Welcome to the Geoff Morris life story. As a kid I longed for a mini bike but my parents could never afford one so my first bike was a Honda CB 250 Dream (nightmare more like it!!) that came in a heap of boxes. I was around 15 at the time but I was 16 before I managed to assemble it in running order. Not long after I got a job with one of my neighbours making moccasins, and managed to scrounge enough money to buy a second hand MX 125 C. I raced it at a few club days (remember when you used to have to race at some club days before they would give you an open licence?).
At 17 and 9 months I got my “L’s” and had made enough moccasins to buy a new DT 400 D (first Monoshock) and with the innocence and enthusiasm of youth I took to the roads.
I had just started my sheetmetal apprenticeship when I had an argument with a truck over a mars bar (that’s another story) which saw me sit out 3 months of my blossoming career in a wheelchair while I waited for both my Femurs’ to heal. With that eye opening experience under my belt, I swore off riding on the road. It was just over a decade before I put my foot into that water again. When I got back on my feet again and while waiting for the pins in my Femurs to come out, I dabbled with some KX 250’s. Alas I came to the conclusion I couldn’t ride to save myself, so bought a new KLX 250 and did a lot of trail riding and some Enduro’s. Unfortunately (fortunately!) the KLX taught me to ride again (had to keep up corner speed) so I found the confidence to try some MX’ers again but still found myself floundering around MX tracks. Disillusioned I sold my SLR 5000 and went on one of Gall’s USA tour’s in ‘85 as a spectator. I came home after 3 months with a purpose and set about training better (actually doing some training was the key) and with motivation and hard work I took myself to the dizzying heights of 11th in the 125 class at the ‘87 4 Day Enduro. Yeah, okay there were only 11 finishers, but I made it to the end and it was my PB. Around this time I registered GMC and met Drakie at the Enduro’s. The bastard found out I could weld and so I was encumbered with all sorts of pipe and frame repairs to his weird Iron Curtain machines. I made my first complete pipe in 88, for a CZ400 for one of his mates that was heading to NSW for what I believe was the first Aussie vintage meeting. More of this sort of work started coming in and I enjoyed seeing all sorts of old bikes brought back to life. It was also in ‘88 that life as I new it fell apart when my body selfdestructed internally with a lot of bowel problems that would eventually be diagnosed as Crohn’s disease. Not being able to ride Enduro’s I tried observed trials for a while and started doing more engineering work on bikes through word of mouth.
Advertising in VMX magazine has now taken GMC to other Aussie states and around the world, as Drakie once told me, “Ray Ryan helped make me bigger than I deserve to be”
I don’t seem to get a chance to ride much these days but with this line of work I get to see a lot of great bikes and people.
