Workshop downsize :(

So my recent move to Bristol has resulted in me having to make major sacrifices regarding the space I have for my Superduke and other biking activities. Major sacrifice indeed! But other factors have come into play in my life and it's something that I have had to accept. The house we've moved to hasn't even got a garage so I've had to find a place to rent separately. There were no private garages or any spaces in the locality but then I found one of those high security storage units that are usually used for people's excess household stuff and they had ground floor units that you can just ride a bike into. It's only a mile from my new house and not too bad price when you do it long term, in fact the monthly rent is the same as the discount I have on the house rent because I'm leasing from a mate so it all works out the same in the end. Doesn't have any power so I'm wondering what happens over the winter when my Shorai really needs to be on a trickle charge or I need to work on the bike with power tools?

This is what I had......


This is what I now have......

That's....depressing, Bic.

Aphex. I know. I could look at it this way. But I still have a place to store my SD and H2 Kawasaki in a place that is pretty easy to get to and means I can go and spend a few hours at the weekend fettling and maintaining and generally doing that "bloke in the garage thing". And moving to Bristol means that I also loose my easy access to Brands Hatch track but I get to be near Castle Coombe which, although not a national race event circuit, is maybe cheaper and less over subscribed. Altogether looking forward to a new life and different adventures.

for the battery I know at least one friend that does this and he just removes the battery and takes it home with him. no worries about someone nicking the bike, plus it gets a nice warm place to hibernate in the winter.

another option is if there is an overhead standard light fixture, you can screw in one of those adapters that gives you an outlet on the socket? I didn't see a light in the photos, but might be worth a look. if you are working with tools, maybe an extension cord and an outlet nearby in the hall?

good luck with it all...

Taking the battery out of this bike on a regular basis is not an option as it's the worst access battery on any bike I have ever owned! To make matters worse I have a an aftermarket belly pan fitted which is even more time consuming to remove than the standard one. And unfortunately there's no power on this site - not even a lightbulb socket. Best option at the moment is that over the winter (I ride all year round) I can sometimes park the bike in front of my new house overnight and run a trickle charge out through the window. But this means the bike is also not really secure during this time and at risk of theft even if it is locked up. Also I know there will be a time when I go down to the storage unit and the bike will not crank and then I will not be able to charge up or get the fooker started to ride over to my house. Catch 22.

oops forgot you have the 990. the 1290 it's under the main seat and about the easiest of all of my bikes to get to pretty quickly...

Bic,

What about this?



or something like it?

I feel your pain having had to downsize garages.

Bic, I know you are in England, but have you considered something like this:
http://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/oxfo ... ry-charger

You could have the solar panel on the roof of the unit and I'm sure you'd get at least a couple of wires through that door frame. Wouldn't help with your powertools, but would keep the battery topped up.

Not sure how efficient it would be in winter though. Hmmmm.

Bic mate, sorry to piss on your BBQ but Castle Combe circuit is shit, not just in comparison to Brands, but to any other mainstream circuit you could name; bumpy as fook, all right-handers apart from chicanes (3) and their noise limits are draconian: 105Db limit but tested at ¾ maximum rpm - on a 600 a regular noise test is conducted at 7000rpm but at Combe it'll be at 12000rpm or more. Only a maximum of 12 bikes on track in any session and sessions are only 10 minutes long, you get 1 session/hour. The restrictions on noise, numbers and session length are due to the well-to-do residents of the neighbouring village having a hotline to the council who can grant or withdraw the circuit's licence to operate. If you don't like noise, why buy a house beside a race track FFS?
I only live 45 miles from Combe but I'll take the 200-mile drive to Cadwell in preference any day.
These are just my opinions, as you're relatively local now, why not pop over for a look one Wednesday to see what you think of the place.
Good luck adapting to the reduced workspace

Looked at something similar around the corner form my house but at 200 pound a month I gave it a miss.
Amazing what you can cram into a single car garage when required.
I thought your biggest problem would be where to plug the beer fridge into?

Ha ha! I'm mostly a red wine drinker anyway and ambient temperature storage is what I need for my bottle stash

I'll look into the solar charging option - sounds like a good idea.

Regarding Castle Coombe circuit. Was just talking to Mark Powell (ex of this forum) about the noise issue. He says that same thing about testing - apparently his old SD on standard silencers only just passed so he says having Akras, even with baffles, would have no chance. On their website they have a list of NEW bikes that fail the test straight out of the crate and it includes R1s and R6s, all the new BMWs, GSXRs etc. Unbelievable. But it also sounds like not a great track so maybe not missing much. Mark says it is, "not technical" and gives it a 4 out of 10, with Brands getting a 7 and Cadwell a 10.

Damn! Yep, my first thought was the beer fridge too!

I lived out of one of those storage units for about a year back when I was younger. I used to fly in, get a taxi to the shed, swap some laundry, wheel the monster out and bugger off on the bike for a couple of weeks between shifts. No chance of that now with a wife, boy and dog, of course.

Small generator to power lighting, power, compressor etc with storage battery(ies) supplying trickle charger (not sure how to overcome required 240V supply though)?

oooh id hate to leave that place! whats with all the kiddie horses though???

The first design company I founded was called Tin horse after one of the original '50s kids horses I had found in a junk shop many years earlier. I started collecting them and when e bay took off I could find them much easier and start a real collection! I have about 20+ now. All the different variants and models they made over the years. They are made by a company called Mobo.

Bic, I seldom ride now but keep an antigravity battery under the seat, easy disconnect/removal/install for when I need to go for a blast.
Not a hard modification to do.

Well FWIW, I feel your pain mate.

I recently moved as well. I had a front 2 car space Garage (part of the house) with rear roller door access to a 2 car space rear Garage with a handmade robust workbench, proper lighting and power outlets.
I even had 2 outside car spaces in between.

Now I just have a 2 space Garage (part of the new house) but no rear roller door or rear Garage, lost the robust workbench and only have one power outlet. Lights are okay.
Least the garage door is better (no central column anymore).

Its suppose its not that bad as we only have 1 car, 1 bike ......and a 8 x 5 cage trailer that lives out the front (that I need to sell now).

Workshop is downsized but working out OK. This thread has had its day. Continue to hijack it! Glad you are all OK after the recent bit of rain.

Workshop thread back on track....

Take a look at the top pictures of my outbuildings at the top of the page to see what they looked like when I moved out five weeks ago. Now see what they look like, I can hardly recognise the place!

Without giving anything away the guy who is renting my property is the owner of a bike manufacturing company and he asked if it was "OK to paint the floors and walls and tidy the place up a bit".

Basically he's renovated the whole building (at his own cost) and made it into the workshop I never had time to do because I was so involved doing up the main house for five years.

I'm totally gobsmacked and amazed and how lucky am I to have a tenant like this? The man's a star! (I'm bloody jealous too)

Amazing the difference that paint can make on the floor. Nice and bright too so it will be easy to find dropped items.
Not many tenants like that about.

Wow, great work