The Shed - motorbikes

Video of from Rust to Rrroarrr Part two

28 January 2025

From Rust to Rrroarrr Part Two
As featured in The Shed magazine, February/March 2025 issue 119
A six-part magazine series on the restoration of a 1952 AJS Motorbike
PART TWO – Metal plating:
The secrets of successful nickel plating
In part one of this restoration series, Peter described how he started rebuilding, as cheaply as possible, an old bitser AJS 500 motorbike, and discussed the start of his nickel-plating tasks.
For this Rust to Rrroarr project, he has decided on a nickel-plating finish instead of chromium for his AJS. In this part two of the six-part series, Peter describes his nickel-plating process

Easy rider

9 August 2024

Simon Dew has a thing for Italian and English bikes – think Ducatis, BSAs and Royal Enfields. Over the years he has spent hours in his shed labouring over rebuilds and his passion for restoring bikes has been undimmed by the sometimes tortuous process.
“It’s all a bit nonsensical really,” he admits. “It would be much easier to go out and buy a bike that’s up and running and hit the road but for me it’s not about the bike itself but the process.”
Simon likens rebuilding bikes to herding cats. “Getting compliance so a bike can get back on the road is often long and arduous – and then you’ve got to keep it going.

A dream shed that came true

9 May 2024

Gary Wells has a shed that isn’t quite your normal sheddie bloke’s shed. It is still a place of work but a recent extension, after a quick clean-out, now doubles as a well-appointed entertainment area complete with bar and luxurious sofas which Gary made from the backs of two Ford cars. It could also be the old 1950s petrol station at Makarewa, once a small township and now incorporated into Invercargill to the north. A quick glance around Gary’s shed at the old-style petrol bowsers, the weather-beaten, corrugated iron wall, advertising placards and oil dispenser puts you back in the days when petrol was actually served to customers.

Videos of metal shaping and motorbike guru, Steve Roberts

17 November 2022

In the November/December issue 105 of The Shed, our cover story is on a Kiwi legend of metal shaping and motorbikes, Steve Roberts.
If you enjoyed that article here is a link to a website that has even more of Steve’s story as well as videos of the cars and bikes he has constructed and inside info from chats with Steve.

The most fun you can have on three wheels!

11 October 2018

Cambridge sheddie Kim Dawick decided to build a drift trike for a mate’s birthday. It was relatively simple and so much fun to ride he decided to build eight more to bring the old gang from school back together. Click through to see the Kim take Mike’s trike for a spin, and another one, and another one….

Electric motorbike build

10 September 2018

As a designer and motorcyclist, I had the idea of building an electric motorbike for a long time. The opportunity arose when I was in my final year of an honours degree in industrial design at Victoria University. I rode a 1987 Honda VFR400 to my lectures and the bike started having engine problems. I pulled out all combustion-related components and sold them. By the time I had a plan for an electric motorbike laid out I was part-way through a post-graduate diploma in Computer Aided Design (CAD) at Christchurch Polytechnic.

motorbikes

Video of from Rust to Rrroarrr Part two

Easy rider

A dream shed that came true

Videos of metal shaping and motorbike guru, Steve Roberts

The most fun you can have on three wheels!

Electric motorbike build

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