Living the Dream - Kiwi Bikers

Living the Dream - Kiwi Bikers

By George Lockyer

Bateman - Hardcover -  RRP $39.99

There is nothing second-hand or vicarious about the sense of freedom, which means possessing one’s own and unique experience that a big bike well ridden confers. Anti-social? Indeed yes. And being so, a means to sanity. The motorcycle is a charm against the Group Man. — Robert Hughes, author of Myth of the Motorcycle Hog

In our increasingly homogenous world, the motorcycle still represents individuality and freedom. You can jump on your bike and, for a while, escape the manicured lawns of suburbia and all the worries that plague our complex, modern lives. All is put on the back burner as you twist that throttle, lean into the bend and live the moment with a glint in your eye.

In Living the Dream, George Lockyer talks to 50 Kiwi bikers from all walks of life, including MP Phil Goff and musician Mal Foster.

Accompanying the stories are hundreds of coloured photographs of the bikers on their treasured bikes.

What really amazed George about the whole experience of writing Living the Dream was how one contact led to another, which led to another.  The whole project, which at first seemed quite daunting, soon began to snowball and take on a life and momentum all its own.

George uncovered some colourful personalities in the book with quotes such as:

 ‘We were a drinking club with a motorcycling racing problem, rather than the other way around.’

‘If I had to choose between it (the bike) and a beautiful woman, the bike would have probably won!’

But the thing that struck George the most about the riders interviewed for this book was the abiding passion for motorcycling and the camaraderie between motorcyclists.

  

George’s primary reason for getting into motorcycling was to travel on two wheels. To leave behind the monochrome conformity of a grey council estate in West London and escape to the wild blue yonder.

So this book is both a celebration and a tribute to all those Kiwis out there who choose to express their individuality on two wheels, and know too well the reason a dog sticks its head out of a car window!

George Lockyer lives in Christchurch and for the past 12 years has been a regular contributor to Bike Rider Magazine (BRM).