Suzuki 1966‘ Bearcat’ 120cc, the first RL250 in NZ plus motocross machines
by Reynolds and Co of Wellington. Percy came back to New Zealand as the Royal Enfield distributor and, as the British Government imposed a 32 % tariff on USA goods in the early 30s, the factory Harley Davidson and Indian racers were withdrawn from New Zealand, so Percy focused on racing and tuning Royal Enfield 350s. He made his own engine brake test machine and shared his development findings with the factory. Percy was a pioneer of so much to do with motorcycling in New Zealand and developed a large wholesale parts business post-war for the British motorcycle brands, and became the Distributor for Panther, AJS, Ariel, NSU, Suzuki, Lambretta, Norton and Matchless machines by the time of his death in 1966. Rod and Bob continued the growth by adding the BSA brand in 1968, plus Triumph in 1969 as well as Montesa. Part of the exhibition included a tribute to the late Greg Coleman and Neil Forbes, two of the Coleman’ s team taken too young. We’ re planning for next year’ s event to be MUCH larger, so get down to Whanganui next January for the Vintage Weekend, it’ ll be a classic motorcycling treat.
Middle: Steve Roberts‘ Plastic Fantastic’ Formula One machine commissioned by Rod Coleman
Bottom: The local brass players came to the exhibition – and the band played on