Motorbike legend Munro one of a kind, says old mate

BY DAVID OGILVIE David.ogilvie@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
Kiwi motorbike legend Burt Munro could talk himself into ? or out of ? anything, says his long-time American associate Marty Dickerson.
Dickerson, himself in the legend category for his feats on the Vincent motorcycle on Utah's Bonneville Salt flats, was in Wanganui yesterday as part of his first New Zealand visit ? one which will culminate in a visit to Burt Munro's Invercargill grave.
Now 81, Dickerson is the man who made friends with the Invercargill man Munro when he first visited the United States in 1956.
His aim this trip was to go to the Australian Vincent Owners Club International Rally.
"But I discovered they were going to have a big bash for George Begg (writer of Burt Munro Indian Legend of Speed) down in Invercargill, so I decided to come to New Zealand. I've never met George but we've talked over the phone many, many times," said Dickerson.
He will also meet Munro's family, most of them for the first time. He met son John for only one day during the filming of The World's Fastest Indian at Bonneville.
"I always wanted to come here because old Burt told me things about it and I've always heard it was a beautiful country. So I've decided to make a decent vacation out of it."
How did then several-times and classes world speed record holder Dickerson meet Munro?
"In 1956 the German NSU factory came over to set the outright two-wheel bike record, and Burt learnt about it and trekked to the US to watch.
"I went up there to watch at Bonneville, I had a T-shirt on which had Vincent on it, and I guess he either recognised me or the name and made himself known."
The previous year Dickerson had ridden a supercharged Vincent Black Lightning and did a two-way average of 177 miles an hour, which at that time was the fastest open-wheeled bike record.
"Burt bummed a ride back to Los Angeles with me because he had to catch a boat back."
And no, it wasn't the (movie) one where he was cook to pay his way. Dickerson says that didn't happen at all.
"That's Hollywood!"
Dickerson says he had to tell movie producer Roger Donaldson he was disappointed with aspects of the movie because "some of those things didn't happen to Burt." But he changed his mind to a degree.
"After seeing it a number of times I realised that if you had to put 11 years of Burt's life into a two-hour movie and make it continuous and interesting, then I said to him 'you did a brilliant job.'
"That kind of eased his mind a wee bit."
What kind of a man was Munro?
"The movie did extremely well to show his character ? and he was a character. No matter where he went, everybody would go out of their way to give him a hand. He had that karma.
"He would come to the States with a very good-sized suitcase; he had one spare pair of pants, one spare shirt and some underwear ? but when he went home it took Rollie Free and myself both to lift the suitcase. It was so full of goodies people had given him."
One epic tale Dickerson tells about Munro and his ability to talk himself out of a problem concerned a visit to Edwards Air Force Base where Munro was arrested for taking photos of the revolutionary X-15 rocket plane.
Now, security wasn't what it is now, and Munro apparently got himself on to the base in his old Plymouth coupe, "missing" the part of the sign that said, "no cameras, no films".
"He never looked at that. He had a partial film he wanted to use up so that he would have a full roll when the X-15 took off. So he drove down the runway and he was taking pictures of all these experimental aircraft."
That's where air force security found him, in the boot of his Plymouth, changing film.
"They nailed him who he was and what he was doing here, and as soon as he opened his mouth with his good New Zealand accent, 'they had a spy'."
"They took him to the head security guy, and Burt started talking. Whenever he knew he was in trouble he started talking, to try to talk his way out of it."
He ended-up in the base commander's office, talked hard and long about his love of things that go fast ? and was blessed because ? amazingly ? the commander had recently read a magazine article about this "odd" New Zealander with a 1920 Indian motorcycle.
Well, Burt Munro ended-up with a personal tour of the base where he got to sit in the X-15.
"Anybody else, they would still be in jail," Dickerson said. "But that was Burt. He was extremely unique."