Northam Motorcycle Festival set to go off with a bang this weekend
By, Trevor Hedge

Many of the traditional club run bike rallies have fallen by the wayside these days thanks to various insurance and land use issues. This has left some serious voids in Western Australia’s social motorcycling calendar. Next weekend though the second annual Country Realty Northam Motorcycle Festival will kick off with renewed vigour. The inaugural event last year provided organisers with lessons that they could implement to make the event much bigger and better this year despite lowering the entry fee to only $10.

Of course like any great motorcycle event half the fun is always the road trip to the destination and the trip out to Northam is a beauty no matter where your starting point is.

Those riders setting out from the Northern suburbs can cut across towards the hills via Wanneroo Road and Neaves Road to Bullsbrook. From Bullsbrook a nice ride can be had by following Chittering Road, turning right onto Julimar Road into Toodyay.

Those wanting a short route can head south from Toodyay a couple of kilometres then turn left onto the Northam-Toodyay Road. Those with more time to spare might like to head up the Goomalling-Toodyay Road. Upon reaching Goomalling around 50 kilometres later, turn right onto the Northam-Pithara Road for a 50 kilometre run into Northam from the North.

A suggested route for the Southerners would include an approach from either north or south to the start of Mundaring Weir Road in Kalamunda to head through to the Weir, then turn right onto The Great Eastern Highway and onto Northam. A much nicer but considerably longer option is to turn right off Great Eastern Highway at The Lakes Roadhouse for the nice run out to York. On the left hand side as you arrive in York is one of the few service stations left that actually have regularly changed water buckets and squeegees and clean pumps despite the dust in the area. Instead of turning left into the township at the service station progress across the intersection until you reach a T-junction. Turn left onto the scenic Northam-York Road. Up the road a little on the right is a sign for the Mt. Brown lookout, which has a graded road to the summit. This is a great photo opportunity. It is just over 40km from York through to Northam via this route.

In Northam those motorcyclists that crave the full rally experience can pitch their tent or swag in the campground and enjoy the huge cooked breakfast served in the campground each morning. Most of the soft beds in the town are already booked out but if you want to try your hand on a cancellation get in touch with the Northam Visitors Centre on 08 9622 2100.

Entertainment will kick off each day from 08:30am with a Moto-Trials display immediately followed by a Vintage Motocross Display. The Bridge to Bridge Street Parade runs from 09:30am and the freestyle motocrossers will perform their aerial acrobatics from 10:00. The road circuit will then see some demonstration laps from stunt riders and road racers through to vintage and supermoto machines, which will see the walls of Northam reverberate to the tune of open exhausts.

The events continue to run and repeat throughout the day so you never have to miss anything. Head to www.northammotorcyclefestival.com.au for more information.