PETE ’ S PEOPLE
This is a series of articles penned by guys like us ; dead keen on their bikes and lifelong devotees of two motorised wheels for one convoluted , but individual reason , it makes their life better .
by Peter Elliott
JOHN SHEPHERD
Kia ora , my name is John Shepherd - a bloke in Auckland . Son , Brother , Father , Husband , Designer , Maker , Thinker , Tinkerer , Gen-Xer , Optimist . Married to partner in life and rides - Leonie - with two teenage kids . As a profession I am a Creative Director with experience in design and advertising .
For the last 10 years I have run my own design agency specialising in ‘ designing difference ’ for brands and businesses . So a balance of artistic and strategic . Growing up in Tauranga it was all about BMX bikes - upgrading them , racing them , jumping them and crashing them with many weekends at rave meets across the country with the whanau . However , it wasn ’ t until I got into racing ( and jumping and crashing ) mountain bikes a few years later that I came to realise just how much I love the combination of rider and machine . Pushing myself to ride more smoothly meant knowing the machine and ironing out all the little nuances of physics and biology and engineering . And with the machine came freedom . As a kid with a bike the neighbourhood got bigger and as an adult living in London my single speed bicycle opened up a whole new city for me above ground . You get to go further faster , see more and explore more . Cycling features heavily as a family pastime with a garage full of bikes and hours still spent perfecting wheelies and jumps . I got my motorcycle license at age 18 ( 30 years ago ) on my Yamaha Pasola Scooter which had been a summer holiday fix-up project . Then at design school I heard about a bloke who built a bike in his own backyard - a fellow Kiwi , designer , maker , optimist and even a fellow ‘ John ’ - who , like me , seemed to revel in the motorcycle as an ‘ object ’. When I saw the Britten , read about the
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