Congratulations on getting a place to work on your bikes
You'll be surprised how much you can get done with 15 mins here - 30 mins there if you don't have to spend time just getting things ready to work on.
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| I will finally have a shop! http://www.kawi2strokes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=12049 |
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| Author: | 2stroke [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 11:06 am ] |
| Post subject: | I will finally have a shop! |
Ive had my old S2 for about 20 years now. I had it on the road for about 8 of those years, always keeping it alive but just barely. I kept it on the porch because I had no garage or anything, (it was a rowhouse) and so the elements would take their toll against whatever low budget steps I could take to keep up on it. It was already in a slow decline when my house caught fire last year. After that I packed it away in a storage locker with all of my other bikes, as we went to live in a townhouse while the old house was being rebuilt. I feel like my life has been on hold the last year, since I have not been able to really work on anything---not for fun anyway. It used to be hard enough before the fire to work on anything --the front porch was the only place to do it, so the weather mattered, and the neighborhood was bad---I never dared keep my dirt bikes there for very long...sometimes I would bring them in a day or two before a race to work on them but I never failed to wind up turning wrenches frantically at the track. Well, after the old house was finished, we decided to sell it. It was never going to be as nice again, so this was our chance to make it out of there. It's been a long grind, but we settle on a new place in about a week. My new place HAD a two car garage that had been converted into "living space". Gee thanks previous owner. One of the slots has been turned into a little "suite"--could be a bedroom and a little sitting area. One of my adult sons has laid claim to that, but he will pay board for it. The other slot was deemed a "game room"....tile floor, but open space. My better half has conceded that this will be my shop. The big bay doors are long gone, but I can get my bikes in there. Going to put a work bench in, etc. Climate controlled no less! A far cry from hiding under a tarp on the front porch. I am beyond excited---I think I will take the old S2 down to it's bones and take it back up. Low budget as always--no powder coated this and that--but she deserves to be put right! Hell I might even spring for some professional paint work at some point. Of course it will have to contend with all the rest of my fleet of junk. What I am looking forward to most is this: If it is 11:30 at night, and I cant sleep, I can walk in and tool around for 20 minutes. As I find little slots of time in the day, 30 minutes here, an hour there---then I can go in and work on something. Before the fire, it took a longer comittment....unlock my bikes, move them around on the porch until I could get to the one I wanted....or go to storage, get one out, bring it over, work on it, put it away..the way my attention span and my spare time go, that meant most of the time I just did not feel like putting the effort in. The one trade off is the commute I will now have (about an hour with no traffic, more with rush hour)---I just could not find anything in my immediate area within my price range. On the plus side, I will be in a 10 mile radius of almost my whole family. Ive missed nearly the whole vintage MX season this year, looking forward to a busy winter! |
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| Author: | BarryB [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 1:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
Congratulations on getting a place to work on your bikes You'll be surprised how much you can get done with 15 mins here - 30 mins there if you don't have to spend time just getting things ready to work on.
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| Author: | GUTS [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 2:33 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
It is nice to have a place to work on your stuff, have fun! |
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| Author: | Zambia [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 3:17 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
Sounds like a well deserved change of fortune - post pictures of the shop when you get moved in! |
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| Author: | RODH2 [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 7:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
Yeah, good story. Good to hear you have somewhere to work with a bit of security!
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| Author: | Moriniman [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 10:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
You might find that sometimes you will just sit in the room & stare at the bikes... very therapeutic! |
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| Author: | demus [ Fri Aug 26, 2016 10:47 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
Thats is a great ending to your story, love it when things turn a corner! I do 95% of the work on my bikes in 30min to 1 hour intervals over a period of time. Barry's right it is amazing how much you can get done when you don't have to set up and you can leave a project at any point knowing everything will be exactly as you left it. And the therapy of just sitting looking at a project or bike will keep you young! |
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| Author: | Ja-Moo [ Sat Aug 27, 2016 12:50 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
Happy days! It does make a huge difference when you actually have a place to work on your bikes...... 
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| Author: | H-nube [ Sun Aug 28, 2016 10:43 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
I made due for a long time with a tiny 4x6 space with a bench. Even with this small space, I had room to work on stuff. It wasn't the best but it was a shop. You will love your new shop and find ways to maximize the space. I moved and have an outbuilding shop now. Congrats and keep racing vintage. |
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| Author: | 2stroke [ Mon Sep 05, 2016 6:01 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: I will finally have a shop! |
Thanks guys. I settle in 2 days and we will do most of the moving in next weekend. Im sure it will take a while to get to the point where I can get things going, but that will be half the fun. It has an outbuilding as well that I could store some of the parts and future projects in....Im going to try and not wreck the space so to speak. Id almost rather it were still just a garage instead of a finished space but in some ways it could be better. I have a big vintage stereo rack system that I bought after the fire to replace the one that burned up, and my better half was sort of grousing at the thought of my setting it up in the living room, so maybe Ill just put it in the shop! Make an all purpose man cave. Gotta look into floor coatings or something. I just know Im going to drop a crank and crack the floor or something, THought about rolling out some cheap outdoor carpet. |
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