RUNNING OF THE Bull

NIGEL Irvine has been around motorcycles forever and remembers first hand the dramatic impact Japanese bikes had in the early 1970s. Gone were the old, oil-leaking English machines often bought cheaply secondhand and destined to break down at the most inconvenient times.

“I know that I lost a number of girls because of my unreliability,” he says. “Not turning up on time, or turning up covered with grease. Early Spanish and Italian bikes often meant late-night rides home in complete darkness.”

Now resident in the NSW central west, Nigel has broad tastes in bikes but admits to a certain affection for two-strokes, including the#32.) “The H1 was a delicious bike with good electronics, and it was reliable and converted many people to bikes,” he says. “Next to the H2, the H1 was about the fastest thing you could have. For a little over a thousand dollars, you could shut down any would-be drag racer in his 4.2-litre taxi and take on the born-to-rule class in their father’s 911.”