Australia’s best-named motorcycle rally, the Ruptured Budgie Rally, will continue its fund-raising tradition in May. Organisers say the bank foreclosed on the previous owner of the property where the motorcycle rally was to be held, sparking rumours it would be moved. However, the new property owners have agreed to let the Moto Guzzi Club of Queensland continue using the site as their children attend the local school which benefits from funds raised at the motorcycle rally over the past 20 years.
So the Ruptured Budgie Rally will still go ahead on May 16-18 at Mingoola, about 60km west of Tenterfield on the Bruxner Highway. Good camping spots by the river are available and there is plenty of firewood. The motorcycle rally is fully catered with a licensed bar from Friday dinner to Sunday breakfast. All the usual rally awards, plus some not-so-usual ones plus motorcycle rally badges are included in the $20 entry fee. Children under 15 years enter free.
- In other news around the world of motorcycling, fire destroyed 17 Harley-Davidson motorcycles behind the Atlanta police academy after an officer started his bike and it caught fire. The fire spread from bike to bike destroying 17 bikes before the fire department to put them out. Atlanta police said they don’t know what caused the spark.
- Dubai police have impounded more than 250 motorcycles during winter for performing dangerous stunts and causing a public nuisance. Sixty-eight were seized in the past two weeks, while 22 recreational bikes were involved in rollover accidents that left 28 people injured, most of them females and minors.