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I find stepping into my garage and being surrounded by 'my' stuff - bikes, tools, cleaning stuff, posters etc gives me a sense of calm. You can't beat a good fettle or adjusting something to make it just right.
Anyone else weird like me? 😉
Hugely.... it's my place, my area, my zone... It's where magic happens and bicyle parts turn into functioning object that bring pleasure... It's where i am at my best.
Depends where it is in the cycle of chaos and tidiness.
**** no! Its a right shit hole!!
Wot ads678 says. Mine is a tip and gives me anxiety.
Depends where it is in the cycle of chaos and tidiness.
Probably right. I'm not mechanically minded so can go either way
Garage, yes.
’man cave’ is also my office so whilst it’s my space, it is invaded by work…
love spending time in the garage. All the bikes standing upright in the racks. Zwift setup ready to use. Tool chest, racking with spares and lubes etc. Its a good place to be. (I do very much enjoy the rest of my house too tho!)
Not at the moment. I'll be much calmer when this is back in my van where it belongs! 🤣
Nope. Soon as I step into the garage I have to come back indoors to have a wee! Why is that?
Plus, working on a bike invariably causes me stress and shouting the c word at inanimate objects.
working on a bike invariably causes me stress
Working on bikes is literal stress free bliss. See photo above... 😉
Yes. Event though it's been perpetually untidy for the past six months year 2 years. For the reasons you say, it's my space which I have sole control over. The word control used in the loosest sense due to the chaos. Area outside too, is my favourite part of the garden because it's fairly out of view of the neighbours window,s and like my shed, is mine to control and say what goes there.
Yes.
There is something about being around bikes that I just enjoy. The current set up is the best yet. Work bench, tool board, Tv with surround sound, dartboard, radiator, old forestry commission map of the Northumberland forests on the wall
There's always space to move in my shed (99% of the time), but here's a glimpse of my work bench:
There's always space to move in my shed (99% of the time), but here's a glimpse of my work bench:
i'd cry.
think there was a question here before - is bike maintainence fun or a necessary evil?
while I like learning how to do it myself rather than the time delay and expenditure of paying a shop (or just replacing things), I'd much rather be actually riding the thing rather than fixing it.
therefore any time spent doing it has the overarching feeling that I'm "on the clock" rather than recreating.
It would if I had more room. Got plans but they were buggered up with a broken pelvis and a torn rotator cuff. Want to empty the garage loft, clear it out, then have a big clear out. My son has alot of his car tools in there and they take up loads of space, as well as all our camping gear, which I'd like to organise better if some of the junk can be binned. I want the bikes on those sliding hook system.
Mines's a tip and used as a dumping ground for all sorts by the rest of the house.. Usually I trip over something so any calm has immediately gone. Even my roller cab of tools is a free-for-all with everyone else using stuff and is a mess. No calm.
Absolutely, it's my favourite place in the whole house. Lucky to have a garage/workshop with an office/mancave above it. House needed for bed, food, toilet and family 🙂
After reading this thread i'd realised mine wasn't quite as tidy as it should be, so spent my lunch hour in there sorting it 🙂
F no! Mine's an absolute tip!
I've a great garage - it's a double, with steps up to a boarded loft space. It's huge! It has huge potential.
But:
- it has loads of crap from my mother - in - law's house from when she sold up and we moved here together 9 years ago. Still not been sorted or thrown away (although, I have been quietly thinning down the volume on stuff that's not seen the light of day since the removals company deposited it there).
- it has more recently-acquired crap from my parents house move last year (into sheltered accommodation), which still needs sorting
- it has a bunch of stuff my wife has accepted as donations: she runs a charity (which does excellent work, but might also be known as "I cant possibly turn that away in case some poor deserving soul needs it"). Part of the charity also involves running two café's ... and sometimes they also do pop-up stalls at events etc ... So there's also loads of folding tables, banners, shelters, cake boxes etc etc etc ...
It's not all everybody else's fault - I've random boxes of disused bike parts that I've kept, partly due to laziness, partly because for years, I've been cobbling together bikes (and usually end up buying eg new drivetrains rather than re-use 3 sets of 90% worn-out drivetrains). So, I accept my share of the blame.
But, no other f** takes any responsibility for sorting or tidying, so it's left to me to have a 2-yearly partial sort-out, which, within a couple of weeks, is over-run again by someone else's new (not new) sh*t!
I do have aspirations of getting it properly sorted and organised "once and for all", but it would take up 2 weeks of my time to do so, and, yknow, that'd mean sacrificing riding time!
I would consider my shed to be my place of peace (well, 2nd place after being out on the bike of course). It's cluttered. It's small. There are massive spiders. But, there is something about the shelves being arranged just how I like them, the tools being arranged just how I like them, the smell of rubber, the smell of GT85, that does give me this really calm, zen feeling. Unless that is, I've got a headset bearing stuck in the frame, requiring the use of a hammer and profanity to remove it. Then it's not so calm.
The blood stains still traumatise me...
I find that the extremely bright, daylight coloured, LED panels that I installed on the ceiling have a tangible effect on my mood. Especially in winter.
Sometimes I'll sit in my camping chair listening to music in the garage when the house is dull and gloomy.
It makes a huge difference. For that reason alone yes, I love my garage.
"Man Caves are Sheds for men with no tools or skills" 😉
when its tidy, obviously.
3 girls and a very very untidy mother-of-children means the house is perpetually full of pants and other pink washing.
The workshop swings between being a total mess, because ive been rushing at a "job", and quite tidy. I enoy having "systems" (something the 4 girls dont understand), so ive aquired a nice big roller door cabinet to keep the camping stuff in, have a wall of rucksacks and bike kit loaded to pick up and go, and then racking of boxes for painting, electrical, plumbing etc.
The workbench flip flops between Tracksaws, routers, wood, glue and clamps... and allen keys, bike bits and various associated libations.
I did enjoy giving my Five 90% of a once over over the weekend, new gear cables, shock service. Still got a lower leg service to do on the fork.
Recently bought a dedicated "bike" toolbox, a nice proper steel Stanley cantilever job, lined out with adhesive closed cell foam to reduce rattle. Five service did remind me how long ive been plodding along without chain splitting pliers, or dedicated side cutters, so theyre on order.
Retail Therapy
Sadly not enough space for a chair and mini fridge, but tbh i would rather be "doing"
I should added to my post, it isn’t tidy. It drives @ahsat up the wall, but she benefits from working bikes so I can kind of get away with it
I was using my favourite Allen key set yesterday. Now I can't find them. On the plus side while looking for them I found the half quick link lost the day before.
Not that it isn't all tidy with a place for everything.
No as both my garage and office are right crap holes at the moment.....
I can't even see my work bench.....
Any bike maintenance has to be done in the conservatory, much to the annoyance of SWMBO.....
I need to get a skip, have a weekend where I do F'k all other than sort the garage....
Depends where it is in the cycle of chaos and tidiness.
This - we're having the front of the garage rebuilt in a few weeks time so I'm in a "no point keeping it tidy" mood. Looking forward to having it finished though to create a far more usable space and a chance to have a bit of a clearout at the same time.
Double detached garage* with loft space here but it's ****ing chaotic & really needs a total layout change, plus we have too much stuff so no it doesn't give me a sense of calm but the ceiling, doors and windows are insulated so I can escape the madness of the household when needed. * it's also the beer store 😃
No, my one (cellar) was invaded months ago by piles of shite that is meant to go to a car boot sale at some undetermined timepoint.
It did, up until it became a place that stored things. I had a spare fridge in there for brewing, but had to move that when the solar got fitted and now I just have shit everywhere. I really need to clean it out and that means moving stuff to new places in the adjoining wood storage. At least the carport is more ordered.
As others, when it's tidy (enough) yes, when I go in and the worktop is a swamp of tools, dirty parts and other assorted crap no. Then it feels like more of a chore because I can neither work in mess, nor find the energy to tidy. It can be like that for weeks.
I also need to find better ways to store crap I don't care about, which is anything to do with DIY or Gardening. For optimum zen, I need to reduce the area the crap lives in, so I can get rid of one set of shelves which should give me enough room to be able to move bikes around without having to take them all out of the garage to put back in, in another order.
Really... I'd like to knock it down and build a fresh one, in a different shape/size, mine it too compromised by being roughly car-shaped, when I don't use it for that and being pre-fab concrete which makes it pretty hard to keep the elements out or affix anything to the walls.
Sense of calm? absolutely 👍
Step inside my shed and it would give you an idea (in many ways) of what I am like.
An almost organised Chaos ,or as Mrs FH calls it 'my comfort blanket'.
It's now heading towards the months of the year when I spend more time in there.
Radio and stove on,a nice malt or 2..
Lots of projects for the dark months, some will get finished, some will just get further along the path.
Got a new motorbike this year so looking forward to tarting it up for the trips that I have planned in the spring.
My shed also appears to be a time machine,if I head in for 10 minutes ,hours have passed when I get back to the house. 😉 🤣
This weekend whilst left to my own devices... I plan to move my entire workshop further back into one of the other basement rooms.
It will be dark and it will have an earth floor. But most importantly it will be away from the door dump radius of disaster.
100% yes!
It's currently too full of bikes - but then again, where's the issue with that??
After reading this thread i'd realised mine wasn't quite as tidy as it should be, so spent my lunch hour in there sorting it 🙂
If you can do it in an hour then you really don't have a problem! I'd need at least a weekend to get mine in any kind of sensible shape.
Not really, mines full of badly organised bikes and tools. Also some idiot never puts the 4 & 5mm hex keys back in their cases which stresses me out...
After reading this thread i'd realised mine wasn't quite as tidy as it should be, so spent my lunch hour in there sorting it 🙂
If you can do it in an hour then you really don't have a problem! I'd need at least a weekend to get mine in any kind of sensible shape.
Oh for sure, but there's tidy and there's TIDY... which it wasn't ... and arguably still isn't IMO, but that's because the gym/weights stuff and the camping/racing stuff has taken over one end of the garage, which wasn't/isn't my preference, but when putting all the stuff back in the loft space takes 45 mins, it's pointless on a Sunday night if i'm getting it all back out on the Thurs for the next race. But i do like the workbench to have no tools/clutter when i'm starting on a job, that's essential for me.
Yes.
There is something about being around bikes that I just enjoy. The current set up is the best yet. Work bench, tool board, Tv with surround sound, dartboard, radiator, old forestry commission map of the Northumberland forests on the wall
Love that map, where did you nick that from?!
yes, mind you just being Home brings me calm, but my workshop is fab. Spent ages designing and building it and I can just sit there at any time with a cuppa listening to music, looking at my collection of weird bikes in a zen like state pondering what daft idea to design/build/prototype next*
* new handlebars and strapless frame bags are next on the list
For me it's just a place where the bikes live and get worked on so just part of riding.
Then again i'm not trying to escape anything by going into a different room/building.🤷♂️
Yep. Cycles, motorbike, gym gear all provide an ambience.
Depends where it is in the cycle of chaos and tidiness.
^^This^^
Right now it’s a mess, not helped by other members of the family depositing their crap in My space…
When it’s straight and I can lay my hands on everything it makes me more calm and content. Unfortunately it also seems to distort my perception of time, I’ve had a few “it’s 1:00am! Are you still in the garage?!?” Messages in the past.
Nope, because yesterday I had to remove a stuck bolt from my motorbike forks, and using the screw extractors always feels horribly like snapping the head off a bolt when it goes.
Does anyone else have a car in their garage?
My 15 year old garage is a double in length but it's barely wide enough for a modern car. I put a Fiesta ST in there once when we went on holiday but I had to exit through the window.
The previous owner had an Audi R8 in there somehow. When we moved in there were foam sheets glued all over the walls.
I can't get a car in now due to bike specific storage units and ground anchors etc. I've abandoned all ideas of one day having a kit car or another project to work on. Time is precious and I'd rather just ride.
My calmness is currently ruined by the annual event of local mice migrating indoors as it gets colder. So I know three things:
1. There is lots of mouse poo to clean up
2. At some point I will discover clothing/shoe/tent/picnic blanket that has been destroyed as they rip it up for bedding
3. The mouse murdering will start tonight with 8 traps going down.
I've got a double garage and a shed. So beer fridge and cars in the garage. Bikes and no end of other shit in the shed.
Does anyone else have a car in their garage?
MY cul-de-sac is actually designed around people having cars in the garage. There's just not enough parking for the number of houses. And yet the garages aren't big enough to get a car in. My pre-divorce house had a double length garage, which was also wide enough to have the car in. Plus a driveway big enough to squeeze 4-5 cars in! Er, don't get divorced 🤣
Depends where it is in the cycle of chaos and tidiness.
I like a messy garage because tidying it brings the zen.
The garage is my favourite part of the house tbh. Half is partitioned off as a gym with weights and my turbo bike setup, the other side is bikes / tools / storage. Quite like going out and just having a tinker with bikes etc - bit of peace and quiet.
I am a big fan of shed time. Mine has always been very tidy- originally as a haven from two messy children. Half of the building is my home office, so it's very easy to go for a "micro-fettle" between meetings.
I do very little "serious" maintenance tho as I'm a mechanical savage. All of that is done in my mate's messier but far more productive garage. Still I do have the beer fridge in here, sadly it's mostly cooling fun free beer nowadays.
Our double garage is 25% workshop and bike storage and 75% fully equipped CrossFit gym, no room for a car at all. And any way cars are waterproof so can live outside.
I am allowed to spread out into the gym area for bike stuff as long as it’s packed away at the end of the day (or it’s the wife’s bike!).
It’s nice and chilled in there unless the kids (6 year olds) have decided they want to use the rig and weights for their ‘workout’, in which case it’s chaos.
There's always space to move in my shed (99% of the time), but here's a glimpse of my work bench:
when dud you sneak into my garage and take this?
There's always space to move in my shed (99% of the time), but here's a glimpse of my work bench:
when did you sneak into my garage and take this?
This thread needs more pictures!
Yes, car in my garage (I built the car in the garage), motorbike and 4 bicycles, although the brompton and 7ft longtail cargo bike balance each other out. Asgard bike shed outside for other bikes as I need space for worktable, tools, beer fridge etc
same here, plus a few trips to the tip to get rid of most of the contents!
I did it, it's worth it. Now when I drop tiny screws on the floor, instead of losing them, it only takes me an hour to find them!
Bit different as this was when the weights bench arrived and i've relocated a few bits now.
Not really.
I run a shite tip, not a tight ship.
Half of mine is given over to home climbing wall, so yes its a happy place or would be if i wasnt nursing a broken finger.
No. It has so many bikes and things in I cannot get inside it myself..
This is mine currently, just need the shed to arrive so I can move the garden stuff out and hang all the bikes on the wall and bolt the fold out workbench to the wall. Also need to bring in another 200lg of weights (Kettlebells, dumbbells, and plates) and bolt a C2 skierg to the wall (all currently in my parents’ barn from the move).
And when funds allow there will be a side door and roller door to free up more overhead space at the front as the garage runners annoyingly get in the way of overhead workouts
@joe-m - my kids have been nagging me to book them a bouldering wall since they were 3. Not sure where I’d fit it though. And wife won’t let me bolt things to the outside.
I guess I need a new house with a triple garage now.
@joe-m - my kids have been nagging me to book them a bouldering wall since they were 3. Not sure where I’d fit it though. And wife won’t let me bolt things to the outside.
I guess I need a new house with a triple garage now.
mate of mine has one in a purpose built shed.
my main board is at 40 degrees overhanging so have ended up with a lot of storage behind it.
im lucky to have a roller door so have space for the board, a workbench and bikes + surfboards on the wall. Its very full though.
Actually, looking at my garage, it would be ideal for a climbing wall up the outside (it's like 2 storeys, separate from the house.)!
But I can just about climb a step ladder, let alone a climbing wall 🤣
Does anyone else have a car in their garage?
My 15 year old garage is a double in length but it's barely wide enough for a modern car. I put a Fiesta ST in there once when we went on holiday but I had to exit through the window.
Same problem-ish in ours. The MG Midget fits in, but that has narrower track than the original mini. But that's with some fairly deep industrial shelving on one side and I can just about squeeze in and out on the other. I suspect you'd get an MX5 in there but only if the passenger got out first.
Garages feel like a bit of a relic on the average a modern house. Architecturaly we've sort of got used to their presence but really it's just a hopelessly insecure storage unit facing the street. They're not necessary anymore as car's are just generally more waterproof! A bit like adverts saying "always garaged" aren't a selling point anymore, though neither is "mechanic/engineer owned", that just means it's probably been bodged and/or has faults beyond repair!
Presumably people are still attached to the idea as newbuilds still have them. Most people would probably be better off with a workshop / garden room / general storage building in the back garden and eliminate the need for it to be curbside.
When we move I want a proper garage/workshop sized outbuilding. At least large enough to get something landrover sized in, with enough height above it to get it in on ramps to work on!
Wow, this is snowballing! Climbing walls! Would love a double size garage (or larger) to keep the car in and everything else and ideally a nice slot car track.
Another question, what's the calendar of choice in there? I've been going for Kelly Brook for years but she didn't do one this year 😞
Calm? Not really, it's where I try to inflate recalcitrant tubeless tyres and fix things that don't want to be repaired. However the garage also has it's own tiny house which is absolute zen, who needs divorce when we can live separately as we wish and I can jangle a guitar while she watches a murder mystery?
The car goes in fine but is removed when I want to work on anything to make more space. It's better insulated than most houses so the car stays cool in Summer and goes further in Winter because the battery is warm.
I've been going for Kelly Brook for years
Me too... she never responds 🙁
Surely there's only one calendar
Singletrack Wordl [sic]!
yes when tidy. no at the moment. the dining room is where bike magic happens in my house. the two rooms are connected by a utility room so it’s continuous traffic.
@thisisnotaspoon - why wouldn’t you want a garage. It’s a nice sturdy place to store your stuff, have a gym/bouldering wall or workshop. They add value to a house, usually give you at least one off the road parking space (which is very important in new build developments I can tell you). And in our case it has made our new build garden 18m wide because it’s inline with the house so actually gives us a 18m x 15m garden in a new estate. And because it’s a double we have 4 off the road parking spaces (9 when you factor in we share a bit of drive with the neighbour and we’re at the end) which is much better than fighting to park your cars on the street.
I’ll never put a car in it, but it’s been a playroom for the kids, workshop, gym, chill out space and storage room. Where else would I put bikes and tools? In a shed that would reduce my garden space and be no more secure?
My garage is too small for cars but as a workshop it's an oasis of fun.
Car work takes place ouside - under a 6m x 3m gazebo for big jobbies.
Not really. I guess my man cave is my office. Which is an absolute tip. So not really calming. Be nice if it was, but I don't really have the space to fit everything in.