Mauger would slip an asbestos strip down his trouser leg to prevent his thigh from burning and remembers the speedway bike being hard to ride.
But that did not make parting with it any easier.
Mauger has donated the bike to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, at the Dunedin Railway Station, and was on hand yesterday to help with the installation.
"I've got all the bikes I won my world championships on but the gold bike that is in the Canterbury Museum and this one are my two favourites," Mauger said.
"It was very difficult to ride because the cylinder heads got particularly hot and it used to burn the inside of your leg."
Dressed immaculately in a grey pinstripe suit, the 70-year-old had buffed the bike to a high shine and stole long last looks as one might at a departing family member.
Mauger won his sixth championship in Poland in 1979 and raced the bike one more time before retiring it from service.
It has been on display in different locations throughout the world and spent the last 10 years at the Australian Motorcycle Museum west of Brisbane.
But the bike's nomadic days are over, with Mauger lending it indefinitely to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
Sports Hall of Fame chief executive and former sports journalist Ron Palenski saw Mauger race the bike.
"I was expecting a black or a dung-covered bike, having seen it in action. So I was amazed when I saw it - it is fantastic," Mr Palenski said.
"And it is really good to have one of his bikes here, but particularly the one on which he set the record."
Mauger won six world championship titles, three longtrack world championships, two world pairs championships and four world team speedway championships.
He was crowned New Zealand sportsman of the year in 1977 and 1979.
He divides his time between Christchurch and his home on the Gold Coast in Australia and is still an active member of the speedway community.
