Irish Bob

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Over the next few years Bob’s interest in bikes grew and he started working in a few race bike and tuning places around Ireland, where he really took his welding skills to the next level. But the moment his interest turned into a passion was after watching the film TT3D. 

Bob started getting involved in the Irish road racing scene. He worked his way up to the Isle of Man in 2015 where he was a mechanic on one of the race teams. There he bumped into Norton’s race team and a week later he contacted them asking if they had any jobs going. They invited him for a simple interview, for which Bob left his job, sold all his things and moved to the UK. He wasn’t taking no for an answer.  

Bob started working at Norton Motorcycles  as a petrol tank maker. His hard working attitude, technical knowledge and outstanding skills helped him grow and within only 6 months of his position he became a team lead, then a manager within a year and a half, and head of manufacturing within year 3. He was responsible for every part made in the factory: frame, paint, swing arms, petrol tanks, concept bikes, race bikes, and more. 

In 2018 Bob was sent to India to Kinetic Motorcycles, a company that makes frames and chassis for some of the big names, such as MV Agusta, BMW, Benelli, SWM and more, to train the staff and help develop skills and processes to improve manufacturing techniques.

During his multiple trips to India Bob was also overseeing the manufacturing set up of the British built Norton v4.

In his time at Norton between 2015 and 2019 Bob developed his welding and bike building skills to the highest level and worked on the parts fabrication for the race bikes of the top 10 TT riders, such as Davey Todd, John Mcguinness, Davo Johnson, Josh Brookes, Peter Hickman and more. 

Bob Left Norton and in January of 2020 he opened THE-MACHINE-SHOP - the pay as you go  metal fabrication and motorbike DIY community workshop that has all the professional equipment to build and work on your dream projects. 

But unfortunately THE-MACHINE-SHOP had to shut its doors only 4 weeks after it opened because of COVID. There were no customers during lockdown and this was a very big financial struggle for Bob, who had put everything into it. 

He really believed in his idea and wasn’t giving up that easy. As soon as the precautions started to ease up, Bob adapted the workshop to the new regulations and started teaching and helping people again.

Since then Bob and THE-MACHINE-SHOP team have given thousands of lessons in welding and bike servicing, helped hundreds build their dream projects, including not just bikes but campers, cars, vans, arts and more. THE-MACHINE-SHOP has also expanded its areas of use and now offers content and services for events, some of which including Motorcycle Live, ABR Festival, The Malle Mile, MCN London Excel and more. It provides training and work for other businesses, like Jaguar & Land rover, Meaving, R-tech, Caofen, Royal Enfield, DCE Robotics, Allen Millyard and more. 

Bob races mini twins and super stock 1000. He is currently working towards getting an international licence so he can fulfil his dream of racing (and very possibly dying) at TT.