That is just fantastic. Keep us updated as my jealousy gland is not quite over-flowing!

Cheers, SB

 

Thought I would update this thread since not much is going on here. I spent the last few weeks moving bikes so not a lot happening.


The paint booth is almost done. It will be really nice to have a real booth to paint in.





Here are some of the bikes and you can see that there is more going on in the shop. I built a really cool rolling platform for the Norton so I can move it around while I'm working on it.





This is the back room. You can see the double doors I put in at the top of the ramp that I built (shown earlier in this thread). To the right you can just see another CBR peeking from behind the wall. There are 2 more in the barn that I can't get into the shop because there isn't enough space to bring them all in and still be able to work. I've managed to get 8 bikes inside so not too bad.





The shop is secure and I have an alarm system the has live feed on the web. Now I can start working

 

Geez what a shame, only eight bikes in at a time... I feel your pain man...

Can get TWO bikes in my garage but then it's too cramped to get any real work done... oh, and if you so much than fart loud enought the sound carries indoors via the structures so absolutely no metal fab work after the kid's in bed...

Gosh it hurts to look at threads like this when you got a searing hot bike fever and a crystal clear vision on what the finished product will look like. Got any more pics?

 

I hear you. I did most of the RR conversion in a tiny room in the basement. This is a dream shop. I understand. Feel lucky and blessed to have such a great place to work.


I'm retired and this is what keeps me going. Also many of the bikes I have are turn bikes. Bikes I picked up to fix and sell to support the shop and other projects. I've sold 5 bikes since I started.


Here are a few more pictures. I shrunk them a little because the others were really big.


This is a 2009 Suzuki GS500 that I picked up when I was first taking my license test. It is in the alcove and is the 8th bike in the shop. This is my girlfriends bike now. This space is where I will put the really nice bikes to show them.





Here is the other CBR. It's a 1990 that I picked up for $300 US. It has the original mirrors which are very hard to find. Lots of good parts on it. I got it running and it runs pretty good so will put it back together with all the original fairings. It's actually pretty clean. Needs new tires. You can see through the shop in this view.





Here's the 1987 Playboy RR conversion bike when I first brought it in. The bike that got me back into motorcycles after 30+ years.

 

Still can't believe I'm looking at an F1 when I see the playboy bike. That has got to be the cleanest most well done fairing swap I've ever seen. Nine out of ten front cowls sit somewhat funny but if I wouldn't know I wouldn't even notice anything when looking at that bike.

Yea well some of us have several bikes to turn, others have one moped... the main thing I guess is to keep those fingernails black eh?

 

Thanks so much for the positive comments.


Actually the fairings are not even bolted down in that picture.


I spent a lot of time looking at how others did the conversion and fitting the parts. There were some small things that made a difference mostly understanding that the RR is a smaller bike than the F1, so the room for error is much smaller. Honestly, there is only one way to get the parts to fit right. One of the key things is moving the fairing stay out from the original frame location and fabricating brackets to allow the position to move and be adjusted. Most people cut the bracket on the frame so the RR stay fits into it. That locks you into only one position...which is why the front fairings don't look right on most conversion. There is more to it than that, but having adjustment on the front fairing is very important IMO.


Couldn't have said it better.

 

I’d thought I would revive this thread as I love seeing blokes man caves, workshops, garages etc. Dennis you are a legend, that is superb, any more up to date pictures.

Mine is a crammed typical 1980’s single garage 18’x8’ but very dry and warm. However it’s part garage, part workshop and part utility room.

 

Oof. I'd be getting claustrophobic. My garage is finally coming together. It was built in the 20s (I guess in a couple more years I'm going to have to learn to say "in the 1920s"), jacked up and rebuilt last fall by me (added a new concrete floor and stem wall, cut off the bottom couple feet of rot and rebuilt, and added a rollup garage door). Right now it just has stuff and one Harley but my other bikes will be moving in sometime in the next couple months. Trying to get rid of more stuff so that I have room to move around. I'm looking forward to working in it this winter as it will be the first time since I bought the house 18 years ago that the garage isn't dark, damp, and cold.

 

That’s a perfect size, unfortunately here in Oxford where I live any decent dry garage is a big luxury!

 

Mine is even more cramped than yours Gunk

A lot of stuff stored in there, mainly tools from renovating three houses, I did manage to fit two bikes in there earlier this year, until I sold the CBR1000F.

Once my 2nd son goes to university in a couple of weeks, I can have a sort out and make some more room, need to work on the Blade over the winter and get her cleaned up properly and tip-top.

I would love to have a big warm dry garage, somewhere to store and work on the bike and play guitar as well, the guitars are kind of taking over the house