A BIG crowd, some truly magnificent machinery and mostly-compliant weather kept organisers and the crowd entertained and satisfied at this year’s York Motorcycle Festival in Western Australia’s wheatbelt.
Hundreds of bikes lined the streets of WA’s oldest inland town for most of Saturday and Sunday, providing a smorgasbord of two-wheeled eye candy — and that was before patrons wandered into the main eye-candy event, the Show & Shine in York’s 108-year-old town hall. (We’ve published the full list of trophy winners down the bottom of this article.)
Intermittent dark clouds and an occasional patch of drizzle ensured many punters kept an eye on the sky. The proper rain held off until the event wound up, but many riders ended the day with a wet butt on the hour-long ride back to Perth.
We wandered the streets to soak up the vibe, enjoying the work of stunt maestro Lukey Luke and some impressive trials and super moto riders, but we kept going back to the town hall to ogle the bikes on show.
As always, we gave the Nikon a workout. Here are our favourite pics.
CAPTION: Bradley Miskiewicz’s Vicla-styled 1999 FLSTF Harley Fatboy went home with a swag of silverware. It won the Best American and Best Paint categories and was runner-up in Best Custom.CAPTION: It’s hard to imagine how many hours of work have gone into this. Mark Reid took out top prize in the Custom Chopper category and finished second in People’s Choice for his stunner, four votes behind Brett Barrass’ ANZAC-themed 2008 Harley Davidson Fatboy.CAPTION: Rare as an under-cooked Dodo, this Moto Guzzi MGS-01 didn’t win any proper trophies — but it did win our most-want-to-take-it-home award.CAPTION: Mega-slick Exile Rockstar custom dragster earned Derek Fowler a runner-up award in Best Competition category.CAPTION: We’ve seen Tim Wright’s immaculate RG500 before, but we’d forgotten just how good it was. It won Best Japanese. We interviewed Tim a couple of years ago about his passion for big two strokes. Read the story here. (We’ve also met a pre-production RG500 that has never been started. See that story here.)CAPTION: Peter Watts’ 1975 Kawasaki Z1B 900 was runner-up to the RG500.CAPTION: Best cafe racer award went to Donald Calder for his beautifully executed 1982 Honda CB900F.Best British: Carl Neville’s 1921 Sunbeam Model 90.Best Vintage: Mac Matthew’s Harley Davidson Pea Shooter. (The Matthew family had an impressive four bikes on the trophy list!)Best trike: Bella Loprese’s 2013 Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide.
CAPTION: Outside, York’s normally sleepy main street was bursting with bikes and bike-related stands and entertainment.
SHOW & SHINE
FULL RESULTS
(Thanks to Josclyn Landrie from Motorcycle Panel & Paint)
Best American:
Runner Up – #35 Bradley Johnson, 2014 Harley Davidson Breakout
Hundreds of bikes lined the streets of WA’s oldest inland town for most of Saturday and Sunday, providing a smorgasbord of two-wheeled eye candy — and that was before patrons wandered into the main eye-candy event, the Show & Shine in York’s 108-year-old town hall. (We’ve published the full list of trophy winners down the bottom of this article.)
