Above 1200 Sq/FT Knucklehead 61's 2 car garage with room to store a few antique motorcycles & parts

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

First off, this will be slow as I am not a tech guy & forget to take progress pix.
Little about me...59 now, been retired for over 10 years.
Bought my first Harley at 18. Have , um, a few more now....like a lot.
Outgrew my last "garage" so we moved last year to a much nicer house, on 10 acres, with a pond & a beaver, but it only had a 2 car drive through carport.
So, I designed a new "2 car" garage. Well, theoretically you could park 4 cars in it, but that makes no sense to me, I need room for my motorcycles.
I'll still need to build a barn on the property to store the skid steer, excavator, mower, kei truck, golf cart, & all the gardening / yard tool **** in, since none of that will go in the garage.
So, slowly, here we go.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

Pic of the new shack, & a view from the upstairs bathroom...

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

bought a 2014 Takeuchi skid steer to move junk around the new place since I need my other one at the old shack still.
also bought a 1998 Diahatsu Hijet kei truck with a dump bed. I have a club car carryall with a dump bed at the old place & wanted something 4wd. this thing is awesome, about 2k capacity, but its only about 5' wide x 9' long. very maneuverable on the trails around the property & was cheaper than a deere, kubota or polaris utv.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

my friend John built a "trailer" out of some scrap steel & we lifted my wife's greenhouse onto it to move it 21 miles to the new place after removing all the glass. it's 18' long, 13' wide, 12' tall. this was pretty sketchy & perhaps less than road legal, but a 5 am sunday move worked fine. got it moved, lifted up off the trailer, & set on leveling pads in the new location. i reinstalled the power & water hookups, reinstalled the glass, & she moved all her plants back in.
now i can focus on the shop build...

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

my awesome GC finally was able to start excavation for the foundation.
about 3 scoops into the first day he started finding the wires & piped buried under the location.
in the end, he found at least 100 wires & pipes in total, (power & water lines from both wells, irrigation wiring & plumbing galore, low voltage yard lights, 400 amp main power feed, etc. etc. etc.)

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

with pipes & wires carefully marked, he was able to get serious about clearing the site. we had to remove about 25 trees from 3" to 48" diameter. one fir tree was about 165' tall or so, & a huge maple.
in the end, we removed over 1,000 yards of dirt & spread it around other parts of the property.
the Hijet even got to move a couple loads as a joke. we kept the blue dump truck running for a week or so.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

probably getting pics out of order here, but some of the trees being cut, & rock being set...

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

September 2nd my GC poured about 140 yards of mud while I was riding my 1925 Harley across the country.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 2, 2026

hard to tell in these pics, but it turned out to be as smooth as glass!

Jayman17 · Jan 2, 2026

Nice looking house and property, I'll be watching your build. Hope your project goes smoothly, whereabouts are you located?

LXCam · Jan 2, 2026

I’m following along. After all it’s not everyday a man’s not just got a pond, but his own beaver too.

Gorgeous place knucklehead

bugnut · Jan 3, 2026

Wow nice, very nice!

BORING HOP YARD · Jan 3, 2026

Nice work! your new place looks very nice. Looking forward to seeing the progress.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

Jayman17 said:
Nice looking house and property, I'll be watching your build. Hope your project goes smoothly, whereabouts are you located?

thanks, I'm in Oregon

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

I was gone for the month of september riding my 1925 Harley JD across the country, from Nags Head Lighthouse , North Carolina to Heceta Head Lighthouse Oregon.
I made it 2,632 miles when the rod bearings failed, so I rode a friend's Indian for a few days, then rode the 1935 Harley VLD I had brought as a backup, then ran home the night before the finish & grabbed my favorite bike to ride to make it across the finish line, a 1928 Harley JDH 2 cam.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

first wall framing started.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

and so it goes.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

a friend gave me a dingy so Knuckles & I can explore the pond.
I named it the Pequod...

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

floor trusses & a beam being installed.....

LXCam · Jan 3, 2026

That ride is epic. Obviously some poor sucker got stuck with the chase vehicle and trailer. How many guys had a backup bike like you?

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

Knuckles inspecting his new doghouse.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

LXCam said:
That ride is epic. Obviously some poor sucker got stuck with the chase vehicle and trailer. How many guys had a backup bike like you?

there were around 30 riders, all on 100 year old or older bikes. a couple of us took spare bikes, many took spare motors, all had spare parts.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

more framing, second floor decking, & first floor bonus trusses being set...
trusses are 49' wide & about 13' tall. no clue how they were able to get them up the winding driveway without damaging the landscaping, but they did an excellent job & zero damage.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

still more framing.....and second floor trusses getting set. they are 49' x 13' also.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

yet more framing.....

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

decided I needed a 1986 Honda Fat Cat to ride on the trails on the property.
this thing is great in the mud!

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

the 1928 Harley 2 cam JDH, my favorite bike to ride in my collection.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

still more framing progress.....
and I rolled the 28 JDH into it's future home & to celebrate it leaked oil on the virgin slab.
had thoroughly clean it up so the stain doesn't mess with the epoxy floor coating install.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 3, 2026

I started pulling wire.....
over 6,000 feet so far.
3 panels, 84 breakers, 329 boxes.....ugh!

driftpin · Jan 3, 2026

knucklehead 61 said:
I was gone for the month of september riding my 1925 Harley JD across the country, from Nags Head Lighthouse , North Carolina to Heceta Head Lighthouse Oregon.

knucklehead 61 said:
I made it 2,632 miles when the rod bearings failed, so I rode a friend's Indian for a few days, then rode the 1935 Harley VLD I had brought as a backup, then ran home the night before the finish & grabbed my favorite bike to ride to make it across the finish line, a 1928 Harley JDH 2 cam.

Wow, what a site! This is now one of my favorite threads. You have a great piece of property. Congratulations on the progress.

When I saw the first pic of your bike w/the gas tank 'notches,' I took a guess at a 1927 JD, and it appears I came pretty-close. Nothing I have is older-than 1960's. I have enjoyed reading your posts since you joined. I'll be looking for your new posts, you can be sure of that.

Keep posting additions to your thread. You have a lot of interesting things going on. Your picture-posting skills are fine.

The trans-continental ride looks like a great time. I'm not a long-distance rider, not a foul-weather rider either. Living where we get 60+ inches of rain a year, and hurricanes, I pick and choose being on 2-wheels. One of the reasons I moved from the snow belt to the sun belt was being able to ride year-round. Being with a crew of riders well-equipped to do a distance tour like that must be a great time. The collective knowledge of that group about things mechanical and of two-wheels must make for interesting conversations at the drop of a box-end wrench onto the concrete or the asphalt.

Old Man Roger · Jan 3, 2026

knucklehead 61 said:
decided I needed a 1986 Honda Fat Cat to ride on the trails on the property.
this thing is great in the mud!

Epic shop build, and I always wanted a fat cat as a kid. Ok, as an adult too.lol

knucklehead 61 · Jan 4, 2026

driftpin said:
Wow, what a site! This is now one of my favorite threads. You have a great piece of property. Congratulations on the progress.

When I saw the first pic of your bike w/the gas tank 'notches,' I took a guess at a 1927 JD, and it appears I came pretty-close. Nothing I have is older-than 1960's. I have enjoyed reading your posts since you joined. I'll be looking for your new posts, you can be sure of that.

Keep posting additions to your thread. You have a lot of interesting things going on. Your picture-posting skills are fine.

The trans-continental ride looks like a great time. I'm not a long-distance rider, not a foul-weather rider either. Living where we get 60+ inches of rain a year, and hurricanes, I pick and choose being on 2-wheels. One of the reasons I moved from the snow belt to the sun belt was being able to ride year-round. Being with a crew of riders well-equipped to do a distance tour like that must be a great time. The collective knowledge of that group about things mechanical and of two-wheels must make for interesting conversations at the drop of a box-end wrench onto the concrete or the asphalt.

thanks for the kind words, we're up to current pix of the shop build. doesen't look like any progress now since it's just me working on the electrical all day, 7 days a week. the framing, siding, & windows are done. waiting for a dry few days then we can paint the exterior, then install the metal roofing to match the house.

i have done a couple cannonballs & a couple cross country chase's. always on 1925 & 1935 Harleys.
you were close with your guess, thinking it was a 1927, so i'll add a pic of my 27J.

driftpin · Jan 4, 2026

That's a great bike, well-kept. I'm never gonna be able to do a cross-country ride, my age is starting to catch-up to me.

My health has always been pretty-good, but I do feel better since I've been losing weight, my lower back needs the weight loss to help my mobility and balance.

Good luck with the ongoing electrical and structural work.

Mr onetwo · Jan 5, 2026

Those engines are a piece of artwork...always wanted one :drool:

knucklehead 61 · Jan 6, 2026

wanted an attic fan with a t-stat to keep the attic cooler in the summer, so i got one, & mounted it to a piece of 1-1/8 subfloor scrap. 20" blade, 20x20 louver will mount in the openings on both gable ends.
had to build a 3' x 3' service platform to access it in the attic space since it's so high up. that was fun.
not a lot of fun pics now as it doesn't look like much is going on since it's just me connecting the wiring into the panels & outlet boxes.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 6, 2026

i built this elevator platform for my old shop. it fits in a 4'x 8' opening in the second floor & used a 1700 lb cordless winch mounted to the ceiling with steel brackets to secure it to the structure above the ceiling. it works well, so i am putting an updated version in the new shop.
it will be the same size, but with a 2200 lb cordless winch mounted above the ceiling so all that will show it the cable coming through a hole in the ceiling. it will need a tube so the insulation doesn't fall out of the hole. haven't gotten into the details yet since it's months away from me starting to fabricate everything.
one change i think i'll make is to the platform. the diagonal end bracing was needed on the old version to prevent sagging under load.
on the new version i am thinking of having both ends open so i can roll motorcycles straight onto the platform instead of having to wiggle them around the ends. this would require a cage design with the lifting point being in the center instead of on the back. since i am not an engineer, i have to guess at how much it might deflect under load & how to size the tubing.
the last one was all 1"x 2" .120 wall tubing. i think the top X bracing on my napkin sketch might need to be beefier to prevent deflection when loaded.
realistically the heaviest thing i'll be lifting is a 1,000 lb safe one time. after that a couple of 700 or so lb sheet metal shears & brakes, again one time up only. then it would be used for lifting 600 lb or less motorcycles or other bulky items up & down occasionally.
any thoughts or guidance on sizing would be appreciated.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 8, 2026

tried to get a rough electric inspection today, but the inspector told me that i cant install the electrical work because the property is titled in the name of my trust & not me as an individual. fawk! now i have to go to my attorney tomorrow & put it back in my name & re apply for a permit after it records. this makes zero sense to me & will cost a bunch of money, but has to be done.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 8, 2026

since the shop build is slowing down, i figure i'll post some pix of bikes a friend & i have built in my old shop. we've built about 33 of these late 50's - mid 60's styled harleys in the last few years. all were between 1939-1969 motors., knuckleheads, pan heads, pan shovels, & generator shovels. sometimes we make them shiny & sometimes we make them crusty. my build partner is a master at patina paint jobs.

knucklehead 61 · Jan 8, 2026

this is another keeper.
1913 Harley-Davidson model 9E chain drive twin.
i bought it in my mid 20's. we did our wedding pictures with it in 1995. i sold it in 2000 for about double what i paid for it.
i used the loot to buy a new motor for my drag race car. sold the car years later to buy a rental duplex.
the duplex went up in value & the rents have almost tripled over the years, so that was a good financial move, however it always haunted me that i wouldn't be able to find as nice & correct early teens HD again. so i did the logical thing & tracked down the guy i sold it to 20 years prior. wrote him a letter. about a year later he replied & said he still owned it. i asked if he would sell it back to me & we went back & forth for about a year before he gave in & sold it back to me, albeit more than double what i sold it to him for. the tenants at the rental duplex paid for it though & now i have it back in my collection, along with the duplex it bought me. it all worked out in the end.
first pic was the day i bought it up in washington over thanksgiving. first time ever riding a bike that old.
second pic was when i was selling it. i kept it in my den, but rolled it into the kitchen for the pix.
third pic was a day i dode it to a local biker bar in san joes where i used to live.
forth pic is one of our wedding pics in 1995.
fifth pic was the day my good friend in new jersey picked it up from the seller for me.
it's been AMCA judged at 97.5 points twice, with a senior award.

bugnut · Jan 9, 2026

Love the bikes, ***** on the inspection. Sounds like BS in a large dose to me.

Above 1200 Sq/FT Knucklehead 61's 2 car garage with room to store a few antique motorcycles & parts

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