The New Zealand Original Wall of Death


Picture this: Take off on a runway that isn't much wider than your living room, then hit a slatted angle that has been set up as a temporary ramp that is just wide enough to keep your motorcycle tires from falling through.

Oh yeah, you’re riding a two stroke 198cc James Villiers motorcycle.

Rapidly gaining enough speed to fly up into a 9-meter (30-feet) wide barrel and maintain consciousness while experiencing 3Gs while horizontally riding 3-meters (10-feet) in the air.

Attempting to stay between the beckoning red lines that are your sweet spots between gravity pulling you, hot steel, and gas to certain disaster, or going the other way and becoming the first motorcycle astronaut, with no landing ramp.

Assembling the Wall of Death at Nelson Bike Show.
Assembling the Wall of Death at the Nelson Bike Show.
Audience watching a Wall of Death Show at the Nelson Bike Show.
The audience observing a show at the Nelson Bike Show.

The New Zealand Original Wall of Death Incorporated Society is dedicated to the preservation and restoration of a vintage wooden Wall of Death.

This is used for an outrageous daredevil stunt in which a reckless rider and his motorcycle defy gravity by riding inside a perpendicular, cylindrical wooden wall.

The wooden wall is constructed of Jarrah, Kauri, and ribs of Rosewood. It has been in prolonged storage for the last 20 years, and unfortunately, the rot has taken its toll.

A passionate community of businesses has contributed in kind to support with the rebuild, like Three Sixty, which remade the crucial spines with their 5-axis router.

We would like to express our gratitude to the following generous sponsors:

  • Three Sixty
  • Custom Hoist Hire
  • Fortress Fasteners
  • Combined Haulage
  • Bostic
  • DR Painter Decorator Ltd
Three Sixty manufactured ribs for the Wall of Death.
Three Sixty manufactured these ribs with their 5-axis router for the Wall of Death.

1990's Wall of Death rider Roger Boyd (The Big Day Out, Nelson Bike Show and the National Motor Cycle Show) has linked up with cabinet maker Grant Stewart and a dedicated group of people. Their goal is to reconstruct this important piece of New Zealand history.

The Pickup family has given the Wall of Death to the New Zealand Original Wall of Death Incorporated Society very generously. This will allow the Wall and its daring stories to be preserved for future generations to marvel at.

Grant and Roger repairing a Wall of Death panel.
Grant and Roger have been busy working on a Wall of Death panel.
A rebuilt Wall of Death Panel
This Wall of Death panel has been fully rebuilt and is awaiting paint.