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I'd never heard of a "Shine and Show" until last saturday when I stumbled into the Wodonga Bike Show stretched out on a grassy paddock, serried ranks fo motorbikes arranged according to age, continent of origen adn gender!!! ( of the rider)

Lots of shiney, glizty, obese, morbidly obese and plain absurd bikes for the curious as wells a the diehards to admire, envy, paw over and generrally be amused one way or the other by.

Disappointinly no airheads, and perhaps 3 or 4 oilheads and a "brick ".. all looking somewhat embarrassed amongst 2 or 300 Harleys, Victory's and all manner of screamers as well as a distinguished small collection of real vintage and veteran english bikes.
Despite this extraordinary lack of balance it was a lot of fun and appeared to have been extremely successful for the charities and service clubs that put it together.
But, like deep fried Mars bars, one can only take so much of this sort of excessive indulgence...trailer outfit things that you could load the missus, kids and the dog into, GoldWings that could easily be mistaken for an overstuffed sofa, and all that blinding chrome , dazzling in the sun!... Why do they do it???? maybe that's a philosophical question for our North American mates!... I spose it fits into the same sort of aspirational market as Hummers and Chopped Hogs ... they are a bit of fun, slightly absurd, slightly out there, objects that invoke passionate irrational responses in grown men...

Here's a few I phone pics to give a flavour of the event.

Ah, thanks Doug. I wish I'd had time for that one. I don't mind a bit of a fondle of an old Brit bike when I can sneak one in. That Matchless behind the Ariel is almost identical to the one I loaded up with all my possessions when I left home for Melbourne in 1970. Just having a flashback here. Sigh.

What sort of prize did you get for Best Airhead in Paddock?

ps: It's a shame when you see chaps treating objects like women.

I like that Matchy but the badge is wrong , it should be AJS ,then she'd be perfect !

The Red Hunter is a treat .

The Harley's etc seem a victory of marketing over content ... but maybe I'm biased .

It was all just 'badge engineering' at the time, Sibbo. I had the pleasure of owning a '51 Matchless and later a '54 AJS. They were almost identical - definitely made in the same factory but I liked the Matchless badge better - it was metal, whereas the AJ had a transfer. I still have a replacement AJS transfer stored somewhere safe in my filing system. Perhaps I should send it to you if it turns up one day. I loved those old thumpers. (Old fool looks into middle distance. Sighs.)

Yep, identical! However there was something very pleasing about the curve of the lettering in AJS !

I'm sure I've seen a ceramic badge on one AJay ?