Modern Vespa

This is mine. Usually not all those three bikes are in at the same time: they trade places with two bicycles of the kids and a Kawasaki Versys 1000 from me. The last one is currently in a second garage.


My garage at this moment

I mentioned in a previous post that I was starting to pack up my garage in preparation for a move to a new home. We closed on the new house 4 weeks ago. We won't be moving in for a few more weeks, but I had a guy come in and epoxy coat the garage floor. I went with a basic tan w/ colored chips to add some texture and make it less slippery when wet. This is about as clean as this floor will ever be

-Craig

Very nice floor. You could eat off that floor.

Bob Copeland

It is indeed very nice, but good luck finding that 2mm grub screw you dropped.

Now if only it would stay that way. HA! You're not kidding! I've developed a technique for finding those small items that works pretty well. I grab a bright LED flashlight and I lay down on the floor to get one eye as close to floor level as possible. Then I use the light to search the floor. I've had great success. My current garage has the same floor w/ speckled chips.

-Craig

The move-in to the new house started this weekend. Setup some shelves in the garage.

Save those pictures. It is never going to look like that again.

Clean slate. Very nice. Love the floor.

Big fan of the Gladiator rails. I have them in a few spots in my garage. Their Gear Loft shelf is quite versatile. It get's spendy quick when you start buying the various hooks.


Don't you mind that flat tire. I'm working on it.

I snapped a pic while all the scoots are in the garage.


Current line up.

spacedog,

You are the Vespa man. Nice line up of scoots.

Bob Copeland
Minnesota

Thanks Bob, I just finished doing oil changes on all three, and coolant flushes on the GT200 and the GTV300.

Yeah, that uncluttered garage didn't last long! I spent 3 days this week unpacking and organizing. I'm about 75% of the way there. I'll grab some photos of the progress as it goes along. Here are a few photos after unloading the truck with the items from the garage. Not much is unpacked yet at the time these photos were taken.

Ha! Welcome Home!

Chris from CLE

Not sure I have that much width as the bishop said to the actress and I like the wheels on the bottom of the lift.

I made a bit of progress organizing the new garage over the last week. I need to put up some more high shelves to store things that I don't need too often. The racks are up to store my snow/ice tires and my track wheels/tires. Got the bikes hung high on the ceiling so they are out of the way. I use hooks and pullies to make them easy to access when I want to ride.

I'm getting close to having my new garage fully up and running. Really just need to finish adding a shelf to hold all my helmets. Also, the air hose reels are mounted, but I need to plumb in the air.

^ looks great!

This half is for the two-wheelers.


The other half houses a convertible Bug.

I'd love to see the convertible bug! In 1969 my parents pickup up a poppy red convertible bug at the factory in Wolfsburg. We toured Europe for 6 weeks, my parents and three kids, in that bug. What an awesome vacation! The bug was shipped home to the USA at the end of that trip. I wish I had it today.

Wow, what a dream vacation!

As an only child, I didn't have to fight to sit in my favorite spot, the storage compartment behind the back seat. When I was older but too young to drive, my mom crammed 12 giggling teens in that bug. It was only for half a mile on a one-lane, semi-paved country road, so we didn't have to walk up the hill to a friend's house. Can you say Clown-Car!?!

I grew up in a V-Dub family, and my love of bugs rubbed off on my hubby who bought the 'vert when we were still dating. After my grandfather returned from serving in Germany, he helped his friend gain residence in the states. Hans was a talented mechanic who, with help from Granpa, opened a VW service shop in northern California.

My uncle had a bunch of restored type 2s, and his kids got a bug to restore for their first car. My stepdad followed his lead and gave me his first car, a '68 bug. I drove that bug from '83 to '06, then sold it to a coworker who wanted to restore it.

My husband and I ride to an Air-Cooled Meetup held in Scottsdale once a month and dream of fixing up his 'vert someday.

"Hers and his"

I think this will be my last update on my garage move, as I think I'm pretty much settled in!


I find that getting things up off the floor is super helpful. I added lots of storage on shelves that are 8 feet off the floor for things that I don't need to access regularly. The bikes are on a pully system that makes it super easy to raise/lower them

More shelves I added for storing things up high.

These shelves won't hold a lot of weight but are handy for my helmet collection.

My wife picked out the retro garage fridge. Works really well for a mini fridge.

I have a lot more space to work around the table lift in this garage. In the previous garage it was a little tight.

Found a good place for my Vespa clock on the wall. I'm waiting for a plumber to do the rough-in for a sink below the clock. I need to be able to wash up before heading in the house and leaving greasy finger prints everywhere. LOL

Wow, that's a real wrenchers paradise you have made. Having a garage 50 yards away from my house, I can only dream of having electricity and water in mine.

I have a few questions for you garage gurus.

We just bought a house with a large 2 car (one car with about 3 or 4 bikes).

What flooring do you recommend? Currently it is just cement.

Shelving, hooks etc? My better half wants all my bike gear stored there and I have a lot. It's Vancouver Island so it doesn't get that cold so that's a plus.

Handy stuff to work on the bikes? Maybe some sort of lift.

We're not moving in for about a year so I have time.

Advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I'll be retiring in less than a year, so garage time will sky rocket at that point. Water and electric are "must-haves" for me. I'm pretty lucky because on the other side of the wall where I'm putting the sink is the laundry room. So water and drain access is super easy. I really should do the rough-in myself, but I'm always a little paranoid about water leaks inside the wall. Electricity is something I'm much more comfortable with. I got lucky there too. The main electrical box for the house was on the outside wall of the garage right next to where I located the air compressor. So wiring that in (240V / 50amp / single-phase service) was super easy. 240V is not the normal power in the USA. Our standard wall outlets are 120V. But it's not a big deal to add a 240V outlet. Just need 2 hot wires and 1 neutral going to the outlet.