By Ashley Blair Southern Africa to Egypt. Place and country names are those Joy used in her diary. The incredible story of the New Zealand midwife Joy McKean who rode a 150cc Bantam Major around the world alone continues: On Saturday 2 June 1956 Joy finished night duty at the Lady Chancellor Maternity Hospital, Salisbury …
Author Archives: Ashley Blair
Joy and the Bantam Part 3
By Ashley Blair Riding in Africa. The incredible story of the New Zealand midwife who rode a 150cc Bantam Major around the world alone continues: On the way to Beira in Mozambique the Kampala called in to Seychelles, Mombasa, Zanzibar and Dar Es Salaam. Joy was not one for the highlife as she wrote that …
Joy and the Bantam Part 2
By Ashley Blair Ceylon and India*. *Place and country names are those Joy used in her diary The incredible story of the New Zealand midwife who rode a 150cc Bantam Major around the world alone continues: Joy left Fremantle on 3 September 1955 for Ceylon and spent twelve days motorcycling around a country she thought …
Joy and the Bantam Part 1
By Ashley Blair Early life and travels, start of the world tour. The first of a six-part series recounting the incredible story of the New Zealand midwife who rode a 150cc Bantam Major around the world alone. Homemade panniers, homemade sleeping bag, no stove, no tent (but a groundsheet), slept under the stars (except in …
New Zealand’s First Successful Motorcycle
By Ashley Blair The early twentieth century was the beginning of the “golden age” of cycling in New Zealand. Bicycles were affordable and used for getting to work, for recreation and for racing. A 20% tariff on imported bicycles encouraged local manufacture and in 1900 there were 25 cycle factories in Christchurch from a total …
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The First BSA Gold Star
Chances are that you have not seen this historic picture before. It shows Wal Handley astride a very special 500cc BSA at Brooklands in June 1937, the day that he captured the coveted ‘Brooklands Gold Star’ in the 500cc class by completing a race lap at over 100mph. It looks as though the picture was …
The city with hundreds of BSA motorcycles in daily use
By Ashley Blair Imagine a thriving, bustling city of a quarter of a million people. In this city there are hundreds of BSA motorcycles in daily use. Stoke-on-Trent in the 1940s? Auckland in the 1950s? Wolverhampton in the 1960s? No, this is in 2019! The city that has hundreds of BSAs in daily use today …
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