The Shed magazine February/March 2026 issue 125 on sale now
Going solar
Solar power seems like a great idea; who doesn’t want free power, right? But, what to choose, and what are the pitfalls of solar?
Regular The Shed writer, Andrew Broxholme, has just completed a large solar installation on his property and shares all the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of his solar power journey.
I’m environmentally aware, but am not an environmentalist, so I’ve gone solar for only one reason, because it makes good financial sense to do so, that said it isn’t necessarily going to be right for everyone and its impact on your power bills will depend on where you are in New Zealand and the orientation and design of your house relative to where the sun rises and sets.
I’ve been interested in renewables for many years. I first looked at it while living in the UK. The early systems had promise, but really didn’t make financial sense as the cost of installation and ongoing maintenance wasn’t offset by big enough reductions in power bills. They wouldn’t repay that investment during their service life, which at the time was 15–20 years (maximum).
That’s no longer true, with higher volume, the equipment has got a lot cheaper, it is more efficient, but we have also seen huge increases in energy costs; this, in particular, changes the economics dramatically. That doesn’t, however, mean that you can buy the first solar system presented or recommended to you. Read on to find out why.
Racing motorcycles – the art of engineering
Chris Gordon has been devoted to the internal combustion engine since his earliest days, when his next-door neighbour was a motor mechanic.
At 14, he was a crew member for Ron Collett, who successfully ran a Top Eliminator class dragster at strips throughout New Zealand. His Chris Gordon Racing Team won the 1998/99 125cc New Zealand Road Racing Championship, with well-known rider Dennis Charlett riding a Honda RS125 that Chris owned and prepared. Chris and his team ran the bike in the 125cc class at the Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island in 1999.
Chris has also, from a very early age, made things: models, an electric bicycle, an electric go-kart; a fibre-glass, road-registered, scratch-built car; and a 500cc V8- powered grand prix racing bike. He has a minimalist approach to tools and equipment, but to make the racer’s V8 engine, he had to buy and master a small lathe and a serious, large and highly capable milling machine. The alternative would have been to get the machining and development done professionally. Chris calculates that this would have involved thousands of hours of very expensive machine time – say, 3000-plus hours at $100 per hour. That’s a lot of money.
Choppers with pedal power
Geraldine High School technology teacher Alan Minnear built pedal-powered choppers with his Year 11 students because he wanted something to capture their interest. He says he initially got the idea for the choppers from another local teacher but then discovered the Atomic Zombie website (www. atomiczombie.com) which opened his eyes to possibilities with the clear instructions available. He paid for and downloaded the PDF files for the two choppers named Vigilante and Overkill that caught his eye.
Because of their relative inexperience, the students basically followed the book for the choppers they built. However, the book gave no measurements, wanting builders to create their own design from the basics.
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