1950s Aermacchi Chimera motorcycle on display at the Melbourne Museum plaza.
Image: Adrienne Leith
Source: Museum Victoria
Over four hundred motorbikes roared up Rathdowne Street for the annual Festival of Italian motorcycles on 29 November.
At 9.30am there were less than twenty bikes sitting in the rain on Melbourne Museum’s plaza. Once the sun shone again half an hour later, the bikes started to arrive and didn’t stop until midday.
There were all the usual marques; from small Vespas to solid Ducatis, Aprilias, Benellis, Bimotas, Cagivas, MV Agustas, Moto Morinis, Laverdas and Moto Guzzis. Some were old bikes restored with love and attention while others were newer bikes maintained in showroom condition.
Joining the festival for the first time was a very rare Aermacchi Chimera from the late 1950s. Not many were manufactured and, although unrestored, it was in great condition thanks to the original owner keeping it inside his house. The winner of the Museum Choice award was a 1970s Laverda 750 SF. A regular festival attendee described his own Laverda 750 as "one of the best bikes I ever owned."
The count at midday came to 450 bikes – 325 Italian bikes on display and 125 others parked to one side. When the rain began again at midday, there were 450 bikers standing under the shelter of the museum’s ‘blades’ and enjoying the barbeque.
The Festival of Italian Motorcycles has been hosted on the plaza every year since 2002, after first being run in conjunction with The Italians exhibition, and has become a fixture in the Melbourne motorcycle calendar. Calls of ‘see you next year!’ were heard above the sound of the bikes leaving.