attended a seminar two weeks earlier on setting up
incorporated societies in NZ. During our chat, the
extended track layout had seen a major crash in
practise and the Police cancelled the meeting
(a young boy spectator was killed and his dad
injured). As people were streaming past us towards
the gate, John Pugh and I agreed to meet in the
near future, and the momentum continued.
The first AGM of the proposed NZBSA Owners
Club was held on the first Sunday of March 1978,
in the village of Paekakariki with 28 people at the
meeting and a lot of BSA and classic machines
in attendance from around Wellington, Marton,
Ohakea and Palmerston North. An owner from
Dunedin was also in attendance.
By February 1979 the club was hosting a major
classic bike show at the Upper Hutt Civic Hall
(a full year before the first Classic Bike Magazine
Show in UK) and from there the club grew
throughout NZ with 253 members by 1982
(including nine in Australia), making it the
largest club outside the UK.
“
IN THOSE DAYS
THERE WERE NO
BSA T-SHIRTS OR
BASEBALL CAPS
Club founder Robert Cochrane cutting ‘40th Anniversary’ cake
Stunning Norton Custom
KIWI RIDER 79