About

As with a lot of motorcyclists, I had a period without a bike when my children were younger. I’d always wanted a Harley and finally decided to buy one in 2003. I searched around for something that was a little different, and that I could increase its value by restoring and customising.

I finally saved the money as I searched the interwebs for my first Harley. I’d had my eye on a Liberty Edition Sportster that was for sale in the Christchurch HD dealership. It had not been cared for very well, but was low mileage for its age. Soon after I took it for a test ride I was the proud new owner. The Sportster was in good condition mechanically so I set about restoring it to its former glory along with original Liberty decals.

In 2005 there were two bikes that I took out on the demo ride day, a Deuce, and a Buell Ulysses. Both of which I decided would be fun to own, but was just dreaming at that stage.

The Sportster eventually got traded for a black ’97 Fatboy. I also had my eye on a silver and black 100th anniversary Fatboy that was in storage with 800 miles on the clock, but it took me 3 years to convince the owner to sell. The anniversary Fatboy was like new when I took ownership, so I decided to keep the mileage low and added an ’06 Buell Ulysses to the garage. Without a doubt, the Buell was the most fun bike I had ridden at that point, so it was given a personalised plate that just said fun albeit in a geeky way, “w00t!”.

At the Burt Munro Challenge in 2009, a good friend of mine (Noel Jackson) and I were discussing how it might be fun to race post-classic Harleys. He had raced an XR for a number of years previously, but it was all new to me. I laid down the challenge that if he would build a post-classic Harley for racing, I would also. We sought out some donor ironhead Sportsters to prepare as replica XR’s for the pre-’72 class and built matching race bikes during 2010. My XR was built for road and track and won a prize in each of two shows that it was entered. We raced the bikes at Teretonga for the Burt Munro Challenge that year and then again at Levels in the January.

It was at the Ashburton Motorcycle show in 2010 that I spied my next bike in a Rolling Thunder display. Since the Deuce had been discontinued, the Rocker models had been my choice of new bike for some time. The only thing about the Rockers that I was hesitant about was the flashy paintwork with pinstripe flames. However, when I saw the subtle charcoal pinstripe flames on denim black, I knew I had to own that bike. I worked out a deal with Wayne Potter and said good bye to the anniversary Fatboy and the Ulysses in exchange for my dream bike.

Of course, I couldn’t just ride the Rocker around in standard form and had to set it up for doing some serious touring miles. You may have seen my bike getting around with a modified detachable rear seat that has a backrest and sheepskin cover for passenger comfort on longer trips. I also added detachable saddlebags, high-flow air cleaner and satin black Rinehart Racing exhaust. After putting about 6,000 miles on the clock I decided to ask the team at Rolling Thunder to install a 113 kit and race tune it for me.

“The Rocker was since wearing the fun personalised plate, getting out at every opportunity. I finally traded it in at 12 years old when it had 98,000 miles on the clock.”