Shed built: "His only request was that he wanted a hard tail conversion"

The Yamaha Virago is a bit of an ugly duckling to say the least in standard trim, but they’ve become ridiculously popular as a base bike for custom builds and with good reason.

• Related: full Yamaha XV535 Virago review on MCN

When Dan O’Shea was looking for a first project bike to get him building, he struck lucky when a friend had picked up a rusty bucket of a Virago that he wanted customising.

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“He bought it to get back on a bike after many years” said Dan. “It served its purpose but then sat on the white cliffs of Dover for a winter which turned it into a rusty brown mess. I told him I wanted a project and I’d do something with it for him. His only request was that he wanted a hard tail conversion. Everything else came from my head and I kept a secret until I unveiled it to him.”

Experience would say that a project such as that would only ever go one way, but Dan used a carefully honed eye and paid the right attention to the bike in the right areas to get a good result.

Especially considering it was it his first build, and that his working conditions were less than ideal, “I did the whole build in a garage 1 mile from my house with no power, water or lights. So, hand tools and batteries were my only weapons. Pretty much every part of the bike has been touched, either to remove, clean and paint like the wheels or to be re designed or replaced like the entire back end.”

Not bad for a first project at all, it looks like Dan has a knack for it.

Do you have a shed built bike? We’d love to hear from you – email james.archibald@motorcyclenews.com with some details and images of your creation.

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