Ducati Monster Forum

My house hunting has been stalled indefinitely and I've been stressed and bummed about not having a place to build my bike. So on a whim I looked through the garage/storage ads on CL and found a guy renting half his garage. Called to explain what I wanted to do with it and that I'd be needing to be there several days a week, obviously that would weird some people out and I wouldn't blame them, especially a bearded dude covered in tattoos. Def a mutual leap of faith here...he needs to know I'm not some kind of creeper and I need to know he's not that or worse since I'll be leaving thousands of dollars in his garage. In my line of work I live or die based on my ability to judge a persons character, traveling sales rep in a cash business walking in and out of places that are often in bad neighborhoods with lots of cash in my pocket.. I'm still alive and paying bills so I must be ok at it. First question he asked when I told him what I wanted to do wasn't anything suspicious or doubtful sounding, it was; "What kind of bike are you building?" and we ended up talking bikes for awhile. He's a bachelor with no kids, retired union welder and has a nice home with a nice huge detached garage in a safe neighborhood. So I think that, despite this being far from ideal it is better than being a burden on friends or attempting to do this inside an apartment. It's also 2 miles from my place and has more than ample space, the equivalent of a 1-1/2 car garage for $80. He wanted $70 but I volunteered the extra $10.

So hopefully ya'all won't hear about me getting arrested for Molotav cocktailing a guys house after stealing my stuff, lol. I'd much rather be bothering you with dumb questions as I attempt to put all these pieces together.

Take a quick video of everything before you leave every night.

I tend to place quite a bit of faith in people being generally good. You never know, he could end up becoming a life long friend. One of my lifelong best friends is a union welder!  [beer]

Yep, same here. You need to have common sense of course but always thinking people are out to kidnap your children and rob you blind is no way to live.

Pro union people

A garage is a must for any self-respecting person who works on his/her own stuff. I am also house hunting and have found garages to be somewhat of a rarity in NC. I do not understand it.

 So does this guy have welding equipment in this garage? If so you may have found a little piece of paradise!

^ that's what I was thinking. Maybe he can fab you up some brackets or other goodies! Are you going to start a build thread? With all the questions you've had it sounds like it going to be an awesome project. [Dolph]

I believe most people want to do the right thing, even people caught doing bad things. My comment about taking a video was a suggestion for a simple, quick way to check on your stuff when you come back until you establish a legitimate relationship with your new landlord and/or his friends.

Plug a few of these in your important/valuable stuff.  If it disappears, you can track it.  Generally good thing to have for none-moto applications (wife's expensive purse, bicycle is you live in theft-y area, etc.)

http://www.thetileapp.com/ (http://www.thetileapp.com/)

Oh I agree completely. I meant to reply to that comment to affirm it. My comment was in re: to what you said at all. I plan on having a firm lease and plenty of documentation of what I'm keeping there. You never know when people are gonna get crazy on you. Hell, some of his shit could come up missing, he blames me, then all hell breaks loose.

Yeah I will. Going to do what SkyBarney suggested, once I have all my parts together I'll snap some pics and start a thread. Pretty nervous about that though, soooo many bad ass builds on this forum. I have a ton of expensive parts and very limited mechanical skills to put it all together with. Going to need to go slow and not be too proud to ask this forum a ton of stupid questions.

No need to be scared about asking questions. The first time I adjusted the valves on my S4 i started asking questions waaaay ahead of time to really wrap my head around it. As i dug in, things got worse and more problems popped up. Everybody was ready and willing to help out.

Without the collective helped I received on this forum, I woulda been a hot mess  [shot]

My suggestion to you would be to start ahead of time and figure out what kind of tools you are going to need on top of anything that might be harder to get. There is nothing worse than having to wait for one little thing to be able to keep moving.

And there is nothing better than having a place of sanctuary to work on the bike. Good luck with the garage  [thumbsup]

Better to ask a ton of 'stupid' questions than make a ton of STUPID mistakes.

I agree. I always tell myself there's a ton of lurkers that are happy I made the sacrifice. :)

Sounds like a good setup, congrats.

Retired = someone. Who has time to watch what's going on.  [thumbsup]

And his welding skill could come in handy!  ;D

Isn't that what the kitchen is for?  ;D

Hopefully the thing with that dude works out but have you considered renting a storage unit? You can find some that are 24 hour access so you can go whenever you like. Obviously weather permitting where ever you live and you would have to supply your own lighting for wrenching at night. This place had security cameras and barbed wire fence, key code entrance. If your worried about security, doesn't get much safer than that.

Yep I went down that path. Every one I contacted about it said no way, some of them even wanted a copy of my title in order to store even a vehicle there. F that. I possibly could have done it if I'd lied but I wasn't going to risk that.

The reason why they want the title is because if they decide to auction off the contents of your storage unit, because of non-payment, then they need the title in order to sell your bike legally.
Without the title in hand, they are not going to go through the trouble of getting a copy of it, plus, it allows them to tell the potential bidders that your unit contains a vehicle, and it is worth more, since all the auctions are blind until the bidding is finished.

BC.

Yep I know. Hence the "F" that comment. They're scumbags for even preparing to steal my bike.