Hamilton motorbike buff's love affair with classics and restoration

Ken McGeady says he only rides classic motorbikes he has restored. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

Motorcycle fanatic and president of the New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Racing Register Ken McGeady has been in love with classic bikes for 40 years, but his first love was hot rods and cars.

His journey in the motoring world started in his home town on the South Island West Coast near Greymouth. His father was into trucks, his friends into hot rods, cars and drag racing.

In his spare time from school, he and his friends went "tin hunting": looking for old car parts or wrecks to restore. On one of these hunts, Ken found his first project, a hot rod that he named Sam and painted bright red, which is still in his garage today.

"Everyone thought I was nuts when I said I wanted to do this project, because it literally started off as a wreck," he says.

Ken's motoring journey started off on four wheels - on the right is the first hot rod he built. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

In 1983, following a job offer in Hamilton in telecommunications, Ken moved up to the North Island and prepared for his wife Sue and three kids to follow him.

"I even drove Sam from Greymouth all the way up to Hamilton."

Just before leaving Greymouth, he visited a place for vehicle spare parts - which changed his life and sparked a love for the two-wheeled world.

"I was looking for some car parts for Sam when I stumbled across a bin with a Triumph 47 3t motorbike - in parts."

Although Ken gained his motorbike licence together with his car licence when he was 15 years old, at that stage he had never ridden a bike. "But I always wanted to have a go at it and at the engineering side, because they don't take up so much space in the garage."

His first motorbike was a Triumph 47 3t which he had found by accident. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

He took the Triumph 47 under his wing. While he was waiting for Sue and his kids to come up to Hamilton, Ken lived in a motel for six months.

"I had the Triumph with me - stored in parts under the bed."

It took him a year to get it on the road, the painting took the longest, he says.

"I'm pretty anal with the correctness of the restoration. I like to get it authentic, so getting the colour of the Triumph right has taken a little while. I rode it for 15 years before I sold it to a guy up north."

Shortly after coming to Hamilton, a work colleague put Ken in touch with the Waikato Classic Motorcycle Club, a splinter club from the Hamilton Motorcycle Club, of which he is now a life member.

Apart from motorbikes, Ken collects retro toys. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

"My colleague was a member of the club and asked whether I wanted to come along one day. The club soon became really important to me - as a new person in Hamilton - to make connections and meet new people."

When his family followed to the North Island, Sue became involved in the club as well, taking photos and accompanying Ken on tours, on the back of his bike.

"She has been pretty tolerant. I think it is because we aren't a boys-only club and all the wives know each other and they can come on tours and to the events," Ken says.

One of his long-term projects, a 1932 Triumph Silent Scout Sports, was found in a swamp. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

At the moment, he rides a Triumph Bonneville 66. He says he has neither owned a modern bike, nor bought a classic bike brand new.

"I only ride bikes I restored. It has taught me a lot, you know every bolt."

Now retired, Ken still restores and works on bikes, not only his own.

"I have reached a stage where it starts to become a problem, because I don't know when to say no and I end up with too many projects."

In his shed, Ken is currently working on a friend's bike. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

Currently, he has about 12 other classic bikes in his sheds, some of them still in parts. One of them - a 1932 Triumph Silent Scout Sports - has taken him 40 years just to get the parts together, because there are only about five such bikes left in the world.

"The bike kinda found me. It was found in a swamp and because my brother knew I was into bikes he passed it on to me. Over the years people have rung up and offered parts."

This is the 1932 Triumph Silent Scout Sports now - there is still lots of work to be done. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

On the restoring side, Ken has one big dream left: "I'd be keen to build a 1914 Maori from scratch."

The Maori motorcycle has been something of a myth: a bike built for New Zealand conditions, with 20 being produced in London and shipped to New Zealand. The ship with the bikes was torpedoed and sank - only one bike made it to New Zealand but its fate is unknown.

Hidden behind motorbike fuel tanks, Ken has a sketch of a 1914 Maori. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer

For 15 years, Ken has also been involved in the New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Racing Register, starting off as clerk of the course. For the last five years, he has also been president of the Racing Register.

"The motorbike world is unique. It doesn't matter how old you are, what job you do or how, much money you have, or even what club you belong to. It is about the people and the bikes. It's like a universal leveller.

"When you are on the bike, you get into a certain headspace, all worries disappear. This is really hard to explain to someone outside this world."

With all the bikes in the garage, Sam is the only four-wheeled project left. She has been sitting in the garage for a while.

"I have been working on it for 50 years and now I just want to get it finished and back on the road, because I have left the hot rods behind."