Mike’s Bikes

So, why do we drive crappy 200,000+ mile cars and wear our socks until they’re more holes than yarn? So we can spend money on bikes!

Here’s a little virtual tour of our shop, which will prove a couple of things; one, Mike’s not kidding when he says he owns a few bikes, and two, we’re insane.

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In 2006 we purchased a piece of property in Terrebonne that already housed a shop that was large enough for our junk. We innocently believed that all we’d have to do after purchasing the property was pay Adair to build a house and then pick out paint colors and window treatments.

The money pit – a work in progress since 2006!

The first thing we did complete was the shop – guess that shows where our priorities lie. Our carpenter tore out a bunch of mistakes the previous owner made, re-did the stairway and installed 4.0 doors so we could roll bikes in and out easier.The “showroom” section houses most of the bikes on the first floor, the front row is new stuff, the back row includes most of Mike’s vintage bikes.

Front Row – the “working” bikes:

Some work harder than others (The Beemer and Versys have done almost 40,000 miles each so far).

While the 916 just sits here looking pretty, with less than 300 miles on her odometer.

Off to the side we have a few trials tiddlers and an old Suzuki:

Trials old school, and new.

The back row includes our dual sport bikes (Mike’s DRZ400 and my KTM250EXC-R), then a nice little lineup of vintage iron:

1956 Jawa Supersport 350

1963 Honda CL72 with CL77 jugs, so I guess that would make it a CL75?

1960 BSA A-10 Super Rocket

1963 (England) or ’64 (US) Triumph T120 Bonneville

1955 Frances Barnett Falcon

BMW 1969 R60, all original (including paint).

 In the next room is Mike’s shop area, where he’s currently working on a very pretty 1969 Triumph Trophy that was supposed to end up as sort of a rat bike, but the painter went way overboard with the tank and fenders, so Mike had to step up his game and do a real restoration on the thing.

Still waiting for a few critical parts, the Triumph is nearly done. The CL72 is getting a few odds and ends re-done in the background.

The workshop area also houses these two rough girls:

A very nice barn find from a few years ago, a Velocette and a Matchless Typhoon Competition Scrambler.

This 600cc single cylinder is massive!

The little Velocette needs a different tank to show off its exceedingly tall valve covers.

Back inside, we’ll head up to the loft.

The only American “bike” in the collection, a 1940’s Schwinn.

Upstairs you’ll find the oldest bike in our collection.

1924 Levis Popular 211. Yes, it runs. No, it doesn’t get ridden much.

The loft also houses Mikes’ collection of vintage and autographed gear

From vintage leather to modern synthetics.

Antique magazine rack with antique magazines.

These guys are just heads above the competition.

The opposite wall includes vintage moto books and trinkets.

Moto toys from 1920’s to ’70’s.

An assortment of weird carburetors.

McGrath and Emig autographed bikes

As the tin toys chase each other around the shelves.

Be particularly good at figuring out electrical problems, I’m sure that’s what they meant.

Vintage flags from each country of origin, we’re still working on a few.

A few vintage posters and banners

Belgian movie poster for On Any Sunday, next to a Maico poster proclaiming their MX domination.

Vintage banners, including one insanely huge Yamaha banner from the 1970’s.

So, that’s all our junk, for what it’s worth! Hope you enjoyed the virtual tour.

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