Riders recreate historic first Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix for centenary celebrations
It has been 100 years since the first Australian Grand Prix, which was riders motorcycles up to 160-kilometres an hour on unsealed icy roads with barely any breaks. This year’s event will commemorate the historic event with a re-enactment through the streets of Goulburn in New South Wales.
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00:00I'm here at the start line of the first sanctioned Australian motorcycle Grand Prix which took
00:07place in 1924, a hundred years ago.
00:10More than 60 young riders braved a chilly morning much like this to take part in the
00:15race which covered a large circuit on the outskirts of Goulburn.
00:19A monument here on Windellamma Road was erected to commemorate those brave riders who took
00:25place in that first race.
00:27Now they were travelling on bikes that are very different from the modern day bikes that
00:31MotoGP riders tend to ride on.
00:34They were very similar to this Indian Daytona here.
00:37As you can see they've got a rudimentary brake, no speedometer, little to no suspensions and
00:43really no safety features whatsoever.
00:46So these riders were really taking their life into their hands when they jumped on these
00:50bikes with little more than a leather cap in terms of their helmet.
00:55So I spoke to some of the race participants who will be taking part in a re-enactment
01:00of this original circuit on Sunday and they told me about how honoured they were to be
01:04taking part in this historic ride.
01:06I think it's a wonderful thing, it just shows, to see all these restored bikes and everything
01:11and it just, yeah, I think it's a great, what would you say, it's an honour to the people
01:17that started it originally, isn't it, to show and just to see how far we have come nowadays.
01:23These guys were seriously very brave, very foolhardy.
01:27The conditions weren't great, I just think that they're amazing humans.
01:31I do have a modern day helmet and I'll have modern day gloves and everything else.
01:36You name it, I'm wearing it.
01:38So the centenary celebrations will kick off tonight when bikes like this are paraded through
01:43this main street of Goulburn and it will culminate with that re-enactment ride when more than
01:48450 riders will travel that circuit on a range of vintage vehicles around this original
01:55circuit and finishing up back in Goulburn.