{"id":225539,"date":"2026-01-09T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/225539\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T20:06:08","slug":"whanganui-motorcycling-legend-percy-coleman-to-be-honoured-with-100-bike-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/225539\/","title":{"rendered":"Whanganui motorcycling legend Percy Coleman to be honoured with 100-bike display"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn his first year with Indian [motorcycles] in 1914, he set Australasian records for the one mile, 10 mile and the 15 mile, and he was only 17 years of age,\u201d Cochrane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen in 1930, he became NZ\u2019s first official Isle of Man representative. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible Whanganui story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coleman also held the world record for the one mile, achieved at Takapuna in 1929.<\/p>\n

Cochrane said Coleman died in Rhodesia in 1965.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy that stage, [his son] Rod was the 2IC and doing most of the business work, and [son] Bob was an outstanding grass track, beach and scramble racing champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sons had talent. Rod was the guy who set up and ran the South Pacific car plant out at Heads Rd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey used to build Suzuki cars right here from 1976.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PercyPercy Coleman’s former apprentice Joe Lett on Guyton St with a Suzuki GT750 Superbike from the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Rod and Bob Coleman also competed at the Isle of Man and, in 1954, Rod became the first New Zealander to win an event<\/a> there, the 350cc TT (Tourist Trophy).<\/p>\n

He was inducted into the Motorcycling NZ Hall of Fame in 2004. <\/p>\n

Cochrane said the business moved to a purpose-built facility on Heads Rd in 1980, with the Colemans involved in several companies. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were the No 1 motorcycle sales company in the country in that era. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was another factory on Heads Rd, which made motorcycle and cycle helmets, and that went on to become Pacific Helmets.<\/p>\n

\u201cDavid Bennett [Pacific Helmets founder]<\/a> had been a key employee at Coleman\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of 1984, the Coleman family sold the Suzuki business to Suzuki Japan, with retail Suzuki motorcycle shops in Auckland, Hamilton and Whanganui sold to staff members.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Whanganui, they sold to technical manager Joe Lett,\u201d Cochrane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started in 1961 as Percy\u2019s apprentice, in the second shop on Guyton St.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rod Coleman died in 2019, aged 93<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Whanganui Vintage Weekend display<\/a>, on Guyton St between Victoria Ave and St Hill St, is on January 17 from 9am.<\/p>\n

It will feature 30 Suzuki bikes from 1966-1984, a 1930 Rudge Ulster 4 Valve 500cc, the Steve Roberts-built Coleman Suzuki Alloy Monocoque<\/a>, a 1973 Triumph Hurricane X75 750cc triple, a pair of 1925 Indians and many more.<\/p>\n

Cochrane said the Colemans secured the Suzuki franchise for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands in 1958.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first Suzukis, little 50ccs, arrived in 1960.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the other side of the showroom were 650cc AJSs. The comparison was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Percy Coleman was \u201cone of New Zealand\u2019s great motorcycle pioneers\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPre-1925, most of these bikes were just big pushbikes with a huge V-twin motor in them,\u201d Cochrane said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a 100 miles\/h disaster on wheels. They were incredibly dangerous and there was no suspension on dirt roads.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no wonder people were good at racing on the mile because everywhere they went was a major race.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Whanganui'sWhanganui’s Percy Coleman leads Alby Lemon at the Takapuna Grass Mile in 1929. Photo \/ Jim McLeod Collection<\/p>\n

He said in the early 1930s, the British Government introduced a 33% tariff on American motorcycle imports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stopped imports to the Commonwealth overnight \u2013 Harley Davidson and Indian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were 1000cc bikes, fast and very strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the British bikes were only 350cc and 500cc, so they were nowhere nearly as fast in competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grass track racing had \u201cpretty much petered out\u201d by the mid-1940s, but he was aware of a track in Marton that continued racing into the early 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people have no idea the sport even existed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A remembrance event for Bob Coleman\u2019s son, Greg Coleman, and former Coleman\u2019s employee Neil Forbes will be held at the 2Pie Ngatai cafe from 4-7pm on January 17.<\/p>\n

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn his first year with Indian [motorcycles] in 1914, he set Australasian records for the one mile, 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[134783,74,5195,7573,38863,32565,1888,27246,3218,1743,3223,4486,134781,111,43,139,69,134782,1326,1961,61,1883,1533,102,1530],"class_list":["post-225539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-100bike","tag-after","tag-be","tag-celebrated","tag-coleman","tag-display","tag-first","tag-honoured","tag-icon","tag-launched","tag-legend","tag-month","tag-motorcycling","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-percy","tag-shop","tag-this","tag-to","tag-whanganui","tag-will","tag-with","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}