Manual Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker

Free download. Book file PDF easily for everyone and every device. You can download and read online Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker file PDF Book only if you are registered here. And also you can download or read online all Book PDF file that related with Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker book. Happy reading Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker Bookeveryone. Download file Free Book PDF Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker at Complete PDF Library. This Book have some digital formats such us :paperbook, ebook, kindle, epub, fb2 and another formats. Here is The CompletePDF Book Library. It's free to register here to get Book file PDF Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker Pocket Guide.
Croz Larrikin Kiwi Biker Kindle Edition. by Graeme Crosby (Author).
Table of contents

By the time Christmas arrived the organizers had found a series sponsor. Riders came from all over the world. He brought with him a very young Pat Hennen, who had also been drafted into the Suzuki team. The opening round drew a big crowd on Boxing Day in Wanganui where the circuit winds itself around a network of tight roads that surround a centrally located cemetery.

Graeme Crosby (Croz)

It also features a railway line crossing that has to be taken at an acute angle, making it quite tricky in the wet. Pukekohe was the second round of the Marlboro Series on 29 December Initially, I went as a spectator but ended up helping Eric Bone on his production H2. It was like heaven to me. He had starred in On Any Sunday , a movie that dramatized the various motorcycle sports in America. Though basic, its feral nature contributed to its popularity amongst motorcycle fans all over the world.

Croz: Larrikin Biker

The bike he was loaned belonged to Colemans, the New Zealand Suzuki importers. He crashed during practice when a rider in front of him slowed unexpectedly. He took evasive action but ran off the track and ended upside down in a pile of mud and grass on the edge of a drain. Although he came away relatively unscathed, Eric was bundled off to hospital for observation. Eric tells the story of arriving at the hospital and having to wait until a doctor came to see him.

I got her attention and asked her how long it would be before I was seen.


  1. Lonely Path (A Bodhi King Novel Book 2)!
  2. News of the calamities of the house!
  3. Collins Booksellers Australian Bookshop - Buy Books, ebooks, Kobo eReaders online.

Boy, did she cop a mouthful from me. I told her what I thought of her all right! As if to prove her point, she said one of your American racing friends is lying dead out there. She was in a distressed state with tears running down her face. What transpired in this tragic turn of events was that Cal had run the bike successfully in practice but thought he was in need of more power. Talking with mechanic Joe Lett, Cal discovered Joe had already modified the jetting previously so it could be run on alcohol and had all the jets in a box if he wanted to change it over.

Cal and his father-in-law decided that the change to alcohol was necessary, so Joe left them to it to change the carburettor jets and mix up some alcohol fuel for the race. The facts are a bit sketchy but from all indications some additional modifications were carried out to the slide cut-aways and this may have contributed to the engine running leaner and seizing as Cal was going through Champion Curve at high speed. He was unable to catch the seizure and was thrown off the bike and into a wooden fence, suffering extensive and fatal chest injuries. The third round was staged around an industrial estate at Gracefield in the Hutt Valley near Wellington.

I heard the news that John Boote appeared with the very first TZ This 4-cylinder 2-stroke racer was blindingly fast, winning decisively on its first outing. He went on to win again at the last round in Christchurch but missed out on the series win by starting too late. Joining the Auckland Motorcycle Club was the only way to get issued with a racing licence. This club had been founded back in the s and it ran like clockwork.

It was a well-oiled machine, classic in its constitution and committee make-up. The application was then put to the committee for consideration. I had been at the dealership for only two months when I decided I could just about afford a small bike.

Related Books

There was nothing in my price bracket that I could consider in our shop but I had had my eye on a nice new green Suzuki AC50 at a dealership only metres up the road. I had often roared past this place, usually on one wheel and invariably with a passenger clinging on for dear life with eyes the size of dinner plates. From time to time I would drop into this Suzuki shop and chat with its owner, Ken Fletcher. I loved watching Ken prepare his Suzuki TR race bike.

I was becoming hooked on the racing scene and this became the catalyst for me to think of taking to the track. I jumped aboard my new bike and rode it straight down the hill and back to work. That afternoon I began the work of converting it into a race bike.

Graeme Crosby - early motorcycle racing career-3

Ken Fletcher must have thought I was a wanker. Who in their right mind would want to race a 50 cc Suzuki anyway? I had a developing interest in the workshop and asked to be transferred under a government apprenticeship scheme. My life as a mechanic began a week later.

Croz | Angus & Robertson

Eric was head mechanic in the workshop but we had already begun travelling to the racetracks together, along with his girlfriend Margaret. She was a big blonde with a ferocious appetite for gin, lime and lemonade plus the capacity to go head to head with anyone until the small hours of the morning.

I was certainly in good hands but constantly scared shitless of Marg who would threaten to wipe grease and oil from my face with her spit-dampened handkerchief. Eric rode a red Kawasaki H1 that the company had given him as a write-off to rebuild and race under their sponsorship. It really looked just like the bike Bob had crashed earlier with a flattened front end. A very tidy production race bike emerged after some careful disassembly, straightening and rebuilding. It was fun doing the work on it.

Larrikin Kiwi Biker

The front forks had bent almost at right angles under the frame. They must have been under maximum compression at the time of impact because when we took the top nuts off the forks, the inner springs launched themselves skywards, nearly cleaning up Eric and me in the process. This bike never missed a beat on the track but over time eventually became uncompetitive and obsolete. In any case Eric had moved into the Open Production class, racing aboard a H2 triple.

My Suzuki AC50 lasted about three months before I sold it and purchased the A7 Avenger that Eric had raced regularly before his interests became firmly focused on the cc. I still had no racing experience but had done plenty of road riding. A group of friends would gather on Friday nights or at weekends to race each other from Auckland to Wellington via Wanganui or Hamilton and back.

These were long rides of over km. I think it was critical in the learning phase for budding racers but not too popular with the police. I was able to push the bike to its limits, all the time honing my riding skills, and at speed on empty country roads I developed an ability to read the road.

I was soon informed that my application had been accepted by the Auckland Motorcycle Club and I paid my fees to become an official member. I was not into the politics of the club but more interested in the social side, sitting down with all these wonderful characters and listening to their entertaining stories. Everyone had a story to tell, but it was those classic European yarns of road racing that were the best to listen to. I would hang on every word, particularly when it was being told from first-hand experience. In the early s the subject at the club that really fired my imagination was racing in the UK and the Isle of Man.

Just listening to these guys talking about the Isle of Man and the experiences they had had there was fascinating. The depth of knowledge they had of the circuit 12, miles away was incredible and how they were able to describe every corner and section of the Island circuit blew me away.

The members would talk about the successes and failures of New Zealand riders as they had attempted to conquer the greatest road circuit in the world.

I studied the TT circuit more out of interest initially than from a desire to race. I read books and pored over the Motorcycle News and its rival Motorcycle Weekly , which always seemed to arrive about three months after their UK publication. Now that I had my licence to race, I entered my first club event at Pukekohe and finished a creditable fourth.

My first outing was marred by a spectacular crash during the first practice session. Unexpectedly, the rider directly in front of me sat up and braked earlier than I had anticipated. To avoid running up his backside I dived to the left, which put me all out of line to be able to get around the island forming the chicane.

Over the top I went, leaping about three feet in the air, but landed all crossed up and was immediately spat off. Down I went at about kph and slid to a stop. The bike slid a little further down the track but remarkably was not damaged beyond bent handlebars and scuffed mufflers. Often these club races had over 60 entries but what was really bizarre was the method used to get the riders onto the grid.

Croz - THE LARRIKIN KIWI BIKER

It was a free-for-all with no allocated grid positions for the race and no qualifying. Whoever got to the start line first got the best position. The riders were all lined up in rows about six deep behind a pit gate. Every bike was revving and jostling around; 2-stroke smoke hung in the air as we all waited for the gate to open. But the gate opened inwards, making it virtually impossible to predict who would end up on the front row following the melee as the riders fought for a good spot.

My second race was scheduled to be at Porirua, a circuit close to Wellington. I attached the rear aluminium race number plates and rode my A7 to the circuit. Its front plate was tied to the seat with a bungee cord. The race was held around a downtown shopping centre where the course made use of its car parks and a stretch of the surrounding roadways to form a track of about 2. There were lamp posts on every corner and hay bales were used to protect the high kerbs. There was nothing unusual about this set-up. After all, it was road racing Kiwi-style and with only a few purpose-built tracks available to use, this would have to do.


  • Divine Destiny?
  • Sigils are Easy as ABC!
  • Daffodils in Spring (Mills & Boon M&B);

    • My entry into the cc production race almost turned into a nightmare for me. After a solid start and running in third place for most of the race, I was really happy with the way things were going. Then, on the last lap, I made a mistake and ran wide on a corner. I mounted the kerb at speed and up onto the footpath, whistling right through a rope attached to empty gallon drums positioned there to keep the crowd back. Re-entering the track some 50 metres further on, I was still dragging the rope and two drums. I managed to finish third, closely followed by the gallon drums in fourth and fifth place.