LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL

Throttle Roll, the annual celebration of all things cool and custom in Sydney’s motorcycle scene, celebrated its fourth anniversary in 2016, with this year’s street party – a new addition to the event - attracting more than 6,000 visitors.

Organised by the Sydney Café Racers and held in Marrickville, in Sydney’s inner west, Throttle Roll is getting bigger each year, attracting more of the major bike brands and other big name companies, while still retaining an independent spirit and family-friendly, community atmosphere.

Held on 12th June (the Sunday of the Queen’s Birthday long weekend), this year’s first Throttle Roll Street Party was blessed with good weather, which added to the relaxed vibe, while I reckon those who partied on deep into Sunday night were no doubt thankful for the Monday holiday!

Three Levels of Happiness
The day started with a morning ride from Marrickville down to the Royal National Park and back. Upon return to the Railway Parade venue, many of the 250+ bikes that took part were wheeled straight in to the display area, which was dominated by a three-tiered wall of more than 65 custom bikes.

Amongst the customs on display, there were a few personal standouts, like the ‘2Shot’ BMW R nineT café racer that was the work of Jason and the team at Gasoline in Alexandria, with the hand-formed aluminium bodywork created by Motorretro.

Embedding LED lights into the one-off tailpiece gave a real clean look to 2Shot’s back end, while the custom fairing, seat, clip-ons and rearsets provided the ‘racer’ element.

What you couldn’t see from its perch on the display was that 2Shot had a bespoke fuel filler cap in its custom tank, as well as a custom air intake, aftermarket levers, bar-end indicators, Motogadget instrumentation and keyless starting.

In their own special stand down on ground level, another fave of mine was the pair of customs from Yamaha, based on the XSR700 and XSR900.

Created in-house at Yamaha Motor Australia, both these builds were inspired by classic Yamahas: the 700 twin’s scrambler look, with its chunky tyres, dirt bike handlebars and slimline seat, was inspired by the DT1 enduro; while its big brother, the 900 triple, had more of a road race vibe, drawing inspiration from the RZ250/350.

Also on Show
The closed-off section of Railway Parade had enough cool creations to satisfy most, but the surrounding streets soon became lined with bikes, too, creating a second display that, for me, was just as interesting (and inspiring!) to wander through.

With bikes and people everywhere, the Throttle Roll Street Party had a real back-to-basics, community feel; kid- and pet-friendly, everyone was having a genuinely good time checking out the bikes, trade stands and other displays.

A bunch of food trucks kept everyone fed, with local brewery Young Henry’s making sure they were well watered, too!

One lucky punter scored a spanking new Nemesis 400 motorcycle, thanks to Sol Invictus, while live music ‘till late added to the atmosphere - and the bucking bull ride probably added a few bruises!

Top Support
Throttle Roll 2016 was well supported by big industry players, including Yamaha, Ducati, Royal Enfield, BMW Motorrad, Moto Guzzi and Deus Ex Machina, as well as Sol Invictus Motorcycle Co., MCA (Motorcycle Accessories Supermarket), Shannons and Pipeburn.

While Throttle Roll is in a one-day deal for most punters, there were many, many days of planning and prep by many people that made that special Sunday happen, especially with this year’s new street party.