WATCH THE 2008 APRIL FOOLS RUN HIGHLIGHTS IN CASINO NSW HERE:
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Aussie Streetfighters (ASF) is a website / forum for Streetfighter and Custom Sports Bike builders which started in 2001 by Si (full history of ASF can be found at the ASF website www.streetfighters.com.au). Over the years the interest in this genre of motorcycle has exploded and ASF has been the hub for builders / engineers / fanatics from all over Australia and many other countries (especially UK and USA) to get info and share ideas.
In 2005 the numbers were increasing rapidly and the online community of Streetfighter builders really needed to get together, after all, we are bike riders who want to ride our bikes and see what others have created, not just nerd about looking at pretty photos and talking about them! So one long term ASF member 'Ozkat' suggested a gathering in the small town of Macksville, NSW around the start of April, suggesting it be named the "April Fools Run" .....and so AFR05 was born. A grand total of around 25 ASF members made it to that weekend and had an absolute ball. This thing was going to continue. |
AFR06 was held in the same place (The Nambucca Hotel Macksville); the numbers doubled as did the quantity of beer consumed and partying. This time members came from as far afield as Melbourne and country Victoria, it was these guys who had 3 days ride just to get there, only to have one night on the piss with the other guys and then 3 days back!. As you can imagine they wanted a longer event to justify the ride, that's when we realised we needed something bigger. |
AFR07 was moved to Dubbo,
NSW
hoping it would be a more central location for the majority of attendees. This was the first year the AFR was extended to a full weekend instead of just one night as previous years had been.
As predicted, this year saw the attendace double, so we arranged a Show 'n' Shine event. This gave us the opportunity to invite the locals along. We bought a pocket bike to raffle and put on a BBQ with all proceeds being donated to the local hospital. This proved a great success with one of the local Dubbo guys winning the pocket bike. Proceeds from the BBQ and raffle gave the hospital a total donation in the 4 figure region. What we also did though was create the biggest party the hotel had ever seen and managed to have 100+ members drunk for 3 days solid doing impromptu burnouts and stunts in between. This is when we realised we needed to involve some kind of entertainment and controlled conditions for these guys at future AFRs.
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During planning for AFR08 Stu from AUSFR (a long term ASF member himself) suggested he could get access to a runway in either Evans Head or Casino NSW through contacts at his work and so he came on board as an organiser of the event. Our plan was to hire the runway, get insurance and council permission and let the guys have the runway to ride on all weekend.
After being doubted and then shut down by Evans Head Heritage Committee we turned our attention to Casino and realised it was a much better set up. The location was perfect with the camp site right at the end of the runway, plus great riding roads into town. Once we started the ball rolling we realised that we were in for one hell of a bill to hold this event for the guys and realised that without the general public attending we had no chance of covering the costs, so at the eleventh hour we opened our gates to the public and crossed our fingers! Word spread thanks to Jeff and the guys at Rapid Bikes magazine who came on board to promote the event. What was to happen is now regarded as one of the best extreme bike events to hit Australian soil. UK Streetfighter fans also had their first AFR in 2008, as did New Zealand, making the AFR an international Streetfighters event.
2009 will see the 5th annual AFR again in Casino NSW which is an amazing little town
of cooperative, enthusiastic and helpful locals which made last years event so successful.
The event is still true to its origins and is a riders event for like minded bike fans to have the sort of weekend they all enjoy, riding bikes to the extreme, having a laugh and a yarn about bikes and pastimes, enjoying good music and having a beer with good company. If you truly love riding or watching motorcycles being used for what they were built for, this is the event of the year. Car lovers have Summernats - we have the AFR! |