Kiwi Biker forums - Blogs - Metal Doctor https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/blog.php/36716-Metal-Doctor Kiwi Biker - New Zealand motorcycle community en Wed, 20 May 2026 22:45:21 GMT vBulletin 20 https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/images/BP-Brown/misc/rss.jpg Kiwi Biker forums - Blogs - Metal Doctor https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/blog.php/36716-Metal-Doctor Bike jobs https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/entry.php/2648-Bike-jobs Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:23:41 GMT Hi folks,

So i've been doing a couple of jobs for bikers and thought i'd tell you what i've been up to.

Had a nice chap called Johan call me up about his BMW G650GS, its a pretty cool bike but BMW didn't fit them with a centerstand as a stock part, even though the frame has all the mounting brackets to take the centerstand. But BMW couldn't supply a centerstand for the bike only a regular one which is too short, so Johan got a short one and i took some measurments and extended it just enough to get the back wheel off the ground but not to long so it hit the swing arm. Easy fix and makes matainance alot easier.

I also fixed a KTM swing arm. The sprocket bolts had worked loose and come out, gouging a deep groove out the the inside of the aluminium swing arm, this was a simple fix by just adding weld metal into the the groove and then sanded it flush.

last thing was a XT660 exhaust mod. Gary, the owner, wanted more noise and a free flowing exhaust. He had already done some airbox mods fitting hi flow filters and upped the fueling, but didnt want to spend loads on a new set of exhausts. So after doing some research he had found that some guys had modifided the stock mufflers and wondered if i could do the same to his. Now i wouldn't recomend everyone do this to thier mufflers but it can be done if you have the tools. Its a dirty messy job but the results are great and you end up with a free flowing exhaust! Basicly you cut the exhaust and remove all the guts, then replace them with a 57mm perf tube repack it, put it back together and weld it back up, sounds simple! its not. But the pic explains how to, and i might post it on the forum if anyone fancys having a go.

Cheers and i'll keep ya posted about any other bike related jobs!
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]]> Metal Doctor https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/entry.php/2648-Bike-jobs Mobile Welder https://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/entry.php/2623-Mobile-Welder Mon, 15 Oct 2012 08:56:26 GMT So I'm pretty new to Kiwi Biker and this blog stuff, but after doing a welding job for a guy recently on his Suzuki TL1000S I realised that there are lots of guys out there who are modifying bikes, or giving it a bit too much at the weekend and cracking frames etc, that need a welder with a knowledge of bikes!

I've always been about bikes - from schoolboy motocross as a kid in the Isle of Man, watching the TT, riding the course, doing track days, racing Her Majesty's highways in the UK on my Fireblade and SP1, classic bike stuff with my old man's MV August's and brit bikes to more recently riding the NZ dirt and sand on my KTM 525.

But as much as I'd like to ride bikes all day long, I've got to earn some money, so I do that as a welder. I've been in the welding trade for about 15 years - structural, residential, steel, aluminium, stainless etc and I've recently set up my own company as a mobile welder; Metal Doctor. I'm fully kitted out - van, TIG/MMA set, generator etc and fully certified in steel, aluminium, stainless. When I looked around Auckland there seemed to be lots of engineering/fab shops, but it seemed really hard to find a welder that you could call on to come round your house and fix your broken gates, weld a patch on your boat, weld up a cracked frame on your bike, or weld up whatever project you've got going on in the garage at the moment!

So, I thought I'd post the bike weld jobs I do on here. Motorcycle frames can be tough to weld because of the different metals they use, from chromolly steel to cast aluminium. But with the right equipment, knowledge and skill it can be done. You dont have to be a genius to know a bad weld, they look like shit! and if they look bad i can guarantee they are bad! and you dont want your pride and joy falling apart because of bad workmanship.

The first welding job i had when i set up this business was a cracked upper suspension mount on a '97 Suzuki TL1000S. Now these bikes are known to have frame cracking issues because of the rotary damper and suspension design.

You can see the cracks in the left hand photo, they go from the bolt holes right out to the edge of the mount. i used an AC advanced square wave TIG set with 4043 aluminium filler rod to repair the cracks and then added som extra weld metal to the mount to give it some extra strength. then smoothed it all out to get rid of any stress points.
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