Above 1200 Sq/FT Knucklehead 61's 2 car garage with room to store a few antique motorcycles & parts

[BigMike62]

Just finished scanning this thread and what a great build. I've been a Harley guy for 30+ years and love seeing the old bikes. I retired a couple of years ago and finished my first retirement project bike - 1990 Grey Ghost. I can't imagine how difficult it is to source parts for the early bikes. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[Old Man Roger]

picked up a cherry Chicago Dreis & Krump 8' 18ga sheetmetal brake yesterday.
was sorta looking for a 10', but this was cheap enough to not pass up.

also, my CG started installing the man doors yesterday, so that's more progress.

Is that a TW 200 I spy behind the new brake?

 

[swsman]

curious to me how little interaction this thread gets.
so few questions or comments.

I do not post a lot, but have been following this with a great interest.
That shop is built with purpose and it shows.

Not a Harley guy, I do ride/maintain (Ninja 650/Suzuki DR650/Zuma 125 scooter)

Keep up the great work. Pool of talented enough people being able to work on those old bikes has to be shrinking each passing year.

 

[BigMike62]

I'm too jealous to reply LOL. Not a fan of where it is (Southeast Conservative) but definitely love everything about it.

Did you give an overview of what all of the rooms are going to be? I'm getting kind of lost moving through the pictures.

 

[knucklehead 61]

Is that a TW 200 I spy behind the new brake?

it's a 1986 TR 200 Fat Cat, works great on the mile or so of trails on my property.

 

[knucklehead 61]

Just finished scanning this thread and what a great build. I've been a Harley guy for 30+ years and love seeing the old bikes. I retired a couple of years ago and finished my first retirement project bike - 1990 Grey Ghost. I can't imagine how difficult it is to source parts for the early bikes. Looking forward to more updates.

thanks. i've never had a fatboy, but have had a 90 heritage, 88 springer softail, & currently have a 95 heritage that i hardy ever ride. i much prefer to ride 1920's & 30's bikes.

 

[knucklehead 61]

I'm too jealous to reply LOL. Not a fan of where it is (Southeast Conservative) but definitely love everything about it.

Did you give an overview of what all of the rooms are going to be? I'm getting kind of lost moving through the pictures.

yes, i am surrounded by whack job bleeding heart liberals & hippies here in oregon. that's the polar opposite of me, but this is some beautiful country here.

first floor rooms are:
car & bike parking / general storage.
welding / fab room.
bike repair shop.
machine shop.
museum.
(all 10'-3-1/2" ceilings)

second floor rooms are:
warehouse / general storage.
tool room.
tire room.
storage room.
parts storage room.
bathroom.
office.
(all 8'-2" ceilings)

total of 9,600 sq ft.

 

[BigMike62]

thanks. i've never had a fatboy, but have had a 90 heritage, 88 springer softail, & currently have a 95 heritage that i hardy ever ride. i much prefer to ride 1920's & 30's bikes.

I'm getting to the point I like riding the Fat Boy instead of my CVO Limited unless it is an extremely long ride.

Some bike ****

 

[hbabler]

Amazing shop and really cool bikes

It’s pretty awesome to see that you are riding them regularly talk about living history

I love HD’s never owned one and probably won’t but seeing you run 20’s bikes on the road gives me encouragement for my long term goal of some brass era Hudson’s that I drive regularly

 

[Old Man Roger]

it's a 1986 TR 200 Fat Cat, works great on the mile or so of trails on my property.

Never had a fat cat but always wanted one. The TW’s are great little bikes for trails and small town commuters. A little too slow for big cities though. I miss mine.

 

[Trapps]

I just discovered this gem of a thread. At the risk of sounding cliche, what an epic build.

Although I am a motorcycle fan, I'm not a Harley guy in any way. Having said that, your bikes are very, very cool!

My shop is 10x22; the museum part of your shop is 22x100....

You might consider the perceived lack of comments/engagement as an endorsement of sorts. No criticism, as what you're doing looks very well planned and executed.

I'm a fan and subscribed.

 

[knucklehead 61]

I just discovered this gem of a thread. At the risk of sounding cliche, what an epic build.

Although I am a motorcycle fan, I'm not a Harley guy in any way. Having said that, your bikes are very, very cool!

My shop is 10x22; the museum part of your shop is 22x100....

You might consider the perceived lack of comments/engagement as an endorsement of sorts. No criticism, as what you're doing looks very well planned and executed.

I'm a fan and subscribed.

thanks for the compliments. i'm trying to build it as nice / clean as possible.

 

[st4ngster]

I'm getting to the point I like riding the Fat Boy instead of my CVO Limited unless it is an extremely long ride.

Some bike ****

beautiful bike, I have been looking for a grey ghost for quite a while now. I you can find one, most of the times they are halfway dead or are tremendously overpriced.
Yours looks absolutely stunning

I feel the same way, riding lighter bikes is more enjoyable unless it is a long ride.
Harley’s touring models have all the bells and whistles (which is nice) but you feel the weight.
I myself have ’19 CVO Street Glide but I enjoy my older Road King on short trips much more (although this is still not comparable to a Softail Evo in weight).

I will keep my eyes open for a ’90 FatBoy, maybe I am able to find a nice one someday.
Your picture just reminded me of how much like these bikes.

 

[knucklehead 61]

another one of my bikes, this is a 1928 HD 74" JD.
it smokes a lot, has almost no compression, leaks oil everywhere, & is one of my favorites to ride.
the motor needs to be rebuilt, but it runs so good i don't want to tear it down for a rebuild & certainly don't want to clean it up.

 

[LXCam]

That’s an incredible timepiece for sure. I wouldn’t want to touch it either.

 

[BigMike62]

beautiful bike, I have been looking for a grey ghost for quite a while now. I you can find one, most of the times they are halfway dead or are tremendously overpriced.
Yours looks absolutely stunning

I feel the same way, riding lighter bikes is more enjoyable unless it is a long ride.
Harley’s touring models have all the bells and whistles (which is nice) but you feel the weight.
I myself have ’19 CVO Street Glide but I enjoy my older Road King on short trips much more (although this is still not comparable to a Softail Evo in weight).

I will keep my eyes open for a ’90 FatBoy, maybe I am able to find a nice one someday.
Your picture just reminded me of how much like these bikes.

I'm putting this one on BaT in a month or so. I'm hoping to get close to what I have in it in parts ($18.5k).

 

[knucklehead 61]

finally got all the 1x8 t&g pine mounted on the walls in the museum, 2,400 sq ft of it.thought it would never end! really happy with how it turned out, but it was a ton of work to do without any help. next up is corner & top trim. i also picked up 40' of 1/2" thick link chain & 40' of 2" x 3/16" flat bar so i can make up another batch of shelf brackets. its all slowly coming together.


.

 

[Old Man Roger]

Wow!

 

[boyboi]

that looks awesome!

 

[zanyad]

 

[st4ngster]

I'm putting this one on BaT in a month or so. I'm hoping to get close to what I have in it in parts ($18.5k).

thanks for letting me know, that would be quite a deal for your bike.
Current shipping prices to Europe and getting it street legal here in Liechtenstein would add another $4-5k, which adds up quite a bit
I will keep an eye open

 

[Tactile]

Bit of background if/when you have the time Knuckle - what got you all-in on HD?

Anything special that you are keeping your eye out to acquire?

 

[knucklehead 61]

Bit of background if/when you have the time Knuckle - what got you all-in on HD?

Anything special that you are keeping your eye out to acquire?

I've been riding HD's since buying my first motorcycle at 18, a 1969 HD sportster.
I like numerous other brands, & currently have a 1913 Excelsior 7-C, 1928 Indian 101 scout, & 1929 Indian 402, 1957 Cushman, 1964 Rokon, 1986 Honda Fat-Cat, & 2018 Kawasaki KLR650, but the 20's & 30's HD's are the daily / long distance / cross county bikes i prefer to ride.

there are still a number of bikes i want to acquire, in fact i just got a 1916 HD twin last friday night, & another 1924 a few days earlier.
I am currently looking for 1909 single, 11 twin, 12 twin, 17J or F, 18J or F, 22J or JD, 31VL, 36VLH, & a few more 28 or 29JH or JDH models, but will look at any pre 1970 HD if the price is right.

 

[knucklehead 61]

quick update:
spent a week riding a 1935 HD VLD around colorado, got back, moved a couple more truck & trailer loads of stuff into the new shop.
passed my electrical final on the first try, super proud of that since i am not an electrician, but i designed & installed every single wire, switch, panel, outlet, boz, & light in the building, & there is an insane amount of it.
got the 4 ductless heat pumps finished & running.
got the cabinets, granite countertop, & sink set in the bathroom. still need to install the backsplash, faucet & drain though.
got the cabinets installed for the downstairs sink area, & countertop rough cut for the sink.
finally got the garage doors & openers installed, although one was damaged, so they ordered a replacement section, so can't finish paint them yet. broke down the workbenches, mill, lathe, phase converters, & all electrical components from the machine room at the old shop, & might try to move them to the new shop today.
my office is filling up with some of the spare motors i have, this is about half of them.
i've been moving 3 or 4 bikes with every trip. a couple days ago i brought the 1915 sidecar rig over. it's been about a year & a half since i fired it up last. i put some fresh gas in & started pedaling & it fired up, so i took it for a short ride around the neighborhood. it's a great running machine that previously belonged to bud ekins (famous stuntman/off road bike racer/ bike dealer in so. cal).

 

[Horror Business]

Well, you have been busy! Great updates. Sounds like you are at a prime time in your life. Congratulations!

 

[knucklehead 61]

busy day yesterday, hauled two loads of **** from the old shop to the new one, almost 12,000 lbs of stuff.
bridgeport mill, clausing lathe, 55 ton edwards ironworker, 4x8 3/4 plate welding table, 4x4 1/2 plate welding table, 2x8 1/2 welding cabinet, & a bunch of other stuff. got it all unloaded except the lathe. it started raining again, so i rolled the trailer into the shop with it still loaded. i'll have to figure out how to unload it today. it weighs 2,300 lbs & can't be easily lifted with the forklift, so it will be pipe rollers & an electric winch, which is how i loaded it in the first place.