Rastus was a jet-black, Canadian-born Bombay/Burmese cat. Max Corkill was a biker from New Zealand, toiling as a sheet-metal worker in Vancouver. At a swap meet in 1989 a young girl asked Max to look after her kitten while she went to look at something, but she never returned. Corkill took him home, ran an ad in the local paper and even on the radio station, but no one responded. So, he decided to keep the cat and after considerable thought, he named the kitten Rastus. A few weeks later Max found Rastus asleep on one of the bikes in his workshop, he started it up to see whether the cat would get scared and jump off — but he didn't. So Max took the bike, with the cat, out for a slow ride around, and Rastus loved it, leaning forward with his front paws on the handlebars and back paws on the gas tank. Before you knew it the two became inseparable.
Whenever Max rode, so did Rastus. A leather cover was made to fit over the tank of whichever bike they were riding (for comfort and to give a better grip) and before long he also had a specially made little helmet and a red bandana. Then they hit the road, in North America alone he was said to have covered some 75,000 mles. For the longer journeys, instead of his customary position of leaning into the wind on the bikes gas tank, Rastus would ride in a specially-made zipped pouch mounted on the tank in front of Max, with just his head peeping out.
In 1994, after his years in Canada, Corkill returned to his native New Plymouth, New Zealand, to be near his mom and, of course Rastus went too. Once they got settled, the pair devoted time to raising money for animal charities. Max formed a company to market souvenirs such as T-shirts, posters and badges (the latter sold out). They even had a joint checking account, with Rastus' signature being his pawprint, also used on some of the merchandise. The duo visited schools to tell children about the importance of caring for pets; they were invited to various functions; they starred in an award-winning television advertisemnt for the Bell Tea Company. "The cat was just like a person,' said Bell CEO John Mahoney. 'He used to come into the offices here and make himself at home. He would drink tea with milk out of a cup and would get quite testy if it was taken away before he had finished!" There was a thriving Rastus fan club, and the pair became a familiar sight on the roads around Taranaki and New Plymouth, often on Max's classic 1952 Sunbeam.
At Christmastime each year Max would put on a Santa outfit and disguise a bike as a sleigh, while Rastus sported a special helmet with little reindeer antlers attached. They would take part in a Toy Run, organized by a local bikers' group who collected toys along the way for disadvantaged children. In some ways the cat was said to behave more like a dog, obeying Max's commands and 'growling' replies, rather than meowing.
On the morning of 20 January 1998, they were riding Max's custom black BMW, with his partner Gaynor Martin. Their bike collided head on with a car coming round a bend on the wrong side of the road; all three died instantly. Rastus had been in his pouch on the tank. The 31-year-old car driver turned out to be drunk, and was charged with two counts of manslaughter.
An amazing crowd of over a thousand bikers came to pay their respects and take part in the funeral procession. They were cremated together, as Max had wished. Their ashes were scattered by Max's eldest son at a ceremony on Mount Egmont, a mountain they both loved and that Rastus had been the only cat to climb.
An amazing crowd of over a thousand bikers came to pay their respects and take part in the funeral procession. They were cremated together, as Max had wished. Their ashes were scattered by Max's eldest son at a ceremony on Mount Egmont, a mountain they both loved and that Rastus had been the only cat to climb.
At the scene of the accident three white crosses were erected at the roadside, the smallest one for Rastus had a black wooden cat with a red bandana attached to it.
Today in motorcycle history is a proud supporter of the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk
Today in motorcycle history is a proud supporter of the National Association for Bikers with a Disability (NABD). www.nabd.org.uk
