KEY POINTS:
If you get passed by a middle-aged bloke on a big Harley up Matakana way, don't write him off as another Jafa on an ego trip - it could be Croz.
And Croz (aka Graeme Crosby) is no motorbike wannabe. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was a two-wheeled superhero around the world.
This weekend Auckland celebrates motorcycling in unprecedented form with the Classic Motorcycle Festival at Pukekohe, the inaugural Motorcycle New Zealand show at the Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre at Manukau and the annual motorcycling awards dinner.
Crosby will be one of the Kiwis honoured at Pukekohe for their wins on the famed TT circuit on the Isle of Man. New Zealanders have an impressive record there and the victors range from Rod Coleman in 1954 to Bruce Anstey last year.
But none are more colourful than Crosby, who won the Formula One Isle of Man TT in 1980 on a Suzuki and the following year won both the Formula One and Classic TTs.
"To succeed in the sport you need to have a passion - and a gimmick," he said this week.
Nobody doubted his skill and passion and, in an increasingly high-tech sport, his gimmick was that he was a down-to-earth Kiwi, who could beat the best on the best.
He was born in Blenheim but grew up in unfashionable Mangere East and developed a passion for bikes working as an apprentice mechanic on two-stroke Kawasaki twins and triples. His first bike, though, was a Honda 50cc Cub.
He became a fan favourite on both sides of the Tasman when he rode the big Kawasakis with sit-up-and-beg handlebars against flashy streamlined machines. Television viewers caught him in action as he wrestled the big machine to the front on the bumpy and twisty Wanganui street circuit.
When he crossed the Tasman and raced at Amaroo and Oran Park, he became the crowd favourite to the beer-swilling boys on the hill. On one occasion he was rewarded with a Holden Ute almost full of Tooheys cans donated by the crowd at Oran Park.
By 1979 he was in Europe, finishing fourth on the Isle of Man on a Moriwaki 994cc Kawasaki and second in the British championship. The following year he rode for Suzuki, winning at the Isle of Man and also in the US and Japan. Those three wins have a special significance for him.
"They were three completely different types of race. The Isle of Man is stone walls and cobblestones, Daytona in the US is high banking and Suzuka is a more conventional racing circuit."
The two Isle of Man wins in 1981 were accompanied by a string of other successes with Suzuki. But by 1982 the team wouldn't offer him a full factory deal so he switched to the Agostini Yamaha team and came second in the world 500cc GP championship.
He won the Daytona 200 and the Imola 200 in the same year, an honour he shares with Giacomo Agostini. But he is the only rider ever to win each of the Daytona 200, Imola 200, the Suzuka 8-Hour and an Isle of Man TT.
When his passion for two-wheeled racing faded, Crosby raced a Commodore engineered by the Stone Brothers in the Australian touring car championship and then took up flying commercially.
After a heart bypass operation, the boy from Mangere East still has the handlebars up ... but the ride is a lot more comfortable.
