Back to Blog

Around the World with Rhys Lawry

Rhys Lawry traveled around the world visiting 71 countriesand traveling an amazing 56,854 miles on a Triumph Tiger 800. He even call in to see us at First European here in Christchurch check out his video....

Mods 'n' Rockers

Since 2009 we have held an annual Mods 'n' Rockers event here in Christchurch. It's our bit of friendly rivalry between the smart dressed "scooter boys" (Mods) and the "leather clad" bike boys (Rockers). Each year enthusiastic representatives from each sector turn up to participate in fun and games to win the coveted  M'n'R Shield, awarded to the side that wins the majority of games. Over the years the games may have changed, but one common denominator is to finish up at Smash Palace for ou...

Cleveland Heist

No, not an American bank robbery but a bike that hailed from the USA never the less. The Cleveland Heist is powered by the mighty 250cc Lifan single cylinder four stroke. And so it began............. One Morning just before Xmas Regan walked into the shop just as we were opening up hailing "wait 'til you see this really cool bike Kirk and I have just bought!" When he showed me the photo on his phone, to say I fell off my stool laughing would be an understatement. However, this opening comment wa...

Distinguished Gentlemans Ride 2018 - Video

...

Distinguished Gentlemans Ride 2018

...

Kawasaki Z1000 Fighter

This bike was a two stage project. Initially we had been asked by the owner Phil to give the bike a bit of a fresher look and maybe a custom exhaust. This we did and Phil ended up with the bike you can see in the first couple of pics. Then however the bike was involved in an accident (not with Phil riding it I hasten to add but at the hands of o "friend".Thus we got to have a second go at this bike. This time we went quite a bit further. We changed the tailpiece for a single seat race unit from ...

Moto Guzzi Griso

We got into this build when the bikes owner Brent rang to tell us how after breaking his neck in an accident two years earlier, he was now recovered and mobile but left with his beloved Griso looking the worse for wear.After the bike was dropped off at the shop we assessed the parts that needed replacing and then went through the list with Brent suggesting things that could be replaced with custom parts rather than standard....

MV Agusta Dragster Scrambler

This is one of those bikes that makes most people as why? The honest answer, like all good ideas is that it seemed like a good idea, so why not?Seriously though, as those of you that are familiar with us can attest, we like scramblers and the thought of having a 126BHP and 167kg scrambler seemed like a recipe for a whole heap of fun....

Distinguished Gentlemans Ride 2017

So 2017 and on to my second year hosting the DGR. In the weeks before the ride I had made sure that I had attended every Thursday night bike night at Smash Palace and quite deliberately went from table to table handing out flyers and urging people to register.With two day to go until the ride we were sat on just over 100 registered riders, which I was reasonably pleased with. On the Saturday evening I had a quick check of the DGR website and was quite shocked to see the number had now jumped to ...

Grahams Triumph T100 Cafe Racer

So, we started looking at Grahams bike with a brief just to do what was required to get the bike through NZ compliance. However, as we talked with Graham we could see that he wanted this bike to look just right and quite frankly it didn't! Time to make a build list, this included new 17" alloy rims to be laced onto the existing hubs so we had a 5.5" at the rear and a 3.5" at the front, clip-on handlebars, a new speedo (kph) and small LED warning lights, a front cockpit fairing, a custom seat, ne...

Grahams Norton Commando

We received a phone call from Graham informing us that he had just brought two bikes back with him from the USA, these being a Norton Commando and a Triumph T100 Cafe Racer and needed these bikes to be prepared and submitted for compliance testing so they could be used in New Zealand. Now the Triumph we will get to later! The Norton was extremely tidy but had a few things that Graham wanted us to sort as the fuel in New Zealand is quite different to the States and the carbs were going to need re...

Frankenscrambler

One of our clients rang us to say that he had been browsing custom bikes on the net and wanted to talk to us about a project. After lots of ideas were kicked around, it was decided that the base bike would be a Triumph Scrambler, bur with a brief to make "loud and leery"....

Mods 'n' Rockers 2017 - Video

A video made for our 2017 Mods 'n'Rockers Event by Jonathan Mackie...

Thruxton R Cafe Racer

I first clapped eyes on a Triumph Thruxton R when I went to London at the end of 2015 for the Triumph Global Dealer Conference. As soon as I saw one I thought I'm gonna have one of them and I'm going to build "my" cafe racer....

LML 200 "Woody"

This build came about after we had attended the National Motorcycle show up in Auckland and had been talking with the LML distributor about how cool scooters could be made to look just like the Mods have always done to their scoots.So when we got back to good old Christchurch we set about tinkering with this LML200. We stripped the body panels off the scoot and covered them in a deep knotty walnut effect vinyl. We also whipped off the wheels and fitted whitewall tyres and made up a sports exhaus...

Distinguished Gentlemans Ride 2016

2016 was my first year as host for the Christchurch Distinguished Gentlemans Ride. The weather on the Sunday morning was less than kind with a thick misty drizzle that showed no signs of stopping. We were set to meet up at First European for pre-ride coffees at 12.00 noon, so I got there early and nervously paced the showroom - I knew that in the interests of safety, that if the rain persisted I was going to have to cancel. At 11.40am a couple of faces appeared at the window so I opened up the s...

Green Meanie

Building "Green Meanie came about after a discussion as to why Moto Guzzi did not do a scrambler version of their V7. They had kits you could buy that included high level Arrows pipes but they still tended to look somewhat staid. At this time we were in the middle of building Frankenscrambler so our train of thought was to build something with the same attitude but at a much lower cost so we could show customers what could be achieved at 'affordable" prices....

Distinguished Gentlemans Ride 2015

A video compilation of the Christchurch DGR 2015 put together by Jonathan Mackie. ...

Dark Spirit

Certainly not our most complex build, however it was a bike that was an instant hit with our customers, (good job really as we built it as a spec built bike). In 2016 Triumph brought out the T100 Spirit, which was a nice bike finished in a bright blue with white graphics and utilising some parts from other members of the Bonneville family i.e. the smaller headlight from the scrambler and black rims and spokes from the Bonnie T100 Black along with the upswept "Dunstall" style mufflers of the mag ...

Kanis K100

When kani first came to us and said I want you to do something cool with my K100 we were pretty surprised, to explain, Kani already had a Harley that had undergone a fair amount of engine work and modifications (if you know Kani's Harley you will know it looks like Arnie should be riding it in a Terminator movie)....

Distinguished Gentlemans Ride 2014

...