Sixties bike club planning reunion

COLIN SMITH

NGATIRA OLD BOYS: Nelson friends Bob Ching, on his 1964 Triumph 650 Thunderbird, and Kevin Page were members of the Ngatira Motor Cycle, Car and Scooter Organisation, formed in 1964.

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It's been a long time since Kevin Page and Bob Ching were devilish young firebrands tearing around the streets of Nelson on their motorbikes.

Forty years older but still a firebrand, Mr Page, who has multiple sclerosis, is embarking on a quest to find everyone he can from those halcyon days. He wants to stage a reunion of the group he helped to found – the Ngatira Motor Cycle, Car and Scooter Organisation.

Mr Page said he had tracked down about 20 members so far, but believed there could be up to 70 still out there.

Ngatira was started in 1964 by a group of young motorcyclists who "were getting into mischief", Mr Page said.

"It was to try and get young people to do something constructive with their lives instead of riding around the streets night and day, and it worked."

"Cheaper than going to court all the time," Mr Ching adds.

He said local traffic officer Doug Boyes took an interest in the boys after ticketing them for "going like the clappers" down Rutherford St, and helped them channel their energies into something more constructive.

Ngatira's first meeting was at the Nelson police station social hall, with traffic and police officers attending as advisers.

"The youths made themselves at home in the social hall, smoked the sergeant's cigarettes and were quickly on first-name terms with the traffic officers," reported a Nelson Evening Mail story at the time.

Liquor and racing were banned, and helping the community and motoring safety encouraged.

Mr Page has other newspaper clippings showing the group's members in their heyday – putting on stunt displays at A&P shows, riding with no hands and jumping through fiery hoops or walls of burning cardboard boxes.

There was also one memorable occasion when Kelvin Chapman set an unofficial world record by revving up his Honda 305 to 120kmh and jumping it over 18 people.

In November 1966, the Ngatira riders made the papers again when they were refused accommodation in Westport because they were wearing leather jackets, and were attacked by local youths, who threw soft drink bottles and "got stuck in with their feet and fists".

Mail archives show that they also helped with community work, building the fence at Natureland when it opened in the late 1960s.

When Mr Page returned to Nelson in 1971 after working in Australia, Ngatira had disbanded through lack of interest "or people just moving on with their lives". He hopes to hold the reunion next year.

Were you an original part of Ngatira, or do you know someone who was? Phone Kevin Page on 5447586 or email oldblue@clear.net.nz.

- © Fairfax NZ News