*Warren and Lennie on the goldfields, 1907 - courtesy WA Museum*

Neither adventurers or travellers, Arthur Warren and Robert Lennie were Coolgardie road racers who simply wanted to set a new Perth-to-Sydney record, a distance of 3,050 miles. Amid cheers from the large crowd of onlookers, they departed Coolgardie on February 18th 1907 for a three day ride to Perth.

The conventional overlander bike was a heavy-duty, high-riding roadster of British origin,designed to carry the rider and a load of clothes, blankets and supplies across rough tracks and rocky roads. Many would carry a gun for hunting food, and as defence from potentially hostile first nations people.

Racers at heart, Warren and Lennie took a different approach. They headed to the Davies-Franklin agency in Perth to collect low, lightweight, Ballarat made path racers straight off the showroom floor. Fitted with Australian-made Dunlop tyres, their equipment was kept light and minimal, the biggest concession being canvas frame bags containing 1½ gallon water tanks.

In a further break from overlander convention, Warren and Lennie were among the first transcontinental riders to adopt thigh-length tights to reduce weight and wind resistance. Even in competition, shorts had not long before been considered ‘obscene’ or ‘indecent’ and racers fined for wearing them.

They took the ‘usual coastal route’ via Coolgardie, Widgiemooltha, Balladonia and Eucla. The official record stood at 40 days, set by Donald MacKay in 1900 on the last leg of his anti-clockwise circumnavigation of Australia. The pair planned to meet famed endurance cyclist Francis Birtles at Widgiemooltha and to ride with him... ‘If he will throw away some of his loading, we may agree,’ said Lennie, ‘we are travelling very light.’

Soon after leaving Perth they struck heavy rain making roads and tracks unrideable and delaying them for weeks as they pushed and, at times, carried their bikes through the mud. Though the lightweight machines withstood their 93 day ordeal to Sydney, Warren and Lennie’s confidence was misplaced and the record attempt failed dismally.

Below; a Davies Franklin similar to the ones ridden by Warren and Lennie. This bike was found in Pemberton in 2023, and acquired and conserved by a WAHCC member.