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Thread: A history of bike shops in Auckland

  1. #46
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    I can remember back a few years with bike shops.
    Mike Vincen and Briants yamaha in Beach road.
    Colemans had the whole building where they are now.
    2 bike shops on Ponsonby road
    Forbes and Davies were up from there.
    Auckland dismantlers just up the road from them.
    Haldanes were in Market road where theres now a music shop.
    Mt eden wreckers were where mt eden Motorcycles are.
    Around the corner was Bill Russel honda and over the road Summers Kawasaki
    Davy motorcycles and wreckers in teed st Newmarket.
    There was a Suzuki shop in Greenlane for ages too
    A bike shop in what became Onehunga mall
    Papatoetoe Honda by the railbridge in old papatoetoe.
    Takinini motorcycles
    Papakura motorcycles.
    Shaft motorcycles in Otahuhu
    the honda place in Pamure (burnt out in the late 80's) and the Suzuki/Yamaha crowd in Howick.
    Henderson Motorcycles were a wrecker back then and the "real" henderson motorcycles was on a site that got bulldozed to make room for the road being widened.
    Gosh that was back in the early 80's and look how few of those guys survived till today
    To see a life newly created.To watch it grow and prosper. Isn't that the greatest gift a human being can be given?

  2. #47
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    13th September 2005 - 18:20
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    Quote Originally Posted by FROSTY View Post
    I can remember back a few years with bike shops.
    Vincents and a yamaha dealership in Beach road.
    Mike Vinsen Suzuki.
    If it wasn't for a concise set of rules, we might have to resort to common sense!

  3. #48
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    Quote Originally Posted by Max Preload View Post
    Mike Vinsen Suzuki.
    Was my first job as a detailler there in 1987. Got to ride all sorts of bikes taking them for WOF's.
    The Vinsen's are a great bunch of guys.


    "...you meet the weirdest people riding a Guzzi !!..."

  4. #49
    Pierre NS250R Guest

    more bike shops

    There was Peter Murphy motorcycles in Papakura,Bob Anderson in Otahuhu,and Onehunga Motorcycles which was run by Ken Fletcher.All of these blokes were well known as top racers in their day.Western Webb sold many new Japanese bikes.One of my neighbours bought a brand new 150cc Suzuki in 1965,a guy in the next street bought a Honda 305 and they had brand new Kawasaki 500s in 1971.I remember that Forbes and Davies had a small shop in Custom Street near Anzac Ave in 1972.Shaft in Otahuhu had one of those Triumph Hurricanes in 1973 and it sat unsold for a very long time.Now they are collectable.John Hempleman had two 450 Ducatis which he couldnt sell.,they were the same price as a Kawasaki 500 ,I think he must have sent them back to Italy.

  5. #50
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    In answer to the first post - Mr Weston-Webb was William, more commonly known as Bill. They fixed my Honda CD175 after it was modified by a woman doing a U-turn in Hunters Corner, Papatoetoe. We used to get parts and stuff there and drool over the Triumphs. Also used to hang out in Papatoetoe Motorcycles - the dude there, whose name I can't recall, used to tolerate us quite well even though we spent bugger all there. I remember seeing a Honda CB450 dohc there for the first time.

    Honda spares came from John Dale on the second floor above a shop in Gt North Rd about opposite to where Mai FM is now. I'm trying to remember where the main branch was. Forbes & Davies had their shop down in Customs St and I bought a brand spankin' new MT250 through their salesman Neil Paget. Their workshop was right around the corner where the Asian markets are now.

    Someone mentioned the Browns Bay Bike shop - East Coast Bays Motorcycles, run by a Canadian dude called Denis and Colin (who had one of the first SC500 Yamaha motocrossers, poor soul). One day I did a donut in the gravel outside as I left and sprayed their steel door. Apparently this made a lot of noise inside and Denis wanted to do me injury for some time after that.

    Laurie Summers was in Mt Eden Rd with Bill Russell Suzuki right opposite. Yes spares was downstairs, that was the cave I worked in with Colin McAlister who knew every bloody spare part number in the place. Some guy would come in for a wheel nut for an A7, I'd dive for the parts book and Colin would say 'that's a 833-000-33.' Later I went to work in Summers' accessories dept in Newton where we handled Barum tyres, Champion spark plugs, Line 7 wet weather gear, 8 million different types of light bulbs and other shit. It is there that I learned what a festoon bulb is.

    An Auckland radio station had a competition where you had to guess a bunch of bikes from the sound. My younger brother entered and I told him what the bikes were, using my knowledge of bikes roaring up and down Mt Eden Rd all day. We got all but one right - I called a Triumph for a Kwakka 650.... The prize was a Centurion full face helmet which we went to pick up one Saturday morning just before we went to see a new film called 'On Any Sunday.' I remember the radio announcer, Bill Mudgway, saying "you're really going to enjoy that movie," and he was right. I still have the DVD - I still watch it from time to time and the only thing that's changed is the amount of suspension travel and electronics on the bikes.

    Summers also had a branch in Onehunga that handled Jawas as well as Kawasakis. I got in the shit one day when I wrapped some spare parts in about 8 metres of tape as a joke to the guys at Onehunga, except the wrong person got the parcel and complained to the boss that this was the sort of behaviour that would send the company broke.

    I was told Laurie Summers real name was Count Lorenz Von Zomaruga - but then many of the rumours that flew around that place were bullshit so you never knew.

    I also remember Len Perry Motorcycles on the Great South Rd at Penrose.

    The bike shops were all pretty small and the staff were real enthusiasts. Very few left now - Lloyd May's Kingsland Motorcycles is still there but won't be for much longer. I have recently had a bike sorted there and Lloyd ain't gettin' any younger, and his back is very bad. It's like a time warp going in there and Lloyd doesn't suffer fools - like the bloke in the grey coat at Weston Webbs, remembered in the first post of this thread.

    A bit long but I have some neat memories of these things.

  6. #51
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    At last someone has mentioned John Dale's Perhaps all on here are too young to have heard of them. They were in Karangahape road just before Ponsonby road.
    I used to get them to service my first bike a 1950 AJS in the 1950's.

    One day I was attracted to a lovely lass in Panmure and ran my AJ into the back of a car. The forks were bent. I got it to Dales expecting to have to get some new ones. They just said put it over there and come back tomorrow. Apparently it was a common repair for them. Sure enough the bike was ready for me all fixed next day.

    There was another dealer - repair man a short way down Ponsonby Road in the
    1950's. I sold my AJ to him and purchased a Micoletta maxi scooter from him. A 250cc two stroke that could go like stink. Cruised at 120kmph, one of the first two
    wheelers with a self starter.

  7. #52
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    Snip

    It was a small shop,they all were then - and behind the counter was the grumpy sod Ray,in his dust coat.The old school didn't like us young guys,we were noisy with long hair and poor dress sense....worst of all was what we were doing to their treasured bikes,chopping them up,stripping them down,we didn't respect nothing...not them or their bikes.So Ray didn't talk to us,just stood at his counter and watched....then you went up to the counter and asked for what you wanted.''No,we don't have one''....'What about that one there?'.....''It won't fit your bike.....or....that's sold,you can't have it'' - and it'd still be there next week.

    Sorry but had to say this sounded Just like Hamrax in london ...Exactly ,,,,,

    and

    Natural wear Leather , I still have my Jacket I bought in Natural wear leather christchurch , 30 years ( yes ) ago , its on the chair behind me as I type


    Sorry as you were I enjoying reading this

    Stephen
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  8. #53
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    The LS Onehunga guys had a joke that the first thing every Jawa owner said when they walked in the door was "My Jawa's broken down."


    Photo is of a Laurie Summers' stand at a carshow in the late 60s.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

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  9. #54
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    Old Bike Shops

    Anybody remember New Lynn Motorcycles, bought a new Honda 90 in 64, a Triumph 21 in 65, a Triumph TBird 650 in 66.
    What about MT Roskill Motorcycles, bought a 61 Bonnie of them around 1970.

  10. #55
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    "In answer to the first post - Mr Weston-Webb was William."

    It takes me back to the 1970's. Was this the guy in the dustcoat behind the counter at Weston Webb's shop in (Station St ?) Otahuhu ? An interesting case - as you, or most any other customer walked out the door with your new purchase of spare parts, this guy ALWAYS had a sarcastic remark - his parting shot. Sometimes the remarks were only mild, i.e. you couldn't be sure, take it either way. But more often, just plain sarcastic. That's how he obtained his job satisfaction I suppose. A couple of times I watched him - his timing was impeccable.
    But hang on a moment, because I don't recall seeing any Japanese motorcycles in Weston-Webb's shop, at least not in the early 70's. And Mr. Dustcoat had a thing against NSU Quickly's. This despite the fact that they were a very reliable and popular go-to-work machine, and started the sales in many bike shops.
    There was a Norvin out front for six months or more, next to a little SUN two-stroke tiddler, then inside the far window, closest to the old cinema, as a Royal Enfield Bullet, with plenty of oil on the floor. I once spotted a CZ 501 out the back, and asked about it, whereupon I was allowed to strip it for spare parts, for free. (Thanks).

    An interesting person was the manager of the Onehunga branch of Laurie Summers, a Mr. B. Buchanan, I think. Since he's probably still alive......I've nothing to say, just yet.

    "Summers also had a branch in Onehunga that handled Jawas as well as Kawasakis."

    Trevor was the Jawa/CZ spare parts man at Onehunga. He was quite handicapped, poor chap, but his mind was as sharp as a tack. He knew those spare parts back to front, and although he was very slow in speaking, you could learn more about Jawa & CZ in five minutes with him than in five years anywhere else. When you gave your engine number, he knew immediately which side of the model change your bike was on. A thoroughly decent chap - in all respects.

    I vaguely recall a newish motorbike shop somehere in the Sandringham area, I think. Just on or off New North Rd. Back in the early to middle 1970's. When I was there, for the first and last time, the owner/manager was loudly berating a young chap outside on the footpath/kerb area, who was fixing his little motorbike. It was a young Chinese student, and he was installing a little part into the rear drum brake linkage at the hub. 'It's a trunnion !' shouted the owner, among other remarks. The student was obviously, with his limited command of technical motorcycle terms, quite unconcerned about the difference between a trunnion and a bunion. This same shop owner I saw some time later, sitting high up in the stand at Pukekohe, resplendent in new leathers, disbursing scathing remarks about the racers on the track. I guess some people are more up themselves than others.

    Perhaps I should be grateful that these turkeys are in motorcycle shops, and not in Government, or the Civil Service, or the Diplomatic Corps. I like to think that some of us have come a long way since those days, in areas of good manners, customer service, returning customers, etc. etc.

  11. #56
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    An 8 year Necro!

    Impressive!
    Physics; Thou art a cruel, heartless Bitch-of-a-Mistress

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