KIWI RIDER 08 2019 VOL.1 | Page 29

WORDS: RAY HERON PHOTOS: BEN WILKINS MOT WE’VE SEEN THE CRAZY YOUTUBE VIDEOS, SO WE WENT ALONG TO MEET THE CONEHEADS IN A WELLINGTON CARPARK... O n a cold winter’s evening in Wellington, most people are hurriedly making their way to the bus terminal, the train station, or joining the rat race on the motorway, trying to get home. However, this was not the case for a small group of motorcycle enthusiasts, who go by the name of Cone Heads. Every Thursday evening the Wellington Coneheads meet in the Outlet city carpark in Tawa, for what is called MotoGymkhana. We’ve seen the crazy videos on YouTube, so decided to attend their introductory night and find out what it’s all about. Motorcycle gymkhana (or Moto Gymkhana) is defined by Wikipedia as “a motorcycle time trial sport, in which riders compete to manoeuvre in the shortest time through a paved course restricted by traffic cones or other obstacles.” It was around 5:30pm when I arrived at the designated carpark, joining another three first time Moto Gymkhana riders on bikes ranging from a Suzuki GSX150 to a high-bar’d Harley. Once the pleasantries were exchanged, and introductions made, the cones came out and we wasted no time warming up with some slaloms up and back between cones set out at 2.5m intervals. Next was a wide slalom where the cones were closer together, but offset by a few metres, meaning you effectively had a full lock hairpin turn to get around the cone. Though not exactly challenging, this was a good warm up for what was in store for the rest of the night. Our first drill was to ride along weaving left and right, trying to get the handle bars from lock to lock while keeping the bike moving. This was difficult to start with, but with a bit KIWI RIDER 29