& Co: 06 Social Club
Stuart Kelman used to go riding after work with his friends from work before meeting his lifelong friends at the 06 Social Club. The 06 Social Club was a Social Club created by a group of 6 men who all had a passion for bikes and rides.
Stuart has been riding motorbikes since the age of 14. His friends started his passion for riding as they lived on farms, and all owned a range of off-road motorbikes. He started off with riding trail bikes for fun on trail tracks. Although Stu’s dad was a diesel mechanic he wasn’t keen on helping fix up bikes. His mother was against the idea of her son riding motorcycles. When Stu brought his own motorcycle home to his parents his mum was so unimpressed, she kicked him out. Despite both his parent’s views on motorcycles he continued to ride.
One day on a
track up Pirongia Stu had an accident on a trail ride. He and his friends had
been riding around the track one way all day and, right at the end of the day,
he decided to go the opposite way. He was so used to riding the track the one way,
he had an accident and broke his collar bone. Despite this, Stu rode trail till
he was in his late 20s when he gave up trail riding, as it’s quite hard on the
body especially the legs and back.
He started riding on the road on his Honda xl 500 for several years until he sold that and brought a BMW 800 in 2000. He brought his first real road bike to commute to work to save money.
“When I arrived at work, I was buzzing and ready to work. What a buzz to ride to work and to ride home again” Stu said.
He used to go riding after work with his friends from work before meeting his lifelong friends at the 06 Social Club. The 06 Social Club was a Social Club created by a group of 6 men who all had a passion for bikes and rides.
Stu’s favourite trip on his first BMW motorcycle was the back roads to Kawhia from Te Awamutu. The roads were windy and his bike being an ‘enduro’ bike took the corners nicely. When Stu was riding on this bike, he would often find a nice café in a small town and find the best backroad to that town. Going to new places meeting different people is why Stu is still so passionate.
“The freedom of getting on your bike and just going you forget about your worries, there is nothing quite like it”
In 2006 once he had joined the 06 Social Club, he found he was going on longer trips so he brought a BMW 1100RS as this was a sports bike made for speed and distance. He went on rides with the 06 Club many times to Stratford and even did a trip around the whole coast of the South Island.
His passion for bikes started young and continues strong, as he’s in his 50s now. The latest bike he brought is a Harley Davidson 1585 Fat Bob. Stu has met some of the best people he knows through the interest of riding. Motorcyclists get misjudged, but Stu believes unless you are a motorcyclist you will never really understand why they enjoy it.
