Triumph Sprint ST at Britomart

This 2005 image shows the recently released Triumph Sprint ST 1050 parked outside the also recently opened Britomart train / bus interchange in downtown Auckland. 

It produced a spectacular backdrop of light and contrast and textures that really fitted the angular line of the bike. 

It was a bike that set the tone for a lot of Triumph’s future designs. The styling was done by an external UK design company, the Renfrew Group, and they came up with the ST and Speed Triples that changed Triumph’s ongoing fortunes in the aesthetic stakes. 

Some of the earlier Hinckley/Bloor designs were a bit hit-and-miss in the looks department. 

They arguable stared the Street Fighter genre with the Speed Triple, buts some of the early models with their 'modular' engineering concepts were, well ... as enthusiasts we tended to look past their visual shortcomings. We had new TRIUMPHS!

This machine was a very capable Sports / Tourer - with the emphasis on Sport. Perfect for NZ. 

The 1050 Triple is different - it has some of the torque of a big twin, or V-twin, with some of the free-revving ability of a multi. 

And still one of my all-time favourite motorcycle engines. In fact, I still own one!

Honda Rune

A lot of people lost their shit when the Honda Rune first dropped, 'they Runed a Goldwing' etc. 
But it was a really, really nice motorcycle, particularly for a big guy. 

Those forks worked really well. 

A Honda tech told me that the problem when bikes get to a certain mass and rake is that the friction of the telescopic forks plunging up and down starts to impede the efficiency of the suspension, and these trailing bottom-link forks worked really well. 

It was also, by some margin, the best-sounding stock motorcycle I ever rode. 

It was a brilliant, rich, deep Ferrari-type sound. Just fabulous. 

I really enjoyed this bike. It's a shame that the styling of a very capable machine alienated so many potential buyers. I loved it.

The Grand Prix 132cc

I finally managed to find some photos of the exact minibike I had when I was eight years old. Except this one has had the chain guard removed. But apart from that, this is really where it all started for me. I had a home-made lawnmower-powered job before this - but the Grand Prix was the first 'real deal'. The photo is of me standing with the machine out the front of our new house at the time, with my old man's 307-cube Chevy-powered Holden Premier in the background. He was more interested in my mugshot than the bike. And probably the car! My bikes were something that came from my grandfather, who was a keen motorcyclist and cyclist. My parents indulged me/him. I have some great memories of this machine. My guitar teacher lived directly across the road in our quiet Southern Sydney street and his brother Bruce was a bit older than me, but we were friendly. And they had a mate called ‘Lünz’. He was six-foot-seven, dressed like a 60’s rocker with rock star hair, and got about on an immaculate Norton 850 Commando, that was often parked directly outside my place. Right next to the loop of the front yard that was my track. One day as he was leaving Bruce’s, I asked him if would ride beside me - to tell me how fast I was actually going. Up and down Boronia street with this giant laughing … 35 … 36 … until it was tapped out at 40kph, and starting to weave. I also knew right then that was me, or what I wanted to be, sitting on that stunning motorcycle, with the sound of Norton megaphones singing an anthem as he continued away up the hill in epic style.

Paeroa Sandbagger

Is 2026 far enough in to start referring to things that occurred in 2002 as ‘earlier this century’?

If the committee approves, I will call this shot from the street races at Paeroa, NZ, such.

After a 27-year run, the annual event was discontinued in 2018.

In its heyday *early this century*, it drew huge crowds to watch a full card of racing, from old dungers to F1 machines, dicing with serious intent around the hay-baled rural Waikato town.

It was quite a spectacle. At places in the circuit, wire mesh on temporary poles and scaffolding was all that separated the throng from pinned Gixxers and R1s.

I went several times with my Kiwi Rider hat on and took thousands of shots.

This is my favourite.

Unfortunately, Mr Buckley has jagged one of the sandbags that lined the chicane and proceeded to unwittingly veneer the track with it.

One of my favourite photography quotes is attributed to Ansel Adams: ‘A good photograph is knowing where to stand.’

That’s not so hard to work out at a racetrack, but it’s a quote that stuck for general photography as well.

Rob K's Road Glide.

We were shooting a feature on dealership co-owner Rob K’s big-wheel Road Glide build.

I had an idea: if we went up onto the freeway and I hung out of the back window of the Gasoline Alley truck as we passed the dealership it might be a shot.

To impart a sense of movement, the trick is to slow the shutter speed right down and hold the camera as steady as possible.

But I have to admit, this was one of those times when I was simply shooting in burst mode and the perfect framing was a split-second fluke. The way the trees frame the helmet, the alignment of the logos ....

The more you shoot, the more you keep. I learned from watching the professionals I worked with over the years that while most people take one or two shots—if that—the pros start with ten.

Shoot heaps then delete the junk.