Makeham’s epic Murray motorcycle stunt

By Alexander Dabb

Oct 26, 2023

Epic feat: Echuca local Kale Makeham completed an astonishing feat last week, riding his motorcycle across the Murray River. The bike will be auctioned off on Monday, with proceeds going towards Australian motorcycle clubs. Photo: Aidan Briggs. Photo by Aidan Briggs

Echuca local Kale Makeham has completed an astonishing feat, riding his motorbike from bank to bank across the mighty Murray River.

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The idea for the stunt, which involved Makeham attaching a fin to the front wheel of the bike and gliding across the surface of the water, came about after a few drinks with his mates.

“It was a dumb idea of me and a few mates having a few beers one night,” he said.

“I actually came up with the idea about six months ago, I posted it on my Facebook and that was about it.

“I started doing these giveaways a month ago, and basically the more attention you can get, the more tickets you sell, and I thought ‘why not?’ and gave it a go.”

The giveaway Makeham speaks of regards the bike he completed the crossing on, which will be raffled off.

A former Australian motorcycle champion, Makeham will donate the proceeds from the raffle back to motorcycle clubs around the country, helping to support the next generation of stars coming through.

“I’ve always been involved in the sport, since (I was) five years old I’ve ridden,” he said.

“I’ve become Australian champion, state champion, got to represent my sport overseas, but (as I) got a little bit older, the body breaks down. I hit the ground a few too many times, so I don’t race professionally anymore, but I still love being involved.

“Typically I coach kids on the weekend, but this came up and I still have that passion to do it myself, and doing these stunts and fun things is how I do it.

“The way I give back through it is that all the clubs that I’ve ridden at as a kid and coach at now, I give them a donation at random, and it goes towards the volunteers, helps put on ride days and basically whatever they see fit to do with it.

“Clubs are a dying breed, they run off the back of maybe two or three volunteers and that’s it. I pretty well visit them all in Australia, and it sucks to see them going downhill like they are, so it’s just a way I can help out and stay involved at the same time.”

In terms of the stunt itself, Makeham admitted there were only about two or three days of preparation before what he believed was a world-first.

“Yeah, not a whole heap on the preparation side, it was a bit of a roll of the dice,” he said, laughing.

“I did maybe two days out at the local lake just cutting across the edge of it, did some rough measurements, I stepped it out and thought ‘you know what, I think it might work’ and that’s about it.

“We went to a secret location, I thought it was possible, it was about four metres deep and I just pretended it was where I practised and off I went.”

And while he has been involved in motorbikes practically his entire life, Makeham explained the Murray crossing was the first stunt of its kind he had ever attempted; however, it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

“Predominantly it has always been professional racing,” he said.

“That was my job from age 18 to 25 years old, I got to travel the country, go overseas, represent Australia, things like that.

“Everything I did was very sort of straight edge, politically correct, (looking after) sponsors and manufacturers things like that.

“It was quite serious training programs, quite regimented, whereas this is kind of like you can do what you want, get a little bit wild and have a few beers, come up with a dumb idea and see if it works.

“This is the first of a long list of many that I’ve got, you’ll basically see one a week, pretty much, and I’ll do one stunt with each one sort of thing. I’ve got another one this Monday, the following Monday, and we’ll keep it going.”