“I’d spend five months in New Zealand and Australia, fly out to Britain on Monday, arrive
on Wednesday and be back riding again on Saturday,” he says, “We had a good thing
going with Suzuki: they were the top bike at the time.”
Ivan Miller had always been a natural rider; a talent discovered at age 13 by his brother
when he insisted Ivan take a ride on his motocrosser.
“I wanted to be a Rugby player, an All Black, but I went around the track quicker than
my brother did, so he told me I should ride motocross.” Miller took out New Zealand
championships when he was 16, then the Australian champs.
He was encouraged to take his talent to Europe by Tim Gibbes, who was riding for the
Greeves team, and when he was 18, Miller headed to the Northern Hemisphere. As a
professional he rode all over Europe, competed in the Trophy des Nations and Motocros
des Nations for England – the team was third and fifth respectively – and rode Trans-AMA
in the US against the big names of the day, including DeCoster and Brad Lackey.
Miller kept it up until 1983, when he felt burnt out and tired of a life of suitcases, hotel
rooms and aircraft. He moved to England to settle down and live a normal life for the first
time. Today he is happier out on the weekends on his Harley Davidson 1340 Dyna Low Rider,
which has also taken him through France and down into Spain, where the weather is much
more friendly than England’s.
KIWI RIDER 31