Little Max Simonetti won’t forget his ninth birthday in a hurray.
The Perthshire schoolboy’s party was ‘gatecrashed’ by a friendly invasion of bikers, who turned up to ensure the celebrations were a roaring success.
Max and his pals were playing happily inside the Luncarty memorial hall when a deafening din could be heard from the street outside.
The party-goers dashed out and were astonished to see a line-up of high-performance motorbikes just waiting for them to clamber all over.
The surprise was the brainchild of Methven biker Callum Smith, who had crossed paths with Max and his mum a few months before.
He’d been riding out the road from Luncarty to Inveralmond on his Suzuki GSX-R1,000 when he noticed a little boy waving excitedly and giving him the thumbs-up from the car in front.
The boy was Max. And he was clearly enthralled.
Bikers gathered from Perthshire and beyond
Later, Callum reached out on Facebook to see if he could find out who his little admirer was.
He made contact with Max’s mum Gemma. And a plan was hatched to give the Luncarty Primary School pupil a day to remember.
“I asked when his birthday was, and his mum said August 12,” said Callum, 38.
“So then I asked if she thought he’d like it if I brought some other bikes along to his party, and she thought that would be brilliant.”
HGV driver Callum belongs to a number of biker groups and enlisted members of the Perthshire Bikers, RCT Riders, Fife Bikers, Weekend Biker Run, 1000cc Club and Perthshire Ladies Bike Club to join him for Saturday’s surprise.
“It was great,” said Callum. “The weather was terrible, so we didn’t get as many bikes out as we’d hoped. But Max’s face was a picture when he saw us.
“I think we might have a future biker here.”
Max isn’t the only one over the moon
Gemma said the family were touched by the bikers’ kindness.
“None of us realised Max was that into motorbikes before,” she said. “But when he saw Callum’s bike that day, he was going crazy.
“The kids at the party couldn’t believe it when all these bikes turned up at the hall. And the bikers were so good with them.
“They got to sit on them and climb all over them,” she added. “And they gave Max a card for his birthday with money from all of them inside.
“He was over the moon when he opened it. He told me ‘I don’t know what to say’.”
So would Gemma be happy if there’s a future biker in the Simonetti family?
“Yes,” she declared.
“It might be me though.”
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