WORDS: Roger Moroney
PHOTO: Ben Wilkins
There are beautiful bikes
restored throughout New
Zealand, like this Vincent
Black Shadow
OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES YEAH?
t was a couple of years back during the
great ‘what-ho’ festival, which is staged
annually in seaside Napier in the name of
fashionable Art Deco. This event has grown
spectacularly over the past decade, to the point
where the latest one drew an estimated 50,000
visitors to ‘Deco events. That kind of made
getting even to the edges of the CBD effectively
impossible. It is the weekend of walking.
So anyway, a couple of years back I was up
there outside a hotel (of course), but I wasn’t
there to soak up an ale as it was only 9.45am
in the morning. I don’t tend to start partaking
until at least 10.15am. I was strolling amidst
a wonderful squadron of vintage and classic
motorcycles, which had their own little spread
amidst a veritable sea of vintage and classic cars.
It was great to see the old Indians, Beezas,
Velos and Harley-Ds lined up and shining
proudly, their owners suitably bedecked in
waistcoats, braves, cloth caps and striped
trousers. That’s when one little kid, about three
or four, wandered by with mum and dad and
was quite taken by what must have been a
novel experience. He must have earlier visited
the fields of old cars because he appeared to
be slightly flummoxed. “They’ve got wheels
missing,” he simply said. His smiling dad said
no, they only came with two, but the kid looked
perplexed and I could only wonder about the
surely remote situation that he hadn’t spotted
motorcycles before.
He must have, but then I guess these grand
old examples, with their large flat seats and
mudguards the size of small doors, and footpegs
big enough to sit on must have bewildered him.
I also recall him smiling excitedly when he saw
the profile of a well-feathered Indian chief on the
side of a quite beautiful old Indian. That he
did recognise.
The world of motorcycling past, as it has done
for the past decade or so, emerged again
strongly this year at the festival. There were a
few of them about, put it that way, including
a good number of fine Indians as their proud
owners enjoyed the most clement weather
to stage a rally gathering around the Art
Deco Festival.