Brendon says that the two race bikes sat in the cafeteria at work ( BSL ) for over twenty years , slowly deteriorating . About three years ago Bill ’ s son , Scott , was asked to make one available for Motofest . On that weekend Scott had family commitments and Brendon was asked to ride it for him . They cobbled together a working bike at the last minute and ‘ tracked ’ it for the parade . It wasn ’ t running quite right , but it got round the track . After that he said “ Jeez , Scott , why don ’ t we actually refurbish these things properly ?” Of course , that meant bringing the bike home and stripping it right back to scratch . And the result was there in front of me , better now than when it was first built . It ’ s a testament to the man .
NO PLACE TO GO Sadly , perhaps , it will never be raced , the racing classes have moved on . It doesn ’ t fit in the Post Classics pre-95 class either , so “ It ’ s in a window that has no place in modern race fixtures ”, and as Brendon points out “ It shouldn ’ t be raced - it ’ s too exotic , there are no parts for it and a crash would destroy the carbon fibre fairings , and it can never be replaced ”.
“ But ...”, he says , “ It ’ s a piece of NZ history that needs to be out there , people keep asking about them .” And it deserves its place in history alongside other great Kiwi inventions , like the Britten and the Hamilton Jet . Brendon describes the 500cc water-cooled engine as incredibly smooth , say its brilliantly balanced and matched , making its best power around 10- 11,000rpm and that back in the day it produced around 130hp , two-stroke style . Pretty fair . This was written while Brendon was preparing it for display in the Legends Marquee , and then to ride it in the parade laps at Hampton Downs Motofest on March 2-3 this year . But there was the look in his eye that bike-racers get that ’ s almost misty ; a sort of thousand-yard-stare with heat – I ’ d seen it before in Randy Mamola and Graeme Crosby on classics at Motofest . I knew that as soon as his helmet was on that the bike in front would just be in the way . He may not wring the bike ’ s neck , but I ’ m sure he will be grinning from ear-to-ear as that unique fiery two-stroke triple sound shrieks down the Hampton straight once more .
50 KIWI RIDER