Lester Morris
Lester Morris was Australia’s longest-serving, and probably most published, specialist motorcycle writer, with most of his peers considering him to be ‘iconic’, or even ‘legendary’.
His first articles, on simple maintenance and safety, were published in REVS Motorcycle News in 1968.
His Two Wheels work encompassed four decades and included road tests of contemporary and classic bikes and sparkling autobiographical accounts of long rides as young man in the 1950s with his mates, including the equally legendary, and pretty scary, Fred on his Vincent.
We’ve published several examples of his work on Classic Two Wheels, including tests on the BMW R90S and Moto Guzzi 850T, plus a hilarious two part yarn called Wringing Bells — a ride he and Fred did to the Bathurst races in the 1950s.
From 1948 Lester spent over 20 years in the trade, including working at Sydney’s famed Omodeis store. His first book, Motorcycling in Australia, was published by McMillan in 1976. More recently, a two volume collection of his work, Vintage Morris, is available from the usual online book sellers such as Amazon and Booktopia.
Lester was also a noted race commentator, often featuring as an expert motorcycle compere on Torque, a 1970s motoring programme on ABC television.
And as if that’s not enough, he was also a successful actor.
Lester died in February, 2025.
In 2016, Lester spoke with Alan Metcalfe about his book and his lifetime love of motorcycles. See the interview here.
