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Story: Motorcycles

Milk-bar cowboys

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Milk-bar cowboys

Auckland motorcycle club members pose with a bike in the 1950s. Young people at the time modelled much of their appearance on Hollywood films. In New Zealand, young motorcyclists who parked their bikes outside milk bars were known as ‘milk-bar cowboys’.

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How to cite this page

Carl Walrond, Motorcycles – Customisation and production, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/21806/milk-bar-cowboys (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Carl Walrond, published 25 February 2010.