New Zealand was awesome. I have not raced a bike and had that much fun in quite a few years!

Ken McIntosh built a 1962 Manx Norton, for me to ride in the Classic Motorcycle Festival at Pukekohe, and it was an absolute rocket and faster than anything in its class. I was able to break the lap record for the class by 8/10ths of a second. We had to adjust on it just a bit but that is to be expected when we were going faster than the bike had ever been before around that circuit!

It was interesting for me to ride a bike that is older than me and see how well it handled. I thought it could have had better brakes and the forks were a little vague but not bad considering the age of the bike...and rider! Ha ha! I really enjoyed my time down in New Zealand, the country is beautiful. I was able to spend a bit of time with the Suzuki New Zealand dealers and presented them the new GSX-R 1000 K9, what a machine! We went dirt bike riding and trout fishing, both were amazing.

I also had the chance to catch up with Fred Merkel. We sat around and told stories and laughed, it was awesome. He seems to be doing well and does not look any different than he did when we raced against each other in 1986-1987! He and his wife live just south of Auckland with his 17 year old son Travis. He has an engineering company and he and his wife are expecting a son in June.

Thanks again to Ken McIintosh and Suzuki New Zealand for all the hospitality.

I look forward to visiting again soon!

See picture from Bryan Mawhinney here