Expat American Robert Lusk passed away on June 9 at his home in Southern England. He was 85 years old and had been a resident in the UK since 1968.
Bob Lusk was a born-again biker with a fascinating background: Raised in rural New England, where, while growing up, he acquired skills in many handicrafts, including leatherwork. But he enjoyed a motorcycling epiphany at the age of 15. “I’d help out in a local gas station after school,” he recounted. “Each day, a bloke who commuted to work on his Triumph Bonneville would park it outside the forecourt. One day, I went over and sat on it, looked down, and saw the kickstarter. Then, I put my foot on it, and it started—on its centerstand, thankfully! And in that moment, the only way I can describe it is, God came down and put his hands on me and said, ‘Robert Lusk, this is your life!’ ”
In the early 1960s, Lusk dropped out of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, to become one of Yamaha’s first American dealers, while road racing them successfully in both the Northeast USA and Canada. He finished third on an air-cooled Yamaha rotary-valve single in the 1967 125cc Canadian GP behind Bill Ivy’s factory V4, as a consequence of which he arranged to emigrate to Britain to pursue a racing career there.
However, a nerve injury sustained in a crash during his final American race forced Lusk to stop racing for 30 years, until a chiropractic treatment allowed him to restart his career in UK Classic racing. Meanwhile, he’d begun producing handmade leather goods to sell from a stall at London’s Portobello Road Market.
By 1997, Robert Lusk had built a multimillion-dollar footwear business with four London stores, employing almost 100 people. His neck injury had healed, so together with 11-year-old son Chester, he began racing Mini Moto. Both Lusks ended up as age-group champions in their new sport.
Inevitably, Bob Lusk began Classic racing too, initially with the 1977 Honda MT125R air-cooled single, with which he won the 2005 CRMC British 125cc championship title at the age of 65. Success came on both sides of the Atlantic, with visits to Loudon to ride former rival Frank Camillieri’s Yamaha to podium finishes and runner-up in the championship in AHRMA racing. Progressing to Matchless G50 singles, Lusk became a consistent front-runner in CRMC events, and on a 350cc AJS 7R, he finished second in the 2018 Avon Tyres Lansdown National Championship at the age of 78, just one point behind champion Geoff Leather, who was young enough to be his grandson!
The profits from his shoe business had allowed Bob Lusk to start collecting motorcycles in 2004, initially focusing on historic race bikes he wanted to compete on—with success, still winning races at age 79 against much younger riders.
However, Robert had latterly begun downsizing his bike collection to create space and funding for a new passion, assembling one of the largest collections in the world of original motorcycle posters from the past 120 years. Sadly, his plans to publish a large-format picture book depicting many of these died with him.
Robert Lusk was a free spirit who defied the aging process via untrammeled enthusiasm and a constant search for new passions with a mechanical link. His infectious enthusiasm made him many friends inside and outside the motorcycle world, and on both sides of the Atlantic. He will be greatly missed, and our sympathies for their loss are with his wife, Susan, and children, Chester and Amber.
R.I.P., Robert!
Click here to view the Robert Lusk, 1940-2025 story in the Cycle News Digital Edition Magazine.
