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Kōrero: Motorcycles

Richard Pearse’s bike, 1911–13

Richard Pearse’s bike, 1911–13

Richard Pearse, the first man in New Zealand to fly, also had a motorbike. In 1911, not long after moving from South Canterbury to farm at Milton in South Otago, he adapted a conventional bicycle frame and fitted a crude home-built engine. The motor drove the back wheel via a belt. This ran from a drive wheel on the engine to the large inner rim, visible through the spokes of the back wheel.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Whites Aviation Collection

Reference: WA-51316; G

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Carl Walrond, Motorcycles – Customisation and production, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/20719/richard-pearses-bike-1911-13 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Carl Walrond, i tāngia i te 25 February 2010.