new motorcycle shop - belgium

koendd · Jan 1, 2019

Hey guys,

been a long since I was active here,
my old shop can be found here:

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3805645#post3805645

this summer we moved to Bruges, bigger house and a much bigger workshop.
I now have about 150m² in the main building and another storage shed in the garden from around 60m²

The shop was used before by a guy who had a workshop for classic cars and even a (illegal...) paint booth in the back.

this was when we just bought it, used the power washer to clean it because it was very dirty

started moving all my stuff in

after a lot of my stuff got soaking wet by a leaking old asbestos roof, replaced it

looks much cleaner now...

one of the outside:

will take some more of the outside and inside spaces this week.

oh, happy newyear

koendd · Jan 1, 2019

some finished bikes

Kasal · Jan 1, 2019

Nice new garage, I hope I did not devote all his time to motorcycles and he still shows us his Opel Kadet.
A greeting.

Jyzze · Jan 1, 2019

Cool place and cool bikes! :thumbup:

koendd · Jan 1, 2019

Kasal said:
Nice new garage, I hope I did not devote all his time to motorcycles and he still shows us his Opel Kadet.
A greeting.

hehe, that one is sold and indeed, just motorcycles now for the past 3 years...

Lassen Forge · Jan 1, 2019

Kind of sorry you got out of the Opel gig, as you did some nice stuff there, but looks like you're making it up in spades with the bikes. Any plans on taking it commercial (buying bikes, fixing them up and reselling), or just doing your own stuff?

Also curious about the yellow headlights... not sure you could get away with running those over here. Different rules or just a design decision?

Anyway, good to have you back! (And oh yeah, happy new year!)

koendd · Jan 1, 2019

Well it's allready commercial, doing this as an official side job but it's getting a bit out of hand, full time mechanic for someone in a ducati,kawasaki,ktm dealership, loads of work on old bikes at home and also renovating our new house.

Not wanting to go full-time at my own shop yet, so hope the boss agrees with working half time. anyways something will have to change. (working 8am - 11pm is a bit to much...)

The workshop at home got quit a boost after we made a tv series here in belgium about the rebuild of a Suzuki gr650 that was broadcasted for more then a year.
So couldn't have asked for a better start...

wasfast · Jan 1, 2019

Congrats on the new workshop. Do you have any concerns about the structure supporting the roof? I see several things that raise my eyebrows a bit.

koendd · Jan 1, 2019

wasfast said:
Congrats on the new workshop. Do you have any concerns about the structure supporting the roof? I see several things that raise my eyebrows a bit.

haha, you mean the beam with a wooden spacer and another wooden beam on top of it?

yeah I know it's not the prettiest of contructions but that's what was on there, the main focus now is on the house which needs a full rebuild.
This is just to get things dry in the shop.

On the upside, the old roof was very heavy, these new roofpanels are made of 3cm of pur insulation with 1mm of sheetmetal on top so they are very light.

TheLurker · Jan 1, 2019

koendd said:
...The workshop at home got quit a boost after we made a tv series here in belgium about the rebuild of a Suzuki gr650 that was broadcasted for more then a year.
So couldn't have asked for a better start...

Any links to the TV series?

koendd · Jan 1, 2019

TheLurker said:
Any links to the TV series?

You can check the whole series on their website: www.dobbit.be but that’s dutch.

They have quit a lot of them on their youtube channl as well: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF-umGjRcHMTw6Yqb8Rbd9r2L2NT1yX9U

koendd · Jan 2, 2019

ordered a lightning update to replace the 24 fluorescent lamps in the main building.

a 100W led high bay UFO lamp 6000K 12000 lumen.

Ordered one for now, going to see if this is enough to light up one half of the shop, if not i'll use this in the front part where I'm not working and order a 150W lamp for the back part where the motorcycle lifts are

koendd · Mar 24, 2019

so got all the led's up and removed most of the fluorescent lights.
much better!

J.C. · Mar 24, 2019

That’s a great looking bike workshop. Nice CX too!

Dividing Creek · Mar 24, 2019

Bruges- what an awesome town to call home.
I ship a lot of vehicles (mostly defenders) out of Zeebrugge.
Cheers on your new path.

Trapps · Mar 24, 2019

Terrific bikes!

Motorman55 · Mar 24, 2019

Cool bike shop.

koendd · Mar 24, 2019

thx guys!
and indeed, bruges is a very nice city to live in.
we live in one of the surrounding smaller towns, about 10mins by bike to the historic center of Bruges.

actually just noticed I've only posted the main part of the shop.
I'll upload some of the rest.

koendd · Mar 24, 2019

So here is the shop seen from the attic in our house (now being converted to our master bedroom

)

As you can see, it has had multiple extension in the 60 years of its existance....
the original building was a small one car garage you can see on the right with the tiles.
and about 4 extensions have been added.

don't mind the pieces of wood, bags of sand, cement etc on the new roof. had a bit of an issue with a storm two weeks ago. the new roof was bolted to the original wooden beams that had not been attached to the main I beams. so the new roof almost blew of. Now I attached them on the inside and all is good.
Just the old part of the roof in the back did actually let go and landed in the neigbours garden be we were able to get it back on for now.

Plans are to redo the hole backside of the shop (with the old roof).

our driveway and garden in the back

and our house next to it. It's undergoing a rebuild as well, last summer with renovated the roof and the attic is almost finished. doing it all in layers since we still live in it...

main part of the shop

this was the original garage (with the door and window). So this is actually a garage in my garage

now being used as office space and parts storage

fabrication area with welding table, grinding bench and some metalwork tools

this is further to the back, maintenance products and ultrasonic parts cleaner

next to it, blasting cabinet, degreaser, lathe and engine disassembly area

and behind that another attachement. another garage, which the old owner used as paint booth. I use it for bike storage and the air compressor is in there as well (insulated box on the right)

so this is the back of the shop. Plan is to tear it all down (the white part and the part on the left next to it) this summer when there will be less work on bikes I guess and my father in law is retiring next month so he'll have plenty of time. he's a mason so I'm quite lucky

koendd · Mar 29, 2019

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koendd · Mar 29, 2019

Finished another r100 today, good day to get out of the shop and enjoy the sun

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koendd · Mar 29, 2019

And working on another r100, finished wiring the bars, no wires will be visible, quite the job but so much cleaner....

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wout · Apr 8, 2019

Nice bikes and shop!!! It has lot's of character with all those vintage decoration.

gr
Wout

koendd · Apr 9, 2019

wout said:
Nice bikes and shop!!! It has lot's of character with all those vintage decoration.

gr
Wout

thx Wout!

een Hazet karretje zou hier ook mooi staan :drool:

koendd · Nov 24, 2019

so been a while,

bought some new tools, did some reorganisation in the shop.

Moved the grinding bench, lathe and a new bigger sand blasting cabinet to the back section of the shop (seperated with half a wall) to keep the dirty jobs out of the main shop section.

bought some other things as well, powdercoating gun, powder and a big industrial (former bakery) oven. So I can powder my own engine parts and smaller parts I make.
Saves loads of time instead of giving them to my powder guy and wait 2 weeks, I can now finish jobs in a day.

also build some shelving spaces in the back of the shop (seperate garage, used to be spray booth). Got my new air compressor there, space for customer and spare parts. and some bikes as well.

koendd · Nov 24, 2019

so here's the english wheel, planishing hammer and a shrinker/stretcher.

had a bike in the shop for a rebuild (bmw K100RS 16V) and the ownder wanted a metal rear end.
Had a guy make me one before so took it to his place.
Waited 2(!) months and he came up with this....
Not at all what the owner wanted. So bought my own tools and did it myself.
Not perfect but super happy for a first timer...
Also build some aluminum fenders with it for another client.
The new blasting cabinet as well and some powder coating results (for my own harley sportster)

koendd · Nov 24, 2019

and last,

some of the finished build I did this year,

a honda CB750 F1 (1976)
a honda slr650 (1986)
a BMW K100rs 16v (1990)

and my old compressor vs the new one (old one had the engine kinda seizing on startup, would eventually come through but didn't trust it anymore and it has a crack in one of the welds so bought a new one, bigger and better

)

koendd · Nov 24, 2019

Oh, and i won’t get bored this winter I guess [emoji28]

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wout · Nov 24, 2019

Nice work on the shop and bikes!!

old-air-performance · Nov 24, 2019

Nice shop Koen,
Bussy winter coming for you

How is your new compressor holding up with your sandblasting cabinet?
Last year is also updated my old brown to a similar size compressor.

Kind regards,
Toon

koendd · Nov 24, 2019

wout said:
Nice work on the shop and bikes!!

merci!

old-air-performance said:
Nice shop Koen,
Bussy winter coming for you

How is your new compressor holding up with your sandblasting cabinet?
Last year is also updated my old brown to a similar size compressor.

Kind regards,
Toon

Hi,

really good,
I have a small cabinet as well for glass bead blasting, it comes up to pressure even when I'm blasting.

Even on the bigger one it holds up really good. No noticable drop in air pressure.

the new one is 5.5hp and gives about 550l/min with a 200l tank.

koendd · Nov 26, 2019

Did some work in the house yesterday and today but also spent some hours in the shop this evening

Powdercoating some parts for a honda gl1000 i’m restoring for a client and some parts of my own sportster 88 build.

(Jup, dropped something with uncured pink powder in the hot oven as you can see [emoji28])

My sportster xl883, but in the back you can see the “new” powerplant, a 1200cc engine, also from 1988, going to rebuild the heads and barrels on that one.

The 1976 honda gl1000 of which i’m powdercoating the calipers atm.

And the last one, an 87 bmw k100lt that will look nothing like the original

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wachuko · Nov 26, 2019

What a cool thread! Subscribed.

koendd · Nov 27, 2019

wachuko said:
What a cool thread! Subscribed.

Thx!

Powdercoated caliper

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bdbecker · Nov 27, 2019

A Sportster build... sign me up! I've got a lightly modded '06 883 that I've had since new.

View media item 67937
Been following your thread since you first started it. Love the space, love the bikes, keep doing what you're doing!

wachuko · Nov 27, 2019

bdbecker said:
A Sportster build... sign me up! I've got a lightly modded '06 883 that I've had since new.

View media item 67937
Been following your thread since you first started it. Love the space, love the bikes, keep doing what you're doing!

That bike looks great. :thumbup:

I miss my Sportster... had so much fun modifying and riding that bike...

Another thing in my wish list to get again... find a used one and have some fun again with it...

koendd · Nov 27, 2019

fun bikes to ride indeed!
but my crank gave up 3 weeks ago... had a knocking noise for a couple of months allready but now it was really loud.

opened it up and huge amount of play on the rods..

was planning a 1200 upgrade allready so now found a complete engine...

koendd · Dec 2, 2019

Some stuff waiting to get the powder treatment... so satisfiying!

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This is the bike they came off, a 70’s yamaha sr500. came in for maintenance [emoji28]

The swingarm was pita to get out,
These bikes are notorious for that, no grease can be added anywhere so after 40years you can guess what happens...

Had to take the grinder to get it out, and even after that the two threaded studs thats were still left in the frame had to hammered out with brutal force...

Bushing and “axle” have become one...

But before i could cut the swingarm out without distroying it, the engine had to come so the owner said, well, just rebuild the whole bike then [emoji28]

koendd · Dec 2, 2019

and while the sun was out yesterday,

made this years last ride with my daughter to the local bikerplace to be in Bruges.

bdbecker · Dec 2, 2019

That's an awesome pic!

new motorcycle shop - belgium

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