Last Thursday, I took the train from Coledale south of Sydney into the Moyes factory at Botany Bay, just south of Sydney. I took my bicycle along so that I could ride from the subway station to the factory, which was not all that easy given that I was carrying my Moyes Matrix Race harness and given the length of the harness bag (the bottom of which wanted to rub on the back tire).

I had an appointment to meet with Tess and have her sew in a new zipper and give me a little extra room in the hips on this harness that is a hand me down from Curt Warren and Dustin Martin (my second one that was a hand me down along this route). I had experienced the zipper blowing out a few times at Rlystone and Gulgong, the harness staying open the first three days of the Forbes Flatlands (which bothered me), and the straps that I added across the bottom of the harness to pull it closed so that I could zip it up.  These straps were quite something to get tightened in the air and equally interesting to get undone in time for landing. I used a bow tied string to hold them up for foot launching.

Tess was right on the job as soon as I walked in. She put in a new zipper lickety-split. Then she decided to put in a new riser, safety first. She patched up the holes that I had cut in the harness to out in the straps. She said that I needed to repair the back plate, and Steve Moyes and I found a repaired one that we put in there in place of my existing one (I had already sent a back plate back to Moyes), which went back for repairs and for the next harness that needed a repaired back plate. She also replaced the strings that pull the zipper.

Then Steve Moyes adjusted the harness for me as I repeatedly tried it on. He got the string adjusted so that the harness was straight and so I could rock up easily. The new zipper worked great.

I was on the train four hours after I got to the factory in the morning. I have a new Moyes Matrix Race harness on order and hope to take it back to the states with me at the end of March.

Thanks to Tess, Steve and Vicki.