Johnny Callender and the Mountain Goat

Mountain goats are tough and wiry and go anywhere they want to. When Johnny Callender invented the world's first farm bike it was tough and wiry too.

It climbed the hills that horses didn't like and let farmers go anywhere on their farm at any time. The bike was called the Mountain Goat and this week's story tells us about the man and his goat.

Rewind

Farm bikes arrived on New Zealand farms in the 1960s. Decide whether these things also happened in New Zealand during this decade. Answer true or false:

1. Cycle lanes are added to New Zealand's roads for the first time.
2. A new law means dangerous drivers can now be banned from the country's roads.
3. New Zealand now has a telephone link to Britain via satellite.
4. A New Zealander is the first woman to reach woman to reach the South Pole.
   5. A motorbike rider from New Zealand is crowned World Champion of speedway.

Motorbike history

Here's some interesting information about the world's first motorbikes.

The first single cylinder petrol driven motorbike was invented in 1885 and it had outriggers! There was one wheel in the front and one at the back and a smaller spring loaded wheel on each side.

This first motorbike was made mostly of wood. Even the iron wheels had wooden spokes. It was called the bone shaker!

A steam propelled motorbike was being shown at fairs in the USA in 1867. It was powered by a charcoal powered two cylinder engine.

Most early motorbikes had three or even four wheels. It was very difficult to get them running so the designers didn't want the extra worry of them falling over.

One of the first really successful two wheelers was a German design in 1894. It even had a radiator built into the fender.

Look here for some photos of these early motorbikes.

Word watch

All the words and phrases below are in this week's story. Choose the best meaning and then check your answers when you read the story.

1. enlightened age (a) educated age or (b) age of electricity
2.  namesake (a) in the same family or (b) one that is named after another
3. tinkering (a) fiddling with things that should be left to the experts or (b) experimenting with and repairing machine parts for enjoyment.
4. durability (a) sturdiness or (b) speed
5. prototype (a) the first batch off the production line or (b) the earliest working model
6. a founding member (a) someone who joined the club as soon as it started or (b) the person that starts the club
7. apprentice (a) someone who is learning the skills of money management or (b) someone who is learning the skills of his or her trade
8. constraints (a) limits placed on what can be done or (b) taxes
9. replica (a) an exact copy or (b) anything similar to the first one made
10. industrial espionage (a) spying on inventions and new products or (b) creative industrial ideas

The horse or the bike?

Horses carried farmers around the farm before bikes arrived on the scene-especially in the Taranaki hill country. These days more farmers use farm bikes than horses.

Let's compare the two. Team up with a classmate and click here.

Hi Tech Goat:

Read the first part of this week's story  and then draw a goat the newspaper reader must have imagined. Use the goat above as a model but fit him with the high tech options. Add extra ones of your own if you like.

Out with the horse?

Horse out - motors in shows that Johnny had seen a gap in the market. That's what enterprising people do. They look for something that people need (a gap in the market) and invent something that people will buy.

Read this part of the story and think about what came after the Mountain Goat farm bike. What gap in the market did the next inventors see? Think, pair and share your ideas with a classmate.

Nice bike Trev!

Now read The little bike that could and then choose a photo from the story that would be good to use in a display advertisement for a newspaper.

A good display ad has a headline to catch the eye, a big picture to make the ad stand out and it lists the good points about the product. These good points are called benefits.

Design an ad that shows these benefits. Labels around your photo would be good to use.

Testing that bike

All new products have to be tested. Read Testing times and decide how you would test a farm bike for the things below. Work it out with a classmate.

Muddy paddocks, rocky tracks, cold mornings, torrential rain, night work, crossing narrow streams, carrying electric fences,  protection from sloppy dung, slippery grass on steep paddocks, speed and maneuverability.

Thumbs up from the mountaineers

Read The ultimate test to find out what two of New Zealand's most famous mountaineers thought of the farm bike prototype and how it got its name.

Getting to know Johnny Callender 

Enterprising is a good word to describe Johnny Callender. Read, So who was Johnny Callender and then see how many of the points on the checklist below fit Johnny.

Enterprising people:

• look for and create opportunities;
• manage risks;
• collect and organise information;
• use creative ideas;
• find and manage resources;
• work with others and in teams;
• can deal with change;
• communicate and receive information;
• use their initiative.

Swamped with orders

Read Production line and write headlines to match each of the magazines below. Your headline should catch the eye of the magazine readers so they will read the Mountain Goat article.

High Country Farmer
The New Zealand Dairy Farmer
Forestry New Zealand

What a hassle!

Bureaucratic bungling shows how hard it was for Johnny to import the parts for his farm bike. In those days the Government thought it would be better to make everything in New Zealand to give people jobs.

Johnny needed Suzuki engines from Japan but the Government wouldn't let him import them (ship them into New Zealand). If they had, a whole lot of people might have been able to get jobs making the Mountain Goat bikes for customers all over the world.

Read Bureaucratic bungling and find out if a solution was ever really found that Johnny would have been happy with.

Copy cats?

The Suzuki Company in Japan began to build their own farm bikes so in the end New Zealanders missed the chance to be the first to sell bikes on the world market.

Johnny tried to make the bikes himself but it just became a great big hassle. He sold his idea to a Waitara company and because it was his idea he was meant to receive royalties. That means for every bike sold he should have had a little share of the profit.

After a while the Waitara company began to change the bike in different ways and before long it seemed a different bike. When this happened Johnny's royalties stopped.

The Suzuki Company may have copied parts of Johnny's design. They even made one exactly the same! The ones they eventually sold around the world may not have looked the same but at least some of Johnny's ideas were probably used.

So what do you think of all this business? Team up with a classmate or in a group of four and discuss each of the questions below.

1. Should royalties have been paid to Johnny Callender even though the Waitara company changed the bike?
2. Should Suzuki have been made to pay for Johnny's ideas?
3. Should the New Zealand Government have allowed Johnny to import the bike parts as soon as he invented the bike?

A son's pride

Finish the story now and decide if you agree that the little motor bike above was really the "kick that started an industry."

1a, 2b, 3b, 4a, 5b, 6a, 7b, 8a, 9a, 10a