The Kennett Bros is the business name for brothers Paul Kennett, Simon Kennett and Jonathan Kennett. They have been heavily involved in mountain biking in New Zealand since 1984, and in publishing books about cycling and cyclists. They were inducted into the

Mountain Bike Hall of Fame The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame (MBHOF) was founded in 1988 to chronicle the history of mountain biking. Formerly located in Crested Butte, Colorado, it relocated to Fairfax, California in 2014 and became part of the Marin Museum of Bicycling. S ...

in 2018.

Activities

Paul organised the first national mountain bike race in New Zealand in 1986 – the

Karapoti Classic The Karapoti Classic is New Zealand's longest-running annual mountain bike event, started in 1986 by Paul Kennett. The full course is long and starts in Karapoti Park, Akatarawa, in Upper Hutt, and heads up the Karapoti Gorge. From there it be ...

. The Kennett Bros continued to run this annually until 2002, when they sold the event. In 1997 they co-organised a round of the

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is a multi-round mountain bike racing series that is sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale. The first World Cup series – which was composed of cross-country events – was held in 1989. The Downhill W ...

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

. In 1998 they started building the Wellington City Council owned Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park, which received a national recreation award in 2002 and a national conservation award in 2003. From 2001 to 2006 the Kennett Bros coordinated a forest revegetation project at

Otari-Wilton's Bush Otari-Wilton's Bush is a native botanic garden and forest reserve located in Wilton in Wellington, New Zealand. It is the only public botanic garden that is dedicated solely to the native plants of New Zealand. Overview Otari-Wilton's Bus ...

. 40,000 trees were planted over a five-year period. The Kennett Bros helped organise the 2006 Rotorua

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships The UCI Mountain Bike World Championships are the world championship events for mountain bike racing in the disciplines of cross country, downhill, and four-cross. They are organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing ...

. From 2010 to 2014 the Kennett Bros were a project manager on the

New Zealand Cycle Trail The New Zealand Cycle Trail project (Māori: ''Nga Haerenga'', "The Journeys") is a New Zealand government initiative, co-funded together with local councils and charitable trusts, which is to build and operate a network of cycle routes throug ...

Publishing

Paul ran a national mountain bike magazine called '' Mountain Bike New Zealand Magazine'' from 1988 to 1990. In 1991 the Kennett Bros wrote the first edition of '' Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides'', a national guidebook, which became a best seller. They produce new editions every three years (1993, 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019). In 2019 they announced that the tenth (2019) edition would be the last in the series. In 1995 Paul launched the Mountain Bike New Zealand Web, the online home for many New Zealand mountain bikers. In 2004 they published a

history of cycling in New Zealand The bicycle originally reached New Zealand in the 1860s in the form of the velocipede, also known as the 'boneshaker'. These bikes, as elsewhere, soon evolved into the elegant 'high wheelers', known today as penny-farthings. Popular among wealt ...

called ''RIDE: the story of cycling in New Zealand''. From 2005 to 2019 they published a series of seven books on influential New Zealand cyclists called the New Zealand Cycling Legend Series.

Recognition

In 2018, the Kennett Brothers were inducted into the

Publications

* ''Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides'' (1991 to 2019) – (tenth edition) * ''RIDE: the story of cycling in New Zealand'' (2004) – * ''Phil O'Shea: Wizard on Wheels (New Zealand Cycling Legends 01)'' by Jonathan Kennett & Bronwen Wall (2005) – * '' Harry Watson: the Mile Eater (New Zealand Cycling Legends 02)'' by Jonathan Kennett, Bronwen Wall & Ian Gray (2006) – * '' Bill Pratney: Never say die (New Zealand Cycling Legends 03)'' by Jim Robinson (2007) – * '' Warwick Dalton: the Lone Eagle (New Zealand Cycling Legends 04)'' by John Rhodes and Jonathan Kennett (2008) – * ''

Tino Tabak Tino Tabak is a Netherlands, Dutch-born New Zealand cyclist who raced in the Tour de France in the 1970s. Biography Born Jentinus (Tino) Johannes Tabak in Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands on 6 May 1946, he emigrated with his father Gerben a ...

: Dreams & Demons of a New Zealand Cycling Legend (New Zealand Cycling Legends 05)'' by Jonathan Kennett (2009) – * '' Louise Sutherland: Spinning The Globe (New Zealand Cycling Legends 06)'' by Bronwen Wall (2010) – * ''Classic New Zealand Road Rides'' Jonathan Kennett and Kieran Turner (2010) – * ''The Muddy Olympians (New Zealand Cycling Legends 07)'' by Simon and Jonathan Kennett (2012) – * ''Classic New Zealand Cycle Trails'' by The Kennett Brothers (2012 to 2021) – (fifth edition) * ''Beginners Guide to Road and Track Cycling'' by Ian Grey and Jonathan Kennett (2015) – * ''Short Easy Bike Rides'' by The Kennett Brothers (2015, 2018) - (second edition) * ''Tour Aotearoa Official Guide'' by The Kennett Brothers (2016 to 2021) - (fourth edition) * ''Tour Aotearoa: NZs 3000 km Bikepacking Odyssey'' by Jonathan Kennett (2016) - * ''Explore! Aotearoa'' by Bronwen Wall (2017) - * ''The Swart Brothers (New Zealand Cycling Legends 08)'' by Russell Jones (2019) - * ''Kopiko Aotearoa Official Guide - West to East'' by Jonathan Kennett and Erik Westra (2020) - * ''Kopiko Aotearoa Official Guide - East to West'' by Jonathan Kennett and Erik Westra (2020) - * ''Bikepacking Aotearoa'' by The Kennett Brothers (2020, 2021) - (second edition)

References

External links

Kennett Bros websiteMountain Bike New Zealand Web
(Wellington, 1997)
Makara Peak Mountain Bike ParkOtari-Wilton's Bush
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennett Bros New Zealand male cyclists Book publishing companies of New Zealand New Zealand publishers (people) Kennet Bros Mountain biking in New Zealand Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Cycling writers