Darren Bokenham

Well I can't claim to be in that group either Gerry.
I've known Boky since (I think) the first aus.moto national dinner (about
'98?) and I've only met up with him a dozen-or-so occasions since then but
he was that kind of bloke that he made you feel like you were his "mate"
even if you weren't really....

He was the last aus.motian to see gNat & I before we crashed (coming home
from the latest GP) and he was the first to see me (and offer help) as I
was limping home after the crash.
He was also very kind to gNat in hospital (as were many aus.motians).

Boky was coming to my house after the ride and we'd set 4 places at the
dinner-table.
We didn't even end up cooking the dinner and that 4th place-setting was an
open wound all evening... (until Michelle removed it and then it's ABSENCE
was equally as upsetting!)

gNat and I had chickened out and came home after we got to Mudgereeba (as
it was an unpleasantly hot day) so our last memory of Darren is him waving
and yelling "see you later on" as we rode off.

See you later Boky, mate.

 

My first memory of Boky was outside Sophias in Camberwell. That red VFR,
that loud pipe, that gawd aweful screen, that smile and that laugh of Daz's.

Everytime I see a speed camera I'll think of you Boky....that flash was
BRIGHT!

Take care of yourself, Boky. You are a gentleman.

Al Gardner

 

He was a good bloke.

 

Boky was a good mate and he'll be very sadly missed by many. Annette
and I were honoured to have him as best man at our wedding back in
March. Over the last few years we've had quite a few adventures
together and I've basically thought of him as the brother I never had.
It crushes me that we won't get to share the adventures we'd planned
for the future.

He doesn't leave a wife or kids, but we went to Oktoberfest this year
and he met a nice girl there, and things seemed to be going well on
that front. He was one of the very few genuinely honest and reliable
people I've ever met. Countless people on ocau.mc, ozvfr and ausmoto
have stories of Boky being the one who stayed behind to help when they
crashed, who gave them a lift when they needed one, or just offering
friendly, ego-free advice about the technique or philosophy of riding.
So many great moments and memories are preserved in his photos.

He enriched a lot of our lives with his presence and I truly feel
we'll be forever changed by his absence. We should all be so lucky, to
go quickly, doing something we love, surrounded by friends.

RIP mate. You won't be forgotten.

James / Agg

 

bugger - sorry to hear

condolences

corks

 

Ahhh ****.

He was a great bloke.

Shit.

JL

 

Have now read the courier mail and gold coast paper reports - which
contradict each other (one says the oncoming car was stationary, the
other says it was moving).

Never seen Boky ride beyond his capability (which was pretty high),
details in the G.C paper sound unlikely to me.

JL

 

Sorry about Darren, I don't recal his face but we did meet once at the first
aus.moto national dinner.

How can an oncoming car be stationary?

Theo

 

Please don't be a pedant about my one line summary.

I think it's pretty clear what I meant. One says oncoming car (implying
moving) one says stationary car on the opposite side of the road or
words to that effect.

JL

 

X-No-archive: yes
JL wrote in message

There's a nice follow-up story in today's GC Bulletin.

 

Thanks

JL

 

In aus.motorcycles on Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:25:59 +1000

Not bad.

Does go to show that it can happen to anyone... No idea what "lost
control" means beyond the obvious.

I assume it was a road surface issue, as I can't see Boky going in too hard.

Zebee

 

Suggest you consider going up Thunderbolt's / Bucketts way (from
Singleton to Dungog Gloucester Walcha Uralla) and rejoin the New
England at Uralla - it's quicker 'cos there's fewer towns and a more
pleasant run (and a decreased chance of having a chat with the boys in blue)

JL

 

Rest in peace Boky.

We never met, but chatted many a time in the newsgroup and in IRC.

wingman

 

Isn't it, just? Apart from tagging that "s" onto the end of Chris'
surname, not much you can fault in it.

Generic statement, isn't it. If someone comes unstuck, by definition,
they've lost control, regardless of whether control's been sntached away
from them or if they gave that control away through making a mistake.

That gearbox problem he picked up on his way up to Qld has been eating
at me... what odds that the bike jumped out of gear?

 

That seems possible... if the box had seized up I'd expect that there
would have been rear skid marks and possibly even a high side rather
than the low side people have described.

Whereas a loss of drive could cause a bike to start running wide, which
would require a sudden increase in lean angle leading to a possible low
side situation...

Guess we'll never really know :-/


G-S

 

Singleton-Muswellbrook, 46km
Muswellbrook-Tamworth, 154km
Tamworth-Uralla, 87km

Total, 287km

vs

Singleton-Maitland, ~40km
Maitland-Stroud, 69km
Stroud-Gloucester, 41km
Gloucester-Walcha, 147km
Walcha-Uralla, 40km

Total, 337km

or

Singleton-East Gresford, 41km
East Gresford-Dungog, 26km
Dungog-Stroud Road, 26km
Stroud Road-Gloucester, 38km
Gloucester-Walcha, 147km
Walcha-Uralla, 40km

Total, 318km

I vote for the latter. Just a trudge up a meandering highway will not
put me in a good frame of mind. We'll need something to concentrate on.

 

X-No-archive: yes

~
SNAP!
That's been troubling me too.
He didn't seem to be too worried by it though (except to complain that the
route Chris had chosen seemed to be full of 3rd-gear corners that he'd had
to take in 2nd).

 

Your last option is my preferred out of the two but bear in mind it's a
heaps tighter road and therefore heaps slower. Another option could be to
head up the F3 from Shadow's to the Bucketts Way north of Newcastle. Will
save some time but you miss the Putty. I'd probably foresake the Singleton
- Gloucester stretch for a sleep in and meet in Gloucester. Either way, I'm
easy, a long day in the saddle just makes me thirstier!

 

I met Boky on Christmas Day 2003. I think he may have introduced
himself as 'Darren', but I've never thought of him as anyone other
than 'Boky'. He was one of a group that met at Mount White on
that morning for a bit of a Christmas thing. The names I remember
from that day were Boky (of course), Zebee, Mike-S, Craig, Sarah,
Big Iain, Isabel. There were others, but I'm bad at names.

As a general rule, I don't do people, but Boky and I hit it
off right away. It was probably the expensive-digital-camera-
dick-size-war that did it!!!, and I'm ashamed to admit that his
*was* bigger!!! (The camera you bloody perverts!)

Looking at those couple of photos of Boky on the OCAU.mc
thread, I'm pretty sure that I have at least one of those
photos of him pointing his camera at my camera with a big
grin on his dial in my archives somewhere. It's pretty obvious
that he loved that camera almost as much as the bike, and from
what I've seen (photos) and heard (riding) he was pretty bloody
good at both of them.


I'd bumped in to Boky a couple of times since then, chatted to
him lots on #ausmoto, sorry to say I've never been for a ride with
him though...

Not that it matters, it only took about four seconds to figure
out that Boky fits about as fair-and-square into the 'Good Bloke'
category as is humanly possible - any additional time you got
to spend with the man counts as bonus.


I guess it sounds a bit wierd to say that I'll miss a guy that
I really hardly knew, but he's one of those quiet stalwarts that
a newbie like me just quietly looks up to, and assumes will
always be around. I'm saddened to have lost Boky so soon - it
is my view that his time wasn't anywhere near being up.


GB


(As an aside, credit goes to Nathan for breaking the news to
me the way he did. We take the piss out of him a lot, and
hang it on people in his line of work even more, but when
it came to delivering painful news, he did it delicately and
sensitively. Thanks)