Raglan motorcycle racer Mike Lind with his 1986 Bimota db1 750cc race bike and his Ducati road bike. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
Raglan motorcycle racer Mike Lind with his 1986 Bimota db1 750cc race bike and his Ducati road bike. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
After a few failed attempts to hang up his racing leathers, Raglan biker Mike Lind, 67, has passed the chequered flag for the last time.
Mike, originally from Hamilton, has been racing since his high school days, starting with motocross and later switching to track racing and drag racing - first with the Bears (British, European, American Racing and Supporters), then with the Hamilton Motorcycle Club and the New Zealand Classic Motorcycle Racing Register (NZCMRR).
Motorcycles are in his DNA: his father Ron Lind was a bike enthusiast and involved with the Waikato Classic Club.
“I didn’t grow up with bikes, because Dad sold his last bike for an engagement ring, but he always had old bikes in pieces in the garage,” Mike said.
Mike learned to ride on a farm bike, during holidays with his uncle, so it didn’t take long until he wanted his own bike.
“For my 15th birthday my parents bought me a Yamaha 50. It was a road bike, FS1 two-stroke, 50cc. They bought it off Hugh Anderson at Whites Motorcycles in Hamilton.”
“I expected to get a British motorbike, like a Triumph or something, but Hugh said it would be best to learn to ride on small bike. In hindsight - he was right.”
The quicker Mike learned to ride, the quicker he learned how to fall off.
“I was trying to go too fast, I always wanted to push going around the corners faster.”
With the help of holiday jobs, he saved up to buy a bigger bike - a Yamaha 350R5 - then gravitated to motocross racing, through a friend at Fraser High School.
A young Mike Lind aboard the Mike Hailwood Ducati replica that he had turned into a race bike. Photo / Supplied
At first Mike was just watching, but that didn’t last long and he got himself a Honda Elsinore 250.
“Most people had some sort of background in motocross racing, but the only practice I had was right before [my first] race.”
After a while, one thing became apparent to him: “I did best on courses that were not so bumpy. I should have realised then, that I am better at racing on a road-surface track.”
But he kept racing motocross until the late 1970s, when a lot of his friends stopped racing because they started going overseas. It was the first of a few attempts to give up racing.
However, Mike’s love affair with motorbikes was just getting started.
Mike Lind with the Hailwood Ducati on the track. Photo / Lloyd Capon
“On a Friday afternoon, me and my friends would visit all the bike shops in the area. It was a big part of my youth. We went through what they got and dreamed about what we could have if we had more money.”
And then, one summer afternoon, he saw her: a 1977 Ducati 900SS. It was love at first ride.
“I went for a test ride and couldn’t believe it - It felt so different to the Japanese bikes and sounded just beautiful, like British bikes.”
Unfortunately, he crashed it on the way to see a girlfriend, when he tried to avoid an accident with a bicycle.
“The front end was totalled. I would have fixed it, but I wanted to go overseas.”
As part of his overseas experience, Mike visited Australia, Bali, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Jordan, India, Nepal, Greece, France and London.
During his trip, he came across an ad for the latest Ducati: it was a replica of the bike Mike Hailwood made his return to the Isle of Man on. New Zealand Mike was intrigued.
Mike Lind with his Ducati-motored Bimota DB1 replica. Photo / Lloyd Capon
“When I got back to New Zealand in 1982, I repaired my 900SS ... When I went to Hugh Anderson, I saw he had the replica for sale ... it had only done 300km, because [Hugh] originally bought it for himself brand new, but he had trouble with his knees, so he decided to sell it.”
To get his hands on the Hailwood replica, Mike decided to sell the 900SS.
“I managed to sell it for more than I paid for it, but I had to put $5000 on top to buy the Anderson replica. It was huge money at the time - probably half a deposit for a house.”
But to Mike, it was worth it. He even spent his honeymoon on it when he and his wife went on a motorbike trip around the North Island’s East Coast.
“On the way back to Hamilton we called into Taupō where the Hamilton Motorcycle Club had a track day. After that, I thought I could race the Ducati and suit it up for a Bears meeting.”
No sooner said than done. The Ducati replica first took to the race track at the Bears meet at Pukekohe in 1985.
Mike Lind aboard the Bimota on the track. Photo / Melanie Smyth
He had a couple successful runs, a few third places.
“One day, it was my wife’s birthday, and I wasn’t meant to race, but I couldn’t help myself and went to a track day at Baypark.
“I came off. That’s when I realised that I had a son and a daughter, a young family and I came to the conclusion that racing and family don’t work that well together.”
So, Mike decided to hang up his racing leathers - again.
“I still had an offroad motorbike, but I kept off racing. I didn’t even follow it and just concentrated on the kids.”
Instead, he took up playing guitar. The break from motorbike racing would last for 10 years.
“The kids were getting older and after a while, I started racing classic motocross with an old BSA 500 that I turned into a dirt bike.”
He bought a Harley Davidson V-Rod, which he drag-raced at Meremere, but Mike really wanted a Ducati again.
A crash at Manfeild convinced Mike Lind to hang up his racing leathers - for real this time. Photo / Danielle Zollickhofer
“I wanted to ride a bit faster, so I bought a Ducati Streetfighter ... But it was a bit too fast. With that bike, it was the only time I ever tried to outrace a cop.”
In 2015, he joined the NZCMRR, racing a 1982 Ducati 600 TT2 with a motor from Glyn Robinson.
“Racing it was fun but I had quite a lot of trouble with the bike ... It took three meetings to get to the bottom of it.”
A short while later, he bought a Ducati-engined Bimota DB1 750 replica built by Graeme Cole.
“I like Italian bikes because of their visual appeal, Italians have always been known for their style.
“And Bimota is a small italian manufacturer that is renowned for making bikes that handle well. In fact, it was the best-handling bike I ever raced.”
Mike said he loved racing, especially with the register.
“Racing classics is not just about racing, it’s about the bikes, the engineering, the people.
“The whole joy of racing preparation, getting the bike going good. And after a really good race, people come up to you to congratulate, saying you’re improving, [it] is just something else.”
However, he did admit he liked “having a battle with someone”.
“I always had a competitiveness ... I love the adrenaline rush, putting in an effort and pushing myself. Well, and the speed is a kick all right,” Mike said.
“Going fast is almost time travel. When I came off the racetrack, my partner sometimes told me I looked 10 years younger.”
For him, the best feeling was knowing he nailed the track as best as he could and being one with the bike.
When Pukekohe Raceway, Mike’s favourite track, closed for motorsport events last year, he decided to quit racing once more. Or so he thought.
“I thought I had given up after Puke, but I got talked into going to Manfeild.”
The first Classic Festival at Manfeild was off to a wet and turbulent start with a few accidents. One of them was Mike.
“During the first lap, two guys in front of me came off and I ended up going over one of them.”
Instead of being on the track, Mike spent six hours in ED and had to stay off work for two months. In April, he was still recovering from the crash.
As a result, he decided to wave the chequered flag - for real this time.
Although: “Never say never, but I definitely won’t be racing for a couple of years and definitely not in the same leathers - they were all cut up after the accident.”
Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist and assistant news director at the Waikato Herald. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.
