Northland Motorcycle Rally

Friday 12 noon and Rotorua's Dave Mayhew arrived at my Pokeno farm. We reloaded his Douglas onto my trailer next to the 250 Honda XL, then onto Howick and picked up John Poole and his Norton. An easy journey north to Portland just south of Whangarei, where the traffic came to a slow crawl into Whangarei. We arrived at Simon & Sylvia Clearwaters, who were our weekend billets. Overnight there was heavy rain, but by breakfast time it was blue skies and sunshine. Northland Branch Clubrooms was the start venue where Christine Garden, one of their Committee members, issued Rally packs and instructions to a great line up of nearly 70 bikes. Local Branch Secretary and stand in Chairman Ray Saunders welcomed everyone before Peter Lovat gave the rally briefing before departing at 10:00 a.m. The roads were traffic free and great for bend swinging, arriving for lunch at the Hikurangi Golf Course, which was a great place for lunch with very scenic views. The afternoon ride was even better than the morning, with the highlight being Mount Tiger Hill Road, which was like a mini IOM TT ride. We finished the rally at Bob Mulder's private collection of engines, which is on a large section in the hills above the waterfront, where he put the top half of an ex naval survey ship that used to go to the Antarctic. The boat builders didn't need the top as they were going to build the hull into a super yacht. Bob lived in the boat's top half for two years, (he told us he didn't need any planning permission as it's still classed as a boat), while he built a massive barn building to live in and to house his collection. On display were a lot of restored stationary engines, a V8 Porsche car engine, a couple of small aeroplane engine's, a giant V16 pumping engine which Bob started up for us, plus there was another 12 cylinder engine that was a bit smaller, a pipe organ that Bob played for us, a traction engine, a WW2 Chevrolet Army truck, a vintage Chevrolet car, assorted tractors, motoring memorabilia and so much more to look at. We spent over an hour looking over the collection. Results as follows:

Vintage Class:

1st Peter Alderdice 1924 Harley Davidson FE 2nd Don Green 1930 Rudge 3rd Paul Tomlin & Michael O’Kane 1925 Harley Davidson J Sidecar

Post Vintage:

1st Rory King 1942 Harley Davidson WLA 2nd Gavin Welch 1942 Harley Davidson WLA 3rd Cam Francis 1935 Harley Davidson VLKD

Northland Motorcycle Rally Contd..

Post War:

1st Dave Mayhew 2nd Brian Taylor 3rd Graham Fairbrother

P60:

P80:

1st John Shennan 2nd John Poole 3rd Robert Young 1956 Douglas 1953 Royal Enfield 700 1956 Norton Nominator

1960 BSA Golden Flash 1973 Norton Commando 1961 BSA Golden Flash Sidecar

1st Trevor Poyntz

2nd Allan Cole 1987 BMW R65

1990 BMW GS 1000 3rd Noel Howe 1970 Harley Davidson XLH The furthest ridden was Alice Leney on his 1965 Harley Davidson Electra Glide, who rode from the top of the Coromandel to Whangarei. So ended another great Northland Motorcycle Rally with a sunny journey home on Sunday and Don Green had an extra bonus, as the Northland member who he was staying with offered him a flight in his light aeroplane. Don said it was great flying at 1000 feet above the Whangarei landscape.

Martin Spicer