Bruce Davidson said he has always been a petrol head, and despite selling up shop and retiring at the end of January, there will be no slowing him down. 

Davidson Honda in Alexandra will change hands to Ewan Allan Honda on February 1, and Bruce already has his next project lined up.

He’s getting back into club level car racing and enjoys building his own vehicles. There’s been a fair bit of jet boating and car racing over the years and a few national championship titles as well.

The motorbiking slowed down a few years ago while he and wife Jo concentrated on the Honda shop, but Bruce has always been passionate about bikes.

Ever since he was kid growing up on a farm in Gore, he was involved with dirt bike competitions and eventually raced at national level - winning New Zealand titles, including an NZ Enduro title back in the mid-1980s.

But it was time to move on from the motorbike shop after 37 years - and 50 in total with Honda New Zealand. Starting with just two staff, Davidson Honda now employs a team of 13.

“I have to get out while I still enjoy it.”

Bruce Davidson is a self-confessed petrol head. Image: The Central App

It was fitting that Ewan Allan Honda was buying his business, handing over the business to someone that shared his southern roots.

Bruce started working at a motorbike shop after school part-time when he was a teenager, and then he went on to do his apprenticeship.

At just 25 there was an opportunity to manage a bike shop in Balclutha after the owners were involved in a tragic accident, so Bruce relocated and took on the challenge.

In 1989, he moved to Alexandra and bought the existing Honda shop in Tarbert Street, where the Salvation Army is now, before he and Jo built their own purpose-built one on the prominent Centennial Ave site in 2000.

He had to move the old house off site and donated it to the Alexandra Volunteer Fire Brigade for a controlled burn - the land was still zoned residential back then.

Bruce has seen many changes to the motorbike industry over the years. In the late 1980s, there were just two-wheelers on the market - then along came three-wheelers, four-wheelers and now they have ‘side by side’ mini trucks.

It is the rural industry that makes up the majority of his business, but walking into his ‘toy’ shop, it’s hard to not be impressed by the range of off-road and adventure bikes as well.

And that’s what Bruce loves about the industry - motorbikes are generally made for ‘young-minded’ people who like to have a bit of fun, he said.

Surprisingly, there has been a new trend with those in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s coming in to purchase adventure bikes - who used to ride in their younger days.

Bruce can remember well the late 1970s and early 80s when there was a global peak on motorcycles - before imported cars were a thing.

People were buying them for transport and for weekend fun, and that trend was starting to repeat again.

Ewan Allan Honda also has branches in Gore, Balclutha and Mosgiel and when it takes over Alexandra, all of the existing staff will stay with the business.

Bruce said one of the biggest challenges of the industry, more so in recent years, has been finding and retaining qualified staff, and the lack of affordable housing didn’t help either.

He and Jo have been known to help out staff with deposits to ensure housing and job security, and going that extra mile with the team has paid off. Glen Clark their longest serving staff member has been with Davidson Honda for 25 years.

Bruce and Jo have made many friends over the years in the motorbike industry, and hopefully some of them will pop in before January 31 and wish them farewell.

Honda NZ management is coming south that day to give Bruce the send off he deserves after 50 years commitment to the brand.

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