Industry Player – Geeze Goldhawk - AdventureRiderMagazine

This entry is part 4 of 18 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #18

wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Main-series-img-6.png

Sean Goldhawk

If there’s one name in the Australian motorcycle industry that’ll raise a smile and start a run of great stories, it’s Sean ‘Geezer’ Goldhawk. Yamaha Motor Australia’s Communications Manager is always looking for a good time, especially on a bike, and can usually find one.

At 54, Sean Goldhawk can look back on a long association with motorcycles, not only in Australia, but in his native England. His background in publishing gives him an insight on dealing with media, and his glowing love of life makes him a media favourite. Adventure Rider Magazine wanted to know a little more about Geeze and his career path.

AdvR: Give us a quick rundown of your work history so far.
Geeze: I’ve always had a love of motorcycles.
I was born in England but I spent most of my life travelling. My father was in the army, so we moved around a lot: Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, Singapore…places like that.
I started off on a Suzuki AP50 moped and my brother had a Yamaha FS1E. Then, in about 1980, I got a GT185 twin-cylinder Suzuki two-stroke. It was the fastest thing! It was a beautiful bike.
After finishing business studies at university in the UK in 1983 I spent a lot of time as a dispatch rider in London.
I used to read all the motorcycle magazines and they were average at best. I thought, ‘I could do better than this.’ I had a bit of a knowledge of bikes, so I thought I’d see if I could be a journalist and put myself through a post-graduate diploma in magazine journalism. A string of magazines and publishing work followed and I was headhunted by an Australian publishing company in 2000.
I got off the plane and the next two weeks was a party for the Olympics.
I thought, ‘This is it. I’m staying here’.
I had my gearbag full of clothes and that was it.

AdvR: You’ve had a long run at Yamaha Motor Australia (YMA). How did you get started with the company?
Geeze: I spent the best part of two years at the publishing company and then there was a big management change. Many of the existing employees were told, “On yer bike.” I had to find a job pretty quickly to fulfil my visa requirements and I answered an ad in a newspaper. I started at Yamaha Motor Australia in September 2002.

I get a lot of people saying, “How do I get a job like yours?”

I have to say, it’s the dream job. There’s a fair bit of computer driving and desk jockeying which is a little bit mundane, but at the same time it can be crazy and full-on. You have to be a master of a lot of different areas: advertising, event organisation, PR work, writing, copy writing, photography, riding, bike building.

The role has everything.

That’s what makes it such a great job.

You don’t get pigeon-holed or typecast in one area of the business.

AdvR: Tell us about your time at YMA so far.
Geeze: It’s quite interesting, because I started off as PR and Advertising Co-ordinator. Because I had a background in journalism I kind of knew how to deal with the press, and what they wanted out of a picture and a story. I’d do all the press releases and press launches. I also handled all the advertising – the brochures, print advertising, creating ads and that kind of thing.
That role just expanded. There’s never been a marketing manager at YMA, and I kind of filled that slot over the years. I do a bit of event management, PR, I’m a bit of a company spokesperson, I write the copy and organise all the images to create all the ads. Once the advertisement is created I place all the ads in various media.

AdvR: What are the high points of a typical year?
Geeze: I’ve been involved with Ténéré Tragics since day one, and it’s a highlight of every year. Tragics is Clubby’s concept, but it needs a lot of assistance from YMA to make it the event it is. It’s a real fun event and I’ve been on every one.
Press launches are another highlight. If we organise a launch in New Zealand, for instance, we get to take the press over to somewhere like Queenstown.
If the bike suits that market, that’s what we do. Then I get to ride primo riding spots that you wouldn’t get to access normally.

AdvR: Tell us bout your XT660X.
Geeze: (His eyes light up) That’s a bike from the original 2005 launch in Sydney.
After the launch a few bikes were left in the YMA warehouse. This bike was, for some reason, left in Queensland. It wasn’t running and was covered in a thick layer of dust, so I made an offer to Yamaha and bought it.
I replaced the spark plug and it started at the first touch of the button.
It was the ‘X’ motard model, and I really wanted an adventure bike, so I thought the way to go was to put a 21-inch front wheel on it. Barrett’s made a two-into-one muffler for it, and Greg Yager at RideADV put all the other bits on it with help from Steve Smith at AdventureMoto. So it’s got a bashplate, screen and a heap of other goodies. Nick Dole at Teknik did the suspension, and it ended up a very light-weight, capable adventure bike. It has the same power as a Ténéré, but it’s lighter and turns a little faster.
It’s a really good thing to ride.

AdvR: You build a few promotional bikes. What have you been putting together lately?
Geeze: I’ve been building what we’ll call ‘hipster sleds’ to highlight an emerging market segment.
Basically, we’ve a range of road bikes, the XSR900 and XSR700, and they’re kind of modular-type designs with a retro, sports-heritage look. We thought, to ramp it up even further, we’d make one look like a 1968 DT-1. It has old-school motocross ’bars, Pivot Pegz, TKC80s, we’ve matched the DT1 colour scheme and decal style and removed the numberplate, clock and pillion pegs.
It’s just to get people thinking what they could do with their own bikes.
We took the bike to Throttle Roll, a banging Sydney street party and custom bike show with live music and the bike went off. People just loved it.

AdvR: What’s coming up that you’re looking forward to?
Geeze: From a personal point of view, I’ve just met a beautiful woman who’s a former champion pro mountain-bike rider, so I’m getting back into mountain biking in a vain attempt to keep up with her.
From a work point of view, I’m looking forward to being involved in Yamaha’s latest marketing initiative – the bLU cRU. It’s a community of sport-focussed punters eager to enjoy Yamaha blue-and-white world activities…so that’s into road- and dirt-based fun, from kids’ bikes through YZ/WR and into our R series road bikes, and from beginners through to pro-level racers. We’ll be running activities and events under the bLU cRU umbrella powered by a strong online and social media presence.
So there’s plenty to look forward to with that.

Series Navigation<< BMW F800GS – Off to the Safari EnduroWhite sand to red dust – A PLB story >>