What started this site?
I’ve been passionate about bikes for as long as I can remember. My first ride was in a coastal town in the UK in the late 1970’s. I sat on a coin operated petrol three wheeler for kids and was hooked from that moment on.
While my father was alive we renovated motorcycles together, something that pushed me to study mechanical engineering and design. I’d spend every free moment tearing bikes apart and reassembling them with a new lease on life. My favorite motorcycle moment was having the owner of a well renowned auto-paint shop in Pretoria (South Africa) offer to paint one of my bikes for free after monitoring me preparing the body work for painting. Apparently he’d never seen anyone take so much time and care into getting the preparation right.
By day I support large organisations in Business/IT improvement and by night I constantly look for bikes that most people would ignore with an aim of turning them into show stoppers.
To give something back to the motorcycle community I started Shepster’s Garage. The site aims to support and share advice, ideas, tips, tricks, and progress related bike projects. We’re dedicated to help people who maintain, build, drive and display street machines.
What’s our vision?
Before this decade is through, we intend to build, operate and maintain an automotive social network committed to sharing knowledge, information and support to motorcycle builders, collectors, mechanics, clubs and associated businesses.
This vision includes helping and supporting the passionate and interesting people behind the motorcycle industry irrespective of race, age, colour, creed, sex, religion, creativity, technical ability and/or financial status.
What do we value?
Fairness, equity, and justice: Treating all people fairly is one of our abiding principles. We don’t let our personal feelings bias our decisions about other people. We give everyone a chance.
Citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty: We excel as a group. We’re loyal and dedicated teammates; we always do our share, and we work hard for the success of the group.
Curiosity and interest in the world: We’re all curious about everything. We always ask questions, and all subjects and topics fascinating. If you like exploration and discovery you’ll fit right in.
Kindness and generosity: We’re kind and generous to others, we’re never too busy to do a favor. We enjoy doing good deeds for others, even if we do not know them well.
Appreciation of beauty and excellence: We notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.
Our values were measured by the VIA Survey of Character Strengths (2014) through the Univesity of Pennsylvania. Retrieved from: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/testcenter