2024 Annual Motorcycle Rally

The idea of our annual rally started back in April 1981, Don Nicholson suggested that it was about time Auckland had an annual motorcycle rally. He offered to organise the first one. Barry Williams plotted the ride, Don Mardle organised a swap meet, Brian Norton donated a pewter tankard for the winner. There were 54 starters, they rode out to West and North Auckland, and then back to the club rooms. After the rally finished, Alan Roberts cooked a hearty BBQ for over 100 people at the club rooms, followed by the prize giving, branch member Keith Williams won on his 1942 Indian 741B.

On the Sunday morning a monster swap meet was held in Auckland City at the car park of Shroff & Sons in Hobson Street. This was believed to be the first ever motorcycle only swap meet in NZ. The car park was completely full of stall holders, thousands turned up to buy motorcycle parts or bikes, it started to spread out into the street which then attracted the police, but by the end of the day everyone involved agreed this event was a great success.

Fast forward to 2023 and I (Martin Spicer) was the overall winner on my 1960 BSA Golden Flash, this meant that I would be plotting this year’s rally. In picture below, we show the great group that gathered for the run. We thank those that travelled from out of town to join us, here are a few stats that you may find interesting:

Entrants by Branch

Northland = 6 EBOP = 3 Waikato = 3 Horowhenua = 2 Rotorua = 1

Manawatu = 1 Warkworth = 1 Auckland = 24

Maker’s Marques

BMW = 6 Honda= 5 Norton = 4 Triumph = 3 Matchless = 3

BSA = 3 Harley-Davidson = 3 Velocette = 2 Vincent = 2 Indian = 1

MZ = 1 Jawa =1 Ariel = 1 Douglas = 1 AJS = 1

Panther = 1 Royal Enfield = 1 Yamaha = 1

Oldest Bikes

1924 Harley-Davidson 1926 AJS 1927 Indian 1935 & 42 Harley-Davidsons

1949 & 54 Vincents