Talent
Some information on the guru’s and talented people you will see and hear from at the Shiny Side Up events.
Speakers

Jay Reeve
MC
Jay Reeve returns to Shiny Side Up as an MC in the Lounge area this year.
He’s one of NZ’s most popular and irreverent multi-media broadcasters, having hosted the country’s number one drive show on ZM with Flynny until early 2015, when he made the shift to Radio Hauraki Breakfast. Jay is now the host of The Rock’s Drive Show with Duncan Heyde.
Jay has a great interest in photography (and his brightly coloured Holga 120 camera) and motorbikes, and is extremely proud to be an ambassador for Harley Davidson NZ.
Jay is a prolific social media influencer and has been an ambassador to some of the world’s leading brands. Now married to model Anna Fitzpatrick, he has twin boys ‘The Reeve Nuggets,’ and lives in Auckland.

Duncan Heyde
MC
Duncan joins the Shiny Side Up team for the first time as MC in the Demo area this year.
Duncan got into radio after realising that bricklaying wasn’t his cup of tea. He worked on Rock Nights on The Rock for six years and was also anchor and content producer for The Rock’s “Jono and Ben’s Drive Home.”
Duncan’s latest radio adventure is hosting The Rock’s Drive Show with Jay Reeve.
His love of people and performing has helped him become a polished event MC. He has MC’d auspicious events like Wellington Homegrown, Queenstown Winterfest, V4 and Rotarys, Methven Big Air, The Beach and Boat Fishing Competition, and ground announcing for The Auckland Blues.

Dr Chris Hurren
Senior Research Fellow (Fibre Science And Technology), Deakin University, Australia.
Last year, Australia and New Zealand created the MotoCAP rating system for motorcycle gear. Dr Chris Hurren is the scientist in charge of testing at Deakin University’s materials laboratory in Australia.
At this year’s Shiny Side Up, Chris will be talking about how much protection you need, including:
• What his team tests and how they test it
• What the MotoCAP protection numbers mean
• What the MotoCAP comfort numbers mean
• What you need to wear if you ride in the city
• What you need to wear if you ride on the motorway or open road.
Chris is doing his dream job. He does research into textiles with a specialisation on motorcycle clothing, with a PhD in material science. Chris’s first good road bike was an Yamaha RZ250 air cool. He gets to work most days now on a Honda GB400.>
Chris has worked for Deakin University since 2001. His expertise is in the development of protective and performance textiles. He specialises in the measurement and development of protective textile structures for motorcycle apparel. His laboratory at the university Campus has the only Cambridge style impact abrasion tester that is capable of testing to EN13595-2 requirements in Australia and New Zealand. Chris has built up a complete testing facility that can achieve all of the protective tests of impact abrasion, stab, cut, tear, burst, air permeability, water resistance and thermal comfort relevant to motorcycle apparel. He led the team that developed the MotoCAP performance testing program for motorcycle protective clothing that was launched in 2018. He has authored and co-authored a number of papers in the measurement of protection and comfort levels of motorcycle clothing.
Chris does research in many areas of textiles with an emphasis on physical problems. His research has won him a number of awards including a H&M Foundation Global Change Award in 2017 for his work on recycling colour from used denim jeans; and a National Innovation Award at the Land Forces Conference in 2018 for a textile based medical diagnostic device.
For more, visit: http://www.deakin.edu.

Motorcycle racer
Avalon Biddle is a motorcycle road racer. In 2018 she came third in the New Zealand Supersport 600cc Championship. This year Avalon joins us at Shiny Side Up to talk aboutthe sport of motorcycle road racing, techniques for riding safely on the roads and track, and specific skills that apply to riding all motorcycles.
Avalon has raced motorcycles since she was six years old, starting out in mini motocross and starting road racing when she turned 13. She made it to the very elite level of the sport winning two European Women’s Championships and one New Zealand title. Avalon is currently racing the MTF Finance Kawasaki ZX6r in the New Zealand Supersport 600cc championship. Alongside this, she works fulltime in marketing for a motorsport orientated company and keeps extra busy with physical training and some Sky Sport TV appearances.
Find out more:
www.facebook.com/

Kenn Beer
Principal Engineer, Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd
Kenn is a specialist road safety engineer and accredited trainer with 18 years of experience in road safety in Australia, the USA, Asia and New Zealand. He’ll be hanging out in the Ride For Ever tent at Shiny Side Up Kapiti and chatting about:
- The influence of road infrastructure on motorcyclist crashes
- Road safety barriers and motorcyclist safety
- Road maintenance and motorcyclist safety
- Motorcycle safety audits.
Kenn is recognised as a world leader in motorcycle safety infrastructure and has had roles advising the Australian, New Zealand, Philippines and Colorado Governments on the subject.
During his 13 years at the Victorian Road Authority, VicRoads (Australia), Kenn held a variety of positions including Senior Road Safety Engineer, Motorcycle Safety Coordinator, Team Leader Road Safety Projects and Manager Program Development.
While at VicRoads Kenn spent years managing the Victorian Motorcycle Safety Levy Infrastructure Program. In this time, over $25 million of Motorcycle Safety Levy funds were invested in Victoria on infrastructure improvements to specifically reduce road trauma for motorcycle riders.
Kenn is a licensed rider, accredited trainer, assessor and Senior Road Safety Auditor. In 2017, Kenn lead a team (including VicRoads, Safe System Solutions Pty Ltd, NZ Motorcycle Safety Advisory Council, ACC and NZTA) that won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for the Making Roads Motorcycle Friendly training package.
A recent (5min) video capturing Kenn’s approach to motorcycle safety can be viewed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLVn7VMeG5M
For more, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenn-beer-a2319064/

Kevin Williams
Founder, Survival Skills
Kevin Williams created the ground breaking rider safety presentation, ‘The Science of Being Seen’ (SOBS), which explains how visual perception issues result in ‘looked but failed to see’ collisions between cars and bikes. This year, Kevin will talk about:
- Why most drivers DO look but sometimes make mistakes
- How to take proactive action as a rider to give the driver the best chance of seeing you
- Having an alertness to take evasive action if necessary
- Why crashes happen when overtaking or cornering
Kevin trained as a motorcycle instructor after 16 years as a courier, and then set up Survival Skills in 1997.
He writes prolifically on rider training and motorcycling issues, contributing a regular column to ‘The Road’ since 2002. He’s been published in RiDE, Bike, Superbike and Two Wheels Only as well as the Telegraph. Better riding pieces are regularly posted on the well-supported Survival Skills Facebook page. Others can be found on the website and blog, and are often re-run in club journals.
Kevin has authored a number of books on better riding technique, including three books covering; better riding technique in a DIY format (‘Survival SKILLS’), riding ‘knowledge’ (‘Tarmac Tactics’) and mental approach (‘MIND over MOTORCYCLE’).
Kevin’s ‘The Science of Being Seen’ presentation investigates conspicuity strategies and proposes proactive ways to reduce rider risk. He personally delivers SOBS for Kent Fire and Rescue Service on the international award winning ‘Biker Down’ programme in Kent. A version of the presentation is delivered by a number of Biker Down teams in the UK.
Kevin has worked with a number of road safety bodies, currently on the ‘Ride Skills’ programme at Brands Hatch. Kevin is at the forefront of the ‘No Surprise? No Accident’ rider safety initiative whilst takes new ‘Safety Two’ thinking on human error and applies it to motorcycling.
For more, visit www.survivalskills.co.uk and www.facebook.com/survivalskills

Sgt Peter Sowter
Serious Crash Unit & Road Policing, Wellington
Sgt Peter Sowter is a passionate motorcyclist with a particular interest in examining motorcycle crashes to figure out ways to stem the loss of life. This year Peter will be talking about serious and fatal crash investigations, covering off:
-
scene examinations
-
what investigators look for and how things can affect the outcomes of crashes
-
the common reasons why people crash.
Peter joined the Ministry of Transport (MoT) back in 1988 because they were prepared to pay him to ride a motorcycle for a living. Peter says that worked out well as he rode Yamahas and BMWs up and down the Remutaka Hill, near where he was based in Upper Hutt.
He moved to Taupo in 1992 and stayed on after the Government merged the MoT and Police in July that year.
Over time he became more and more fascinated in figuring out the cause of fatal and serious crashes that occurred all too frequently.
Since 1995 he has specialised in attending and investigating fatal crashes beginning in the Taupo area, and then from 2009 in Wellington where he took up the Sergeant’s position in the Serious Crash Unit.