Ruby Inwood has found a way to enjoy her passion for motorbikes without breaking the bank.
The 17-year old who lives in Appleby has found that with bucket race bikes she now has a chance to join the sport.
“It is an awesome sport if you love motorbikes. I really enjoy it. It’s cheap and any young person can get into it,” says Ruby.
“You can have your bucket bike for about $2,000, and for that you can join ‘Bucket Racing Nelson’ on Facebook and get all the information you need.”
That’s what Ruby did before she got her first ride on a bucket bike, on Saturday morning, at the Redwood Valley Go-Kart track in Appleby.
“The feeling of nervousness rushed through my veins but the adrenaline pushed me to try and break the limits getting to know your bike,” she says. “Once you get to know it, it’s an awesome sensation and to have awesome people guiding you is the best. I felt comfortable and I felt so thrilled to be doing something I love and I’ve wanted to do it for ages. Bucket biking is my way to relax at the weekend.”
Bucket racing is taking a low-powered commuter motorcycle with a maximum capacity of 150 ccs and removing the entire road going gear, creating the cheapest form of motorcycle racing in New Zealand.
Paul Jameson is a bucket bike racer and a member of ‘Bucket Racing Nelson’. He helped Ruby with her first try and says that bucket racing was a Kiwi way to adapt to a challenging situation.
“It started around 40 to 45 years ago. It is a New Zealand innovation. The first bucket race was held at Woodbourne Airforce base in Blenheim. At that time, it was based around aircraft mechanics and engineers. They had small capacity commuter bikes and they couldn’t use any competition parts, so anything that they could engineer themselves was fine, but they weren’t allowed to use race parts,” says Paul.
“Now it has evolved a little bit. Happens on full-size racetracks and also in go-kart tracks across the country. It’s really good because it’s a small bike, a small track, makes a lot of sense,” he says.