Garage For Rent: Motorcycle Workspace

My original intention in starting this post was (mistakenly) centered around personalizing your motorcycle's rental workspace. In researching information on the topic, it's become quite clear that a lot of you are desperately seeking such space and with that, I'm shifting gears in attempts to help you find it. I've been lucky in that I've never had much difficulty isolating industrial buildings with open-minded landlords, so hopefully my approach will prove useful to you.

Resourcing is the most important of efforts and beyond word-of-mouth communication, the typical online go-tos remain what they were ten years ago. Activity on Craigslist, for example, is always bustling with garage rentals being posted and removed at random. To be notified of new listings which fit your specific needs, your best bet is to perform said search on the Craigslist site before making use of the resulting RSS feed in your preferred reader.

One surprising alternative to the C-list effort is your local self storage which, if privately owned, might be open to placing you in a more obscure (and hopefully oversized) locker. I did this for a short stint on Chicago's north side and it worked out quite nicely though I did eventually upgrade, making new friends with landlords who were happy to host. This just goes to show that if you're uncertain about your best immediate option, ask for the shorter lease.

Other outlets for your search include LoopNet, EveryBlock and the oh-so-beautiful GaragePointer (looks promising). Putting each of these as well as the aforementioned wheels into motion will return an impressive collection of possibilities. There's also the option to *cough* buy *cough* and rent to those of us in need.

Whether you're after single parking size, two-car or even the complete home package, the only boundaries you face are budget, security and common ground with your landlord. I'll take this opportunity to mention our rental house headquarters being not only affordable but having an attached single car garage that's motorcycle-friendly. The only sacrifice we made meant abandoning inner-city living for the suburban outskirts.

Industrial features and safety protocols are also worthy of observation in that you might get lucky and find space in a machine shop. What a great place to rub elbows and talk wrenching where if you mention what you're up against, someone might just have what's needed to solve the problem! It's in this environment that you're most likely to have sprinkler systems and fire extinguishers in place but should that not be the case, solutions are out there.

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Personalizing your garage-for-rent is another feeler gauge to whether or not a longer lease is in order. For our home, I went to what others call "a lot of trouble" (it wasn't) to insulate and drywall an exposed side of my workspace. With one good friend on hand, it took all of thirty minutes, a six pack of snoopy juice and a good many laughs to make an otherwise vampire cave into a well lit and pleasantly maneuverable moto-zone complete with decorative posters and license plates of bikes past and present. Seriously ... when it comes to making your space yours, go for it!

How Did You Go About Renting A Garage As A Motorcycle Workspace?

Finding agreeable landlords isn't always easy. What tips do you have for our readers? How has putting your approach to practice paid off? Your input is invited. Leave a comment and/or write an article!