In person, Steve’s mild-mannered countenance seems at odds with the loud and often showy world of motorsports. It is his contributions to the design, engineering, and performance of two-wheel and four-wheel vehicles, on and off track, that speak volumes.
Steve’s virtuosity with metal is legend among motoring enthusiasts and racing professionals around the world and, after six decades in the trade, he is still a go-to guy for out-of-the-box thinking and superior craftsmanship. His output has been prodigious; his innovations groundbreaking; his production values and eye for detail next level. Incredibly, most of his work has been conjured, beaten, and bent with ‘basic tools’ — an indispensable 1920s lathe, a homebuilt press, and an ancient wheeling machine — from a modest shed he once shared with his family’s horses, on the outskirts of Whanganui.
Plastic fantastic
At age 83, Steve is as passionate about his work as he is humble about his achievements. In 1983, he was awarded the Inventor of the Year prize for his ‘Plastic Fantastic’ bikes and in 2017 took his rightful place in Motorcycling New Zealand’s Hall of Fame. Steve’s conversation is peppered with a roll call of celebrated names. In one corner of the shed sits a Barry Sheene award, given to him by ‘star rider’, Peter O’Neill, who said that “it belonged here”.
Steve considers all his commissions as collaborations, with many of his clients remaining fast friends, saying, “It is the relationships that make everything worthwhile.”
“He is still a go-to guy for out-of-thebox thinking and superior craftsmanship.”
Sadly, last year, Steve suffered a debilitating stroke, which set him back from his ongoing commissions.
“I thought it was all finished,” he says, “until Rod (Trott) came along and said ‘We are going to do a documentary on you’. I thought, ‘If that is not a sign to carry on …’.”
As part of Steve’s
