Known to many for his association with BMWs , former BMW Motorcycle Club President Garry Williams tells Kiwi Rider what got him into bikes and adventure riding .
KIWI RIDERS
Known to many for his association with BMWs , former BMW Motorcycle Club President Garry Williams tells Kiwi Rider what got him into bikes and adventure riding .
How did it all start for you ? “ Oh crikey , that ’ s a pretty easy one , I have distinct memories of my first motorcycle experience . My dad was a traffic cop and had a Norton Atlas cop bike way back in the day . I remember being about four years old , it would have been just before he died , sitting on the tank of his bike and hooning around the back yard . I thought it was the bees knees . “ As I grew up I used to visit my Uncle Bill on his dairy farm and I ’ d ride a little Honda farm bike . I must have been about seven or eight years old . I got my first bike when I was 15 because that ’ s when you could get a licence and it was practical to get from A to B . My mum was horrified but she actually bought me my first bike which was a Suzuki TS125 which I used to commute to work . Those were my formative days in motorcycling and I absolutely loved it . When I came off my restricted licence I jumped onto a Honda CB200 and I stuck with Hondas for a while because my neighbour was linked to the Honda franchise in Hamilton . I went from a CB200 to a CB500 Four which I absolutely adored , and then when I was about 18 I did a little bit of racing with Castrol Honda . I always thought I was going to end up on road bikes but that didn ’ t last very long .”
What happened after that ? “ I moved from the CB500 Four to a Yamaha FJ1100 and rode that around for a long time until I went to the UK for ten years . While I was there I bought my first BMW , a R100 / 7 . I spent a lot of time on that , touring around Europe as well as a stint as a motorcycle courier . When I came back to New Zealand my partner Jo
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