bikes are becoming ever more popular," she said.

Marilyn Micallef, who rides an 1100cc Yamaha Virago, said Armier was out of her books because of the unpardonable state of the road.

"We look forward to the Sunday ride to relax after a week at work and looking for a decent road is uppermost in our minds," she said.

Alex Pace, who rides a Honda Shadow 1100cc and a DT Yamaha 125 said that the motorcycle fraternity was on the rise.

"The island`s climate and the ever growing number of cars on the roads are two good reasons to invest in a motorcycle. There`s still great nostalgia about Armier. We like that place because it feels like the end of the road after a long ride and motorcycles are parked in neat rows without the fear of having cars moving in and out among them.

"The parking lot at Ghajn Tuffieha is usually packed with cars and there is a bus stop close by, which adds to the general confusion," he said.

Philip Bezzina, secretary of the Island Motor Cycle Club said that on every Sunday there are about 500 bikes on the road.

"When you`re riding a bike you cannot afford to keep your eyes on oncoming traffic and at the same time try to avoid the pot holes like the ones on the road to Armier.

"The holes have been patched so badly that what were holes in the road have been turned into small mounds. If you damage your wheels it`s hard to get them balanced because there is no wheel balancing equipment on the island.

"Bikes usually weigh well over 200 kgs and they do not damage road surfaces, but the road leading to Armier is used by trucks weighing 30 to 40 tons.

"Our club organises Sunday drives regularly but we have had to give up Armier," he said.

A young, sharp wit seemed to wrap it all up by saying: "I invite the minister of transport and communications to come for a ride so he`ll be able to get a taste of the road to Armier.

"If our bones shake, just imagine what the road does to the bikes," he said.