Pretty Pine Bike Show

IF YOU HAVE a passion for burn-outs and old school choppers than the Pretty Pine Bike Show is for you. Pretty Pine is a pub about 15 km north of Deniliquin, and come mid-October, the kuntrymebas take over and host the Pretty Pine Bike Show. $20 gets you in the gate, pays for your camping and entry to the bike show.

All afternoon the bikes kept rolling in with numbers out-doing last year. I would hate to be a judge for the bike show for as soon as you thought you had picked the winner, in would roll another bike that would pull a crowd of onlookers.

This bike show just keeps getting bigger and bigger with some top quality British and American bikes on display. There was a immaculate green BSA, a very tidy Norton, two superb Genny Shovels, and even a Genny Shovel trike. In fact, there was an abundance of Shovelheads from the highly customised to total stock.

There were bikes of all types and you would be hard pressed to find a bike you didn’t like. The oldest bike belonged to Bomber from Longriders NSW. It was a ’42 WLA tastefully chopped to suit the period. Bomber and his fellow Longriders had ridden their old school choppers from Newcastle to catch up with mates and be a part of the Pretty Pine shine action. I had even heard that one of the Longriders had taken the shocks off his bike and replaced them with steel struts.

Late in the afternoon two cool choppers rolled in — one fairly modern while the other was an old school Frisco style Shovelhead with jockey shift.

Not to be outdone, the mob from Swan Hill arrived with one of the boys taking out the Best Old School trophy with an original Panhead chopper with wishbone frame and upswept fishtails. By far this was the pick of the show. The character who owned this chop said that he had owned his ride for 20 years and rode the hell out of it.

It was a hot and humid night with not a gust of wind. Just the right conditions for a burn-out competition as the stench and smoke of burnt rubber just hung in the air. Last year I thought the burn-out competition was great but this year it was awesome. The boys just kept bringing their bikes out and lightening them up. Even me ol’ mate with the Panhead chopper had a go with both header pipes glowing red.

A special mention for Robbie (Longriders Melbourne) who’s extreme crowd pleasing burn-out literately caused the bike to catch on fire. The bike was quickly shutdown with a shower of beer dowsing the flames. Funny thing, it wasn’t even his bike, but the bloke who owned it rode it home the next day — legend.

Fly couldn’t pick the winner so a carton was given to the each of the top contenders.

Good food and cold beer/drinks were supplied at a great price out in the beer garden. Top acoustics tunes were sung in the afternoon with Outlawed belting out good Aussie rock come night fall.

Photos by Boomer & Moot; words by Wazza