Gilbert, an unusual name by todays standards that came from German origins and means bright promise, brilliance. Bethune must have been a family name, put them together and you get Gilbert Bethune Brown, a successful motorcyclist who may have originated from the Wanganui or Feilding area. Who knows what spurred Gilbert on in motorcycling but […]
Early Competition in New Zealand. Read More »
Early stories of motorcyclists and their adventures in New Zealand are very few, perhaps because as a nation of motorcyclists we are more of ‘the doer than the talker’. J. B. Hislop was one of those very early motorcyclists that was both, as he wrote about people, places and events that he encountered through his
J B Hislop, Another True Pioneer Motorcyclist. Read More »
In June 2009 we featured a piece about W.M. Davy from NZ converting a 2 3/4hp side valve Douglas engine into a OHC. The article came from a 1920s edition of the English motorcycling magazine The Motorcycle. Not much else was printed and so here endeth the story. Well, Graeme from New Plymouth has passed
Billy (William M.) Davy – A 1920s Engineering Wizard? Read More »
A nice period photograph of R. H. Appleby and Sons garage and service station in Kurow, with an interesting group of motorcyclists. Taken in the late 1930s, or most likely mid 1940s (there is one machine with telescopic forks) did the group of 16 riders and motorcycles start from Kurow or was Applebys just a
A Country Jaunt on a Sunday Afternoon, Maybe? Read More »
It has been quite a while since we put up some old photographs of motorcycling, mainly because as the years pass they become harder and harder to find. Some photos have only just survived the ravages of time, but then some of these would be over 100 years, so to have survived at all is
