“
IT HAD WILD
POWER. YOU HAD
TO FIGHT YOUR
WAY ROUND ON
THE THING
RIDER – PETER PLOEN
Peter Ploen is another person on whom the works bikes made a huge impression.
Having just finished his mechanic’s apprenticeship, he was employed by Colemans
Suzuki, drafted into the motocross team and handed a works RH250. When the RN400s
arrived he rode one of them as well. He would go on to win three 500cc championships
and a 500 TT championship.
He remembers power and light weight so overwhelming no other riders could get
near them – the main opposition in those days was Yamaha’s YZ360. But he also recalls
having to wear a towel under his body belt to provide extra support round his middle,
because the six inches of travel had a habit of beating his kidneys up when the going
got rough. “They were the bikes that encouraged me to adopt a silly riding style as I
tried to find their limits,” he says.
“It had wild power. You had to fight your way round on the thing, but the power made
up for it. I used to like to make the bike find its limits, whether it was wheel standing or
sliding – I’d just keep pushing it.
“No one else had works bikes and we were totally spoilt, although we didn’t realise it
at the time. With our works bikes, it was like taking candy from a baby compared with
what everyone else was riding.”
Typical of the sort of riding for which Ploen became renowned was his jump from a big
drop off at the Woodville track, near Wellington. Going too fast to stop, or even slow
down, he launched off the top lip aboard his RN400 and only landed after a long and
dangerous flight.
“It gave me the biggest scare of my whole life, but when I landed safely I thought
all my birthdays had come at once,” he laughs now. “It was one hell of a machine.”
KIWI RIDER 33