Article in Heavy Duty Issue 151
SHIELA’S ONLY
As a 30-something year-old woman who has been around the traps and riding motorcycles for the better part of 14 years, I was super excited to learn about an official moto camp for women. The event known as Sheilas Shakedown, is put on by three Victorian based female riders. I met the organisers at various motorcycle events over the past two years or so, including the very first unofficial women’s moto camp called King Parrot, named after the location at which it was held.
In 2015 I travelled to the USA to attend the inaugural Dreamroll held in Washington State, so I had a vague idea of what to expect. And I wasn’t wrong. The Sheila’s organisers did a fantastic job with the venue selection, keeping the tickets affordable and getting vendors to set up and sell unique, great quality moto related goods.
I rolled up to the Old Bike Shop cafe in Brunswick on “Flash” – HEAVY DUTY’s Forty Eight Sporty – with 5mins to spare before the scheduled departure time. excitement was overwhelming seeing the corner of Lygon St and down Edward St lined with motorcycles and scattered with some very cool old cars. Most would normally expect to see this display of machinery accompanied by a bunch of blokes - not this time.
Instead there were around 70 gorgeous women of all ages all with faces alit with big smiles and the sparkle of excitement in their eyes. They had come from all over, Sydney, Sunny Coast, Newcastle, Adelaide, country Vic and Melbourne to be a part of this inaugural official womens moto camp Sheilas Shakedown.
Remi, one of the organising sheilas, gave a general announcement with all the sass and spark of a true biker babe and gave the word to gear up woman who has been around the corner of Lygon St and down Edward cos we were rolling out – and roll out did! Both lanes of traffic were stopped as a river of bikes flowed onto Lygon street. The sun was beating down with the temperature in the mid 30s and other than being sweltering hot on the bikes and the usual shit Melbourne traffic to contend with, the ride out of town was fairly uneventful.
The heritage listed Camp Eureka was the perfect picturesque setting for this ‘girls gone wild’ weekend. The girls rolled in and found their spots to set up camp for the evening while the day was young.
The grounds were expansive with plenty of shade and space so clusters of little tent and swag communities popped up all over. The jams were already firing from the stage and a bunch of female vendors had set up stalls. There was a food truck on location and Sailor Jerry was running a free rum bar which proved to be the attraction of the event!
The property had a creek runningthrough it which the girls took full advantage of! It didn’t take long for the riding gear to come off and ‘the beach’ as it is known, to be filled with hot bodied babes floating around on flamingoes and blow up toucans drinking VB in the knee deep, refreshing icy water.
The day timetable was pretty open and the girls just did as they pleased – got a flash tattoo, headed into town for a bite to eat and beer supplies, swum, sunbaked, shopped the stalls, perved on the bikes or whatever else floated their boat.
At around 5pm the activities kicked off and things started to get interesting. Chicks with their bikes riding two up with the pillion trying to eat a sausage off a make- shift fishing rod was a pisser! Then the fast races started which saw a couple of near misses and one babe get a good grazing when she dropped her Harley on the slip- pery grass. The races flowed on to stunts and burnouts and well you know how it all goes. Some of those sheilas had some skills!
The sun went down and the bands hit the stage followed by the awesome piss take DJs. The rum was flowing and the nipples were free on the dance floor as they should be! The dance floor was finally closed in the early am with a couple of the organisers ripping side by side burnouts butted up against the stage. A more appropriate end to the night would be hard to find.
In my opinion, where this event fell short, was not that they had males working there, although it would be fantastic to have ALL girls at an all girl event, but that it was advertised as “no dicks” yet they had one dick there helping out and actually participating in the activities because he was a ‘mate’ of two of the organisers. This to me was the only downside to the weekend. Sheila’s Shakedown is a great all-female event which is what makes it so fantastic. Whether it was this guy or my own brother, no guys should mean no guys.
I think this is a fantastic concept. Every new event has speed bumps to overcome and creases to iron out in the early stages. I hope that the girls stick with this project and build it into something wonderful for the female motorcycle community. I had a fantastic time with an amazing bunch of women. I caught up with old friends and made a bunch of new ones, which is what these things are all about, the sense of community and togetherness. Take egos and all of the bullshit out of it. As long
as this event stays a girls only event, run for women and run by women, it will be a great asset to the Aussie event calendar and I will definitely be buying a ticket to the next one. HD
Article in Heavy Duty Issue 151
Images by Katie Goodwin @klickher
