{"id":1297,"date":"2025-08-07T02:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/?p=1297"},"modified":"2025-08-07T02:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T16:20:15","slug":"binkys-bike-barn-one-amazing-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/au\/binkys-bike-barn-one-amazing-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Binky\u2019s Bike Barn: One amazing space"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

H.O.G. members, Andre and Noelene, have built themselves a Harley-themed private museum. They call it Binky\u2019s Bike Barn. We call it extraordinary. Just don\u2019t call it a man cave\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andre has been riding bikes since he was 10. Now in his 60s, he\u2019s racked up 56 years in the saddle. He and his wife Noelene have raised three sons, run two nurseries and share their passion for motorcycles with four granddaughters and a grandson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re fifth-generation bikers,\u201d he says proudly. \u201cMy grandfather rode, my dad rode, Noelene\u2019s dad rode. And now our grandkids are into it too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harley\u00ae <\/sup>motorcycles have long held a special place in their garage, but it wasn\u2019t until 2010, after the H.O.G.\u2122<\/sup> National Rally at Mount Buller, that things really escalated. \u201cI said to Noelene, let\u2019s do it properly. I\u2019ll buy one, you buy one.\u201d And they\u2019ve been collecting ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the collection grew, so did the need for a dedicated space; somewhere secure, weatherproof and worthy of the bikes inside. Andre pegged out a footprint, fired up the earthmoving gear with his sons and got to work. The result became known as Binky\u2019s Bike Barn \u2013 a nod to Noelene\u2019s nickname and a deliberate pushback against the usual “man cave” trope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not a man cave,\u201d Andre says. \u201cIf that word\u2019s dropped in her presence, she says, \u2018This is a person cave.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Noelene\u2019s influence is everywhere, from the collected signage and travel souvenirs to the thoughtful layout and flow. It\u2019s a shared space in every sense, layered with meaning, memories and meticulous execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the outside, the Barn is all weathered tin and plate steel. Inside, it opens into a sprawling, industrial-styled space packed with Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup> motorcycles, memorabilia, vintage fixtures and handcrafted details. There\u2019s even a Kenworth truck cab mounted into the wall, forming a fully functioning entrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEssentially the whole of that bike room I built,\u201d Andre says. The walls are double brick, layered with steel, and the entire space is insulated with 250mm of material across three layers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why that room doesn\u2019t change temperature,\u201d Andre says. \u201cBut it\u2019s all air-conditioned. If you want to be comfy when it\u2019s stinking hot, it\u2019s the coolest part of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The floor tells its own story. Using 200 reclaimed railway sleepers, Andre milled and planed each piece himself, then filled the old bolt holes and timber knots with clear epoxy resin. Die-cast Harley models, bulldozers and grandkid keepsakes are preserved in the floor, like relics beneath glass. To allow for movement, he finished the floor with flexible black silicone, hand-pumping the caulking line by line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was on my hands and knees for a quarter of a kilometre,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a vintage water tank plumbed into a working sink, a Mack truck bulldog bonnet ornament that doubles as a flick mixer and cupboard handles made from Harley-Davidson belt buckles and brand-new 1960 Panhead tank badges. There\u2019s also a folding TV hidden in the ceiling, a dehumidifier for the timber and even a handcrafted lamp built from a horse-drawn plough and an old railway lantern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most striking features of the Bike Barn is the fully rebuilt Kenworth truck cab, mounted into one wall like a movie prop. Complete with wheels and working lights, it serves as the physical threshold between the barn and the rest of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI did my apprenticeship with Kenworth trucks when I was brand new out of school,\u201d says Andre. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a passion for the bigger rigs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wreck was stripped, restored and reimagined as a walk-through staircase. \u201cI gutted all the engine bay and the sleeper cab so you walk down through the centre of it,\u201d he says. \u201cI dusted it off and gave it a new coat of paint because Noelene likes blue. But I left all the scars from millions of kilometres on it. There\u2019s even a crack windscreen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the real magic is in how you get into the Kenworth. Hidden behind what looks like standard garage shelving is a concealed access system that you\u2019d see in a spy film. Let\u2019s just say it involves a coded lock and a large rusty spanner that triggers the internal bolts which allows an otherwise standard piece of workshop furniture to split in half and hinge open. \u201cIt\u2019s all Addams Family<\/em> kind of stuff,\u201d Andre says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven Harley-Davidson models sit under the barn\u2019s industrial lights, each one tied to a moment in Andre and Noelene\u2019s life. Pride of place goes to a 2009 blue Springer\u2122<\/sup> Softail\u00ae<\/sup>, imported from Canada with barely 6,000 kilometres on the clock. Nearby is the first-edition 2013 CVO\u2122<\/sup> Breakout\u00ae<\/sup> \u2013 red frame, lace-fabric paint, pure hot-rod attitude. Andre\u2019s long-distance favourite, the Enthusiast-edition Ultra Limited tourer, mirrors the two guitars on the wall with its \u201970s rock-and-roll livery, right down to the vinyl-record tank badge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noelene\u2019s bike often wears a clip-on sidecar so three grandkids can pile in, seat-belted and helmeted, for evening runs to see Christmas lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe end up being more of a circus act than the lights themselves,\u201d Andre laughs. And while the bikes tell one story, the space around them tells another. Between the hand-milled timber, the welded steel and the layers of family history set into the floor and overhead beams, there\u2019s nothing standard about Binky\u2019s Bike Barn. Its scale, craftsmanship and imagination are enviable. And the execution, uncompromising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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