I was always fascinated by how people organises their workshops so I collected a few pics of my garages I was settled in during the years. All these places holds invaluable memories where I spent countless days and weeks building something, hanging out with friends and enjoying life in general. I always said I am that person who prefers spending evenings by tinkering in a sheds instead of going to clubs and bars. I was never good at keeping them clean and tidy though. Even after a major cleanouts they used to get messy within the days. But hey, jobs had to be done and projects had to be build and beer consumed!
This is the place where everything started. First moped, own corner to keep it and learn things. Very soon another bike appeared a Voskhod 2M 175cc model, after few months another one, and another… Sadly don’t have good pictures of the place but you can see a lil garage with wooden yellow doors here. Was full of household stuff and after I was let in – bike parts. And it event wasn’t my family place! It was friend’s relatives place in a village where I used to spend summers. Remote place, lots of fields and forest around. Perfect for fooling around. There were 3-4 more kids growing together and slowly all of them got involved into motorcycles at the time so, oh boy, we used to wind up locals badly with shitty fieldbikes and no exhausts. That was the best childhood and I wouldn’t change it if I could.
Then my dad passed away and I started tidying up his barely used garage which was not that far from home. I remember I was offered to do a garage swaps in the same garage blocks as some guys wanted to have a few in a row. It didn’t really bothered me so I agreed. Funny story that few years later I bought it back and another one which was my uncles. This was the time when we just launched our first Moto-Zone website. Total mess but for a teenager was pretty good. Looking at the vid below you can see alot of random bike bits on a shelves that mainly came from local scrapyards. Yes at the time I was a constant visitor there for free or a cheap parts that later on turned into projects.
Also, as a hobby I used to jump into a car and just drive around countryside and villages and just asking people maybe they have or had or know who have or had motorcycles around. And usually come back with some goodies back home.
Then I got another offer to swap garages again. Same place a few hundred meters away. The story was that small steel forging company was settling in there and already had 5 or 6 garages bought in a row and there was a stubborn old man who wanted a garage where mine was so they offered better one (fully concreted basement, proper heavy steel doors) so I moved again. And this is the place which became one of the main meeting places locally and even nationally. The place of happiness. The place where we spend nights and days and were a lot of motorcycles were born.
I even had a woodburner installed for cold winter evenings and also a blackboard (greenboard in this case) from my high school. And some correspondence proudly hanging on the wall about our little community and achievements.
Another memorable thing was this moped chained up above my garage. People just simply couldn’t miss. I picked that thing up for 5eur at local scrap yard. I was really surprised (and still am) that nobody stole it after all these years. I must admit someone took a few bits off like magneto and a fuel tank.
As I mentioned before I had an offer to buy back my first dads garage back which was joined now with my uncles one and made a double. I couldn’t resist and here we go. Moto-Zone empire expanded its premises! Well it was used for a storage at first with a big plans to convert that place to a nice workshop and hanging out area. But sadly plans changed when I finished university and accidentally went on a holidays to the United Kingdom. I left them to my older brother to look after and do his panel beating and paint jobs on cars. It had not one but two wells in the basement!
Unexpected holiday trip to United Kingdom was an eye opening experience and two or four weeks of tourism turned out to 6 years of a new life chapter. Got into one job, then another and then realised that there I had a big opportunities to step into engineering career and also wanted to explore old English lifestyle which I liked a lot. Furthermore, people’s mentality gave me a push to be a person I always wanted to but couldn’t be back home. This came to a price of stepping back from active motorcycling and discovering what I want to do next. It was the time when social sites appeared and our old forum slowly faded out existing and whole Moto-Zone community shrunk down. So a few grand projects I did back in Lithuania are like frozen in a time capsule and waiting for a better days.
I had several quiet months while trying to find my feet in UK and got engaged into Anime conventions, alternative scene and similar stuff. After settling down in a new country I started to explore the British motorcycling culture. And god damn what I found there, was like a caveman discovering a fire. Birth of Café Racers, Rockers and overall hardcore motorcycle scene made my heart feel some sort of forgotten happiness again. Motojumbles, pretty cheap bikes on Ebay and local selling sites, countless meets and local bike events pushed me getting a Honda VT500 which turned out being a really long project, mainly because I liked tinkering with it and rebuild nearly 3 times till it finally hit the road.
So started new job and moved into new place. Tenants used garage as a storage and, well, I privatized it very soon. Also there was a shed in a garden full of junk. That one became my lil workshop too.
Then some things changed and things started to go rapidly better. Met a person who made a big impact in my life and also helped me to establish my British life. Sorted out all driving licenses, and moved closer to east coast where finally got enjoyable engineering job.
Finally had own garage and felt just like back home in Lithuania. Started doing small projects again and even brought my beloved Lithuania bike over here.
A year or so later we started looking for a risky new adventure and move somewhere further. Sometimes you have to sacrifice something you like for a better future ey! While trying to work things out I made a good friend who had unused garage at his place and let me to use it and do whatever I wanted. So with the help of my best friend we did some repairs and made a cosy place! Well you can say it’s my description of “Cosy”.
So this was my 6 years of British life and time had come and I moved to Australia. The new chapter begins again and I will keep updated with my garage life. Of course I simply cannot live without bikes so already got two small projects awaiting here. Currently enjoying neat empty garage where not allowed to do a lot of fun stuff while settling down. Everything comes in time!
