Motorcycle meet Hog heaven for white-collar workers
Geoffrey Milne has been to all 11 editions of the Burt Munro Challenge, New Zealand’s largest motorcycling event.
The Invercargill bike enthusiast has seen the event grow year by year, with the bikers’ bacchanal – running in Southland this weekend – becoming more Suits than Sons of Anarchy as time goes on, Milne reckons.
He can now count lawyers, accountants, real estate agents – even the odd millionaire – among his circle of friends.
It’s a disparate bunch, united by one thing: a passion for motorcycling.
The event – named in honour of after the Kiwi motorbike legend who set a land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in the US in 1962 – is not what people think of when they think of a motorcycle event.
In past years, professional businessmen, doctors, celebrities and MPs have taken a week or two off work to entertain their wild side, Milne says.
Challenge organising committee chairman Wayne Affleck has seen visitors who have travelled from far and wide to attend the event.
More than 20,000 spectators and 700 competitors were expected for this weekend’s get-together, with up to 2000 competing in the rally.
Motorcycle enthusiasts attending do not fit your typical ‘‘bikie’’ stereotype, Affleck says.
‘‘They are nothing like you’d expect. They’re ‘bikers’, not ‘bikies’.’’
Established people in their mid-50s are the common sort,
Last year, more than 500 people came from the North Island, more than 130 from Australia, and people from Europe, Germany and America.
Perhaps the pin-up boy of wealthy motorbike enthusiasts is economist and political newbie Gareth Morgan.
With wife Jo, Morgan has documented his motorbike trips around the globe on his Ridebybike blog, riding 150,000kms across more than 80 countries.
Despite all the travelling, Morgan still makes time for the Challenge.
It is about the celebration of characters that have influenced motorcycling in New Zealand and was an event that the community enjoys and gets involved in, he says.
It helps promote Southland and draws people from ‘‘all walks of life’’.