I was either Michael, MD, Dobson or Dobbo, but it was NEVER Mike. Bikes had taken off worldwide and everybody was doing it( racing). I had been racing my own Kawasakis for quite a few years before Michael got a job at the Hutt Valley Kawasaki shop and started helping me. Then I got the offer of a sponsored Z650 Kawasaki and Michael came with it as mechanic, that came about through Bob Northrop / NZ Motorcycle News. After that time MD and I basically never parted. The BMWs came in the mid 80s, with help from BMW New Zealand. We spent several years campaigning up and down the country, racing at circuits which are long since gone, with some success. MD was ever the perfectionist and I couldn’ t have asked for a better spannerman. In fact, Michael was one of the best BMW technicians New Zealand had. Away from the racing, Michael had developed an interest in Ural motorcycles in the 1970s, when there were really very few around. I used