The Southland Times

Convivial bikers?

They didn’t see that coming

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More posing than acting, Marlon Brando draped himself over a motorbike in The Wild One, and presented early-1950s society with a shuddering­ly awful thought.

Or two, if you count disastrous­ly introducin­g a new generation to the notion that sideburns were cool.

But the main problem – leather-clad bikers teeming into a sedate town, disturbing the peace – caused conniption­s among the guardians of morality. Or conformity anyway.

If anything, their New Zealand counterpar­ts were even more on guard against such unheavals. Our censors knew what to do. They banned The Wild One outright. And again and again

. . . in fact five times between 1954 and

1959. It was only in 1977, eight years after

Easy Rider had hit the screens, that the Brando film was judged tolerable, and even then with an R16 certificat­e. A decade later, the video/ DVD versions were labelled PG.

Meanwhile, back in 1960s Invercargi­ll, bikers had emerged organicall­y. About the time Invercargi­ll oldster Burt Munro was starting to do great things racing his immodestly fast old Indian motor-sickle, the town had developed gang of its own, the Antarctic Angels. They feature in Roger Donaldson’s Munro film, The World’s Fastest Indian where, like just about everyone else, they were shown to be won over by the old coot’s singlemind­ed pursuit of adrenalise­d excellence.

It’s an agreeable question just what 1950s-1960s Invercargi­ll would have made of the suggestion one day that great numbers of bikers would come roaring noisily through the place, to an extent unseen anywhere else in the Southern Hemisphere, and the town and province would pretty much rejoice in their presence. As it does, with the annual Burt Munro Challenge.

Society still has a steely distaste for gangs, and rightly so. But these annual arrivals aren’t gangs, nor remotely antagonist­ic. They are here for a good time and theirs is a sort of camaraderi­e that tends to welcome, not confront, the casual passer-by. They reliably cause next to no problems and contribute not only financiall­y but socially, adding a sense of vibrancy, enthusiasm and arguably a bit of glamour, albeit mostly of the middle-aged variety.

The competitiv­e excitement­s of the challenge aren’t to be overlooked. Street racing, speedway, track sprint, drag racing, the hill climb and – most cinematica­lly – the beach racing all have their appeal for onlooking crowds.

Things have reached the stage where it’s not only Invercargi­ll, and Southland, where the Munroists are turning heads. People in points north have come to recognise the sight of the pilgrimage to and the return home.

Sadly those journeys haven’t been without accident, even fatality, which presents a case for continuing rider-and-driver education. The Munro Challenge has only recently changed from November to February and the more used summertime road users become to the prospect of encounteri­ng these riders the better. When they’re on the road, best give them a bit of distance. But when they’ve pulled over, don’t be shy. Typically they’re more agreeable company than the intense young Brando with that chip on his shoulder.

Street racing, speedway, track sprint, drag racing, the hill climb and – most cinematica­lly – the beach racing all have their appeal for onlooking crowds.

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