Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshop. Show all posts

Saturday 23 July 2022

Summer Workshop Sortout

 

It's probably just a summer thing but the garage was filling with flies after our trip out to Jasper, so a deep clean was in order.  It ended up producing a car load going to the dump and space has been restored.  More importantly I feel like I can get stuck in on mechanical work without tripping over disorganization.  The Triumph Bonneville project has reached an apex with the engine out 

I've had a couple of longer rides this week on the Concours and that resulted in some more ergonomic adjustments.  This video talked me through how to adjust the gear lever (without wasting my time with a lot of youtube blahblah), so I did and now I'm not lifting my foot to change gears.  Even with modified pegs, new saddle and handlebars I'm still struggling to feel the kind of 'it-fits' feeling I get on the Tiger though.  It isn't a Kawasaki thing, it's a sports-touring thing.  The big Versys I rode 8 years ago fit the same way.  Perhaps what I'm looking for is a shaft drive big adventure bike with a big load capacity, like the newer 1200cc Tiger or the BMW GS.  Though if I wanted to get really eccentric I could consider so Italian options like the Moto Guzzi V85TT.

***

The Motorcycle Electrical Systems book I got last winter suggested popping a voltmeter on your bike if it didn't come with one.  The Kawasaki has one in the digital display but the analogue Triumph Tiger doesn't, but now it does:


There was a relay under the dash that had full voltage only when the ignition was on, so I slipped the wires for the voltmeter in there and it only comes one when I'm riding.  The Tiger showed a steady 12.4v when I rode it up and down the street, suggesting that the reg/rectifier fix I did last year is working well.


It was a busy week, but after dropping off the boy at camp one day I went for a ride and ended up at Higher Ground Café in Belfountain where even mid-week you'll find an interesting assortment of bikes, this time including an old C10 Concours!

I'd like to work an extended ride into the summer and I still have a few weeks to go before the school year picks up again so hopefully I can figure something out.

Thursday 17 December 2020

Limited Workspaces: Making the Most of a Small Situation

The garage is a less than single car (it's so small a micro-sized Mazda2 hatchback won't fit in it).  It does the trick with motorbikes, but you get more than two in there and it's so full it's difficult to get around a bike to work on it.  It's also dark and bloody cold in the winter.  I'm trying to think of a way out of it short of moving.

Since I can't go out I could go up.  The attic above the peaked roof on the garage is a workable space currently being used for storage but the only access is a ladder on the house wall which not only messes up a wall that could be doing something else but also makes access to the attic a real pain in the ass.  Looking into solutions it appears that drop down stairs are possibility and they aren't even particularly expensive.  Even a good one is under six hundred bucks.




If I can get the drop down stairs sorted it won't cost much and opens up the top floor to easier access while also making valuable wall space available down below since the stairs fold up into the ceiling when not needed.


The next step would be to address the poor lighting.  A neighbor has a glass garage door that looks fantastic, lets in lots of light and would also let in some solar heat in the winter while also being well insulated.  This is where the prices start to climb.  Doors like this start at a couple of grand and go up from there.  I might be able to find a used alternative for less, but a glass door would solve a lot of the lighting issues, at least during the day.

If I really wanted to blow the budget I'd also get windows installed on the back wall.  I don't know what window installs on external walls cost, but I don't imagine they're cheap.


The last piece of the puzzle is working out heating in a space that was never designed for it.  I've put thick rubber mats down that are much better than the concrete floor, but it's still damned cold to work on in a Canadian winter. 
Tempzone under floor heated mats would do the trick.  Because they're focused where I need them they'd probably be more efficient to run than the air heater I currently have in there.  The garage is about 200 square feet, but I don't need the whole floor heated, just the square around the work benches.  A cunning selection of those mats would create an area of heating around the lift and mean I'm not working on aching feet when it's minus forty outside.

With the upper floor more accessible I'd move the permanent shelving I've got on the bottom floor upstairs, making more room to move around, which was the point of the exercise in the first place.

If I did the full pimping out including the windows I'd put a sit down workbench in the attic for finer work and finish the space more than it currently is.  All in I'd guess that the windows, garage door, drop down stairs and heated flooring would be in the vicinity of:
  • Drop down stairs (350lb capacity):  $600
  • Glass garage door :  $3000 (est. though some cunning shopping might reduce that to $1700)
  • Heated flooring in work area:  $1400
  • Window cutouts and installs (one up, one down):  $1500 x 2
  • Hardware to finish attic (lumber, wiring for electrical):  $1000
TOTAL:  $9000

With all that in place I should be able to park a bike (or two) off to the side and still have plenty of space to work.  It's not really lost money if it raises the value of the house, right?

Sunday 7 July 2013

The Stable

My dream garage always had to be kind of huge to fit all the cars I wanted in it.  With the new bike
infatuation I get to dream of a more condensed (and plausible) dream garage.  It's still got room for the necessary evil (I live in Canada, some days a bike just won't do it), so I took the two car garage and doubled it to make a workshop in the back.

The car garage is separated by a dividing wall with a single garage door in it to allow larger vehicle access into the workshop.  There is a half size roll up door on the side for direct bike access.  The garage is wired in, but also has a turbine and solar collection.  In the winter this runs the high efficiency heater in the workshop.  In the summer is pushes a small, high efficiency air conditioner into the workshop.  The goal is to keep the workshop above freezing in the winter and below 25 degrees in the summer.

The battery packs and computer controls for the wind turbine and solar inputs are upstairs, as are the heating and cooling units, both of which feed into the workshop directly.  There is also room for storage upstairs.  Access is made through a pull down staircase in the back of the car garage.

The workshop has space for 5-6 bikes, though I think I'd keep 3 working bikes on hand, and one project bike.  I'd also keep a shed at the side for a couple of dirt bikes.

As for what I'd fill the workshop with, at the moment I'm all about the British bike.  A Triumph Street Triple, a Royal Enfield Classic with a sidecar and a Triumph Tiger 800XC would be what I'd have on had to regularly ride.  The other side of the shop has the half car/half bike Morgan3 Trike.

Royal Enfield Classic with sidecar
Triumph Tiger 800XC
The Tiger is a great all rounder that can get you anywhere.  A nimble adventure bike that also loves to carve up roads, this'd be my go to for long rides.

The Royal Enfield Classic with sidecar is a classic with modern technology.  It would let me share the open road with my son in a way he'd truly dig.
Morgan 3 Wheeler

The Triumph Street Triple is a naked bike built for the road.  It's fast, responsive and sounds wonderful.  This would be my dedicated road bike.

What I don't show in the plan is the project bike.  This would change quite frequently, depending on how much work the bike needs.  At the moment I think I'd like to bring an '80s Honda Interceptor back from the dead.


Honda VFR 750 Interceptor
The idea behind the dream garage is to have a workshop for bike maintenance and restoration.  I've really enjoyed restoring the 650r Ninja I've got now, and I'd like to keep doing that kind of work.  To that end I think I'd include a bike sized bench style spray booth, as well as a compressor in the workshop.  I enjoy both mechanical as well as body work, and it would be nice to have the space and tools to do both well.