Communal Workshops

I've been watching the custom bike scene in Sydney and Melbourne for quite a while. It started when I was working in Melbourne a short while after Deus started up. I used to pass at least 3 or 4 cool SRs on my way from the hotel to the office in the mornings and the whole Dark Custom Sportster thing had really taken off down Elizabeth Street. Since then its kept on building with the Sydney Cafer Racers and their Distinguished Gentleman's Ride going global.
Tank Moto has grown out of Fuel magazine and Harley have set up their SHED website to promote the custom scene and try and convince new young riders to begin the long journey from a beaten up Evo Sporty to old age in an overweight Ultraglide. There's a lot going on.

One of the very cool developments has been the setting up of communal workshops in both Sydney and Melbourne. You can get an idea of the concept here: http://fueltank.tv/portfolio/stories-of-bike-two-cities-part-1/

Just like most people, I hate my day job, staring at a computer screen for 8 hours or having long meetings to talk about other computer screens. Every morning I go for coffee with a mate and we talk about other ways of making a living. He started to talk about having a big garage where people who didn't have the space or tools or experience to work on their own bikes could come in and rent a lift, complete with tools. There would be storage for projects that were in progress and you would be able to buy parts or hang out in the cafe.
Turns out that the guys in Aus were already doing just that. They crowd funded both shops and were up and running.

Before I get carried away I thought I'd run the idea past the guys on here. We don't have the same numbers actually out riding custom bikes as they do in Aus (the Auckland Hipsters have other things to do) but I'm sure there are a lot of people who would like access to a lathe and welder and a half decent set of sockets.
I suppose that they would need to be close to the city centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch just to make it easy for more people to use, so that rules out the place I wanted to rent in Helensville. I would want to make it affordable as I'd hate for it to be taken over by a bunch of rich guys playing with their toys.

So what do you think? Do you reckon there would be enough people and interest to make it viable and would it help build up something like the big hot rod and classic scene we already have?

Cheers
Irish

Had been thinking about the same thing awhile back.
Thought funding would be the main issue.
If it wasn't just for motorcycles might help with numbers(bicycles,cars?)
Courses on bike maintenance,etc might help to.
Getting some experienced,knowledgeable people involved would be key.

I just got a new industrial unit to work in in Helensville so I'm going to put in 3 lifts and a small cafe so it's basically ready to go. If I can't get any interest it will still get used for all my crap and at least be a place for people to stop off for a coffee on rides out round SH16. I'd like to get different groups involved like scooters, sports or tour bikes and maybe get the rodders to stop off on their way through. I guess if you don't try you'll never know   

Nice one, Irish. I hope people out your way take advantage of the opportunity that you are laying out in front of them

All the best of luck

Cheers, Bob.

best of luck if there was something similar down here id use it as I don't have all the gear and its frustrating when you just need to do a few small jobs but don't have a bike table or anything at your disposal
interested to see how it works out keep us informed

Sounds cool.Good luck.

Good on ya Irish. Like Bob said I hope you get a lot of support from all the locals up that way.
Just wish you lived down these ways certainly would be the sort of motivation that I could do with these days.
All the best with your venture any way mate. And dont forget the progress pics.    

Just saw this now. Nice idea Jon.

The place is all signed for and I get the keys and start building racks and stuff in a couple of weeks. If nothing else I'll have a launch party at the start of September/ My neighbors are already planning a piss up/building session for when I get the keys. I have a new web site at http://www.salt-lake-cycles.com/
Needs a bit of work but its a start. I'm also planning on getting a dealership for after market Harley parts if I can scrape up enough for the initial order. All go. Should have done this when I was closer to 30 than 60   

Just had a head's up from Lance that the next Rumble in the Alley show will be over on the shore on October 4th. More news on here as I get it.

Spay booth sounz dangerous

It's mostly for me but as long as it's closed off from the rest of the place anyone can make a mess.

ok

Nice work the web site looks good some nice looking bikes in the gallery section hopefully those will give a few people some inspiration maybe some sort of open day might be the go so people can check it out once its come together

brett7777 wrote:

Spay booth sounz dangerous

After all these years I still can't type worth a shit   

Bought 5 grands worth of new tools yesterday. I am seriously broke but lots of new toys to play with.

Yer on to it , bloke. HE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS, WINS.  

You can't take them with you - "he who plays with the most toys wins!"

Tell that to the bloke in the States that got himself buried sitting on his harley, dressed in his best riding gear.

Lol
One hell of a way to turn up at the pearly gates!

So I have the workshop just about ready to go. I just need to finish the security gate and get a few more power points put in. It now has a cafe in the front so as soon as I get a 15 amp plug for the coffee machine and learn how to use it we'll be sweet. Hopefully I'll get that part open in the summer and pick up a few of the people riding round highway 16 at the weekend in the summer.
I'll try and post some pics tomorrow.

Good one, Jon. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

Rapidly running out of money but I've got a lot done. The bike lifts and tools and racking is all in. I made up some display stands for parts and t-shirts and built a big cafe table and benches. I built a coffee bar that is meant to look like a shed to cover the ugly sink and cupboards and I picked up a big old commercial expresso machine. I need to get a sparky in to wire it all up and buy a coffee grinder but that will have to wait till I scare up a bit more cash. The new beer fridge is all up and running though . Since my day job is full on and I don't tend to get home till at least 7pm I'm going to need to get someone in to run the cafe for the summer.
I think I'm also going to have to get someone in to help with the bikes as well. I've done most of the work setting the place up but it's easier to have more than one person working just to bounce ideas off.
As far as the communal bit goes I haven't had any hits. To be fair, Helensville is pretty far away from where most people live but if no-one picks it up, at least I have a cool place to hang out.

Damn that's looking good!

I see one major flaw with it though... IT"S NOT IN WELLINGTON :-)

Seriously, well done man.

Awesome Irish... that looks like a great hangout space.