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The Lions Bike Show, held last Sunday at Macclesfield Oval on a perfect spring day, drew a very large crowd. Last year the event attracted 2000+ bikes, this year there must have been 3000.

There was a club ride which left Hazelwood Park at 9 am, but only about 8 or 9 bikes turned up. We set up at the northern end of the oval next to a huge Kawasaki display, celebrating 50 years of the Z1/Z900 model. Our group of bikes were such a sparse collection of machines, that a group of Harley riders decided to roar through us, no doubt mistaking us for a thoroughfare and were totally ignorant of any pedestrian who dared cross their path. The situation would have been improved if we had our club’s gazebo on hand.  I do recall that we purchased the gazebo for this type of event a few years back after many of our members were seeking shade from the harsh South Australian sun. A few more of our members did turn up, but by then we were swallowed up by the neighbouring  Kawasakis and Harleys amongst others.

Many Adelaide clubs attended: including Norton Owners, BSA Owners Club, Veteran & Vintage, BMW Owners, Vintage Japanese and the BMW Owners. The Kawasaki  Z Owners won the best club display and  the British award was won by the ubiquitous Vincent Rapide.

The most interesting bike I saw was this Yamaha FJR1000 framed Suzuki GT750 with a Triumph Street Triple front & rear ends, part of the VJMC display.

The Lions Bike Show goes from strength to strength every year and organizer Fred Keale and his team must have been delighted with the turnout and the weather.

If you didn’t visit Balhannah Oval last Sunday for the inaugural British Motorcycle Day, you missed out. This hastily arranged event was put together by the Festival of Motorcycling committee, partially in response to the cancelled All British Day held at Euchunga. The difference was that this was for British motorcycles only.

2022 is the 120th anniversary of both Triumph and Norton motorcycles and both marques were recognised by a large display of Triumphs at the northern end of the oval and plethora of Nortons on the west side. Opposite was a long line of BSAs and, interspersed were the Levis Club with some interesting old bikes and many sporting bikes from road racing to speedway. 

Raleigh and Scott 

Many of the bikes were started by their owners, much to the delight of onlookers. I saw the Levis Club’s JAP engined OEC running, Phil Baughan’s 650 TriBSA (which you may remember from a recent club meeting) and I even managed to cajole the owner of a trailered 1940 Triumph Tiger 100 to crank it up his engine too.

   The caterers at the northern end had to replenish supplies twice and the ice cream salesman was doing a roaring trade. Apparently, close to a 1,000 paid up visitors were in attendance – an excellent result, considering the limited time frame and opportunity offered to the organising committee. 

At the northern end of the oval was the DJ who did a fine job MCing the day behind his turntable and an Ariel Square Four. Lew sold out all his British Motorcycle Regalia and the COMCC stand was busy registering all the Show ‘n’ Shine entrants along with guarding the trophies.

Towards the end of the day’s proceedings, the judges had made up their minds which bikes deserved the  trophies and all the winners were lined up awaiting the presentations. I’m not sure who all the owners were, but there was an ES2 outfit, a BSA Firebird, a couple of Vincent V-twins, a Hurricane and Rob Elliott’s excellent Norton Model 18. It was a fitting end for Rob, as he was one of the main drivers and instigators for putting on the event in the limited time frame. Well done to all the organisers and the motorcycling public for helping make this event a success.