Rex gets his bike back

Last October, Rex Randall’s minibike was stolen from his Stoke garage. Ten months later, it has made its return – albeit a little worse for wear.

Rex built the bike with his father more than 50 years ago when he was just a boy.

He had just finished restoring it when it was stolen from his garage. His plea for its return was published in the Nelson Weekly at the time.

“I was beginning to lose hope, I assumed it had been trashed and I’d never see it again.”

But a few weeks ago, Rex got a message from a member of an online minibike group who said they saw his bike on Facebook Marketplace for sale and the seller was located in Blenheim.

“Initially, I sent some pictures of the bike to other minibike groups, I thought they would be able to keep an eye out for it. And someone saw it and flicked me a message saying, ‘Hey man, I think this is your bike’.”

Sure enough, it was.

He and his wife plotted a plan to get it back, which ended up with the Blenheim police fronting the seller and retrieving the bike.

“I was over the moon; it’s got huge sentimental value.”

However, their reunion was also tinged with a “bit of frustration”, according to Rex.

“It has quite a lot of scratches and some engine parts were missing, things had been ratted off it. I’m going to have to get a new engine,” he says. “But the wheels are all intact, which is good, they are iconic, you can’t get them anymore.”

So now Rex is on round two of restoring his bike, and he is looking forward to teaching his grandkids how to ride it one day.

But for now, the plan is to get it back to its former glory and then it will be staying “firmly locked up” in a safe place.