Derek Pickard
Derek Pickard was Two Wheels chief roadtester in the very early days of the magazine, the late 1960s and early 1970s. A lifelong motorcycle and motoring journalist, Derek is “72 going on 28”, won a class championship in his racing car just a couple of years ago, and in retirement still contributes the occasional bike story to Old Bike magazine.
My job at Two Wheels in the early 1970s came at a time when the magazine was Australia’s only monthly glossy, so it covered everything in motorcycling: road, offroad, racing, touring, mechanicals, the lot. During that time I tested bikes from 50 to 1000cc and most importantly it included the rush of superbikes. I thoroughly enjoyed working on the magazine but left to edit Australian Motorcycle News and start Trail & Track.
My career as a motorcycle journalist included working for similar magazines in the UK and USA but they were mainly specialist more than generalist. These days in retirement I have stopped dirt riding and have several classic road bikes which I enjoy riding, including a BMW R80ST, Brit Matchless Rotax 500, VJMC Yamaha XS500C and Honda CB400T.
Cars are just as important in my interests as bikes. I gave away dirt bikes some years back – cos my bones will take too long to heal if I have a bad accident. But like so many at my age with a son who inherited the same interests, I share his collection of cars and bikes — and he has eight bikes!
By Derek Pickard
