what is a garage

sofarkingslow

Guest
so i am about to move to the UK from the US and i cant figure out how you brits do the motorcycling thing. I have always had a garage where i live and it is always FILLED with parts, tools and bikes in various stages of assembly. but as i look at property in the UK it seems like none of the places have garages. where do you keep your stuff? question number two. i have a chevy pick-up which everyone tells me is too big for england. how do you get your bikes to the track?
 
ride to track or use a van, big houses have garages and a mans castle is his shed:thumb
 
sofarkingslow said:
so i am about to move to the UK from the US and i cant figure out how you brits do the motorcycling thing. I have always had a garage where i live and it is always FILLED with parts, tools and bikes in various stages of assembly. but as i look at property in the UK it seems like none of the places have garages. where do you keep your stuff? question number two. i have a chevy pick-up which everyone tells me is too big for england. how do you get your bikes to the track?
Click to expand...

Don't need to take bikes to the track in this country as we have bends in our roads.:augie;)
 
I forgot about all the bendy roads we have, if you bring your truck over you'll probably also notice cos you'll have to stop every couple a mins to make 13 point U-turns and it won't fit into our normal sized garages on our normal sized houses.

why would you want to move over here anyway?
 
Lo-IQ said:
ride to track or use a van, big houses have garages and a mans castle is his shed:thumb
Click to expand...

because the big house is big because it has had the garage converted to a playroom, home office, spare bedroom........hence the need for a shed.

Plenty of houses have double garages, but land is at a premium, and where it is, an extra room adds far more value than a garage. People count bedrooms in estate agents brochures, no one seems to consider storage.

Having two bikes I managed for over decade with a tarpaulin. 6 years ago a move gave me a 'car port' -bloody luxury, I got a third to celebrate. Move last year gave me a 'garage'. Luckily for me it is 'detached', made from concrete blocks and has a (very leaky) asbestos roof. Supposedly has construction life of 10-15 years, been there since 196*. So, being worthless and useless, its mine, all mine :)

Chevy pick up is fine size wise IMHO, there are Hummers over here (although they dont seem that big), not to mention Buses. There are no roads I drive that arent used by buses/HGV's etc. You might find parking difficult, but then so do I and I have a Golf (or is that still a Rabbit to you guys?), mainly because some selfish twat has parked his pickup across two bays....

Petrol at £1.29 a litre might hurt tho :)
 
Couple of years ago we were looking a the new houses at Girton - just outside Cambridge - and I noticed the lack of garages. Asked the sales guy why no garages but plenty of parking slots. His reply was that the Council would not give permission - the idea was the get people onto the buses more :nenau. Only the houses costing 500k upwards had a garage.
 
Move to Scotland then!!! Better roads, better scenery, irn bru and deep fried mars bars. Oh and also £500K would buy you a helluva lot more .
 
The American garages I've seen bear no resemblance to a UK garage, in the American garages you can fit a minimum of 2 decent size saloon cars side by side with there doors open and still be able to walk between them, in the UK your a lucky man if you can open the doors of fecking Smart car without them banging on the walls of the building:mad:
 
Sofark.....
I noticed that you posted in the East Anglia section and from your profile that you are a pilot.
I assume that you are being posted to Lakenheath or Mildenhall.
Would that be F15, C130 or those big 707 based tanker thingies?
Just to let you know, we have a strong East Anglia club section with monthly meets and you would be most welcome.
You may be interested to know that on last remembrance day, a number of us visited some of the old ww2 US bases around here.
I live almost on top of the 392nd Bomb Group base of Wendling and am a guide for visiting veterans and families.

On the garage front, I am currently building a garage 18 metres by 7 (or at least that what I told the council planers). It will in actual fact become my new woodworking workshop.


Mike.
 
i fly those big 707 things. they suck. i cant wait to hang out with you guys. riding around over there sounds sweet. i just hope i can figure out all where to live and where to keep all the toys.
 
HI sofarkingslow,
I live in Cambridge, almost in the City Centre, and am not lucky enough ( or rich enough) to have a house with a garage. Housing around Cambridge is stupid money, and traffic congestion a BIG problem too.
However, I rent a lock-up, very close to where I live; previously I rented one from the Cambs City Council. You may well find that wherever you end up living, the Local Council could help-not ideal, and, probably like mine no electricity, but way better than leaving outside in these cold winters.
Welcome to the crowded UK housing market !!
 
Zoomboxer said:
Couple of years ago we were looking a the new houses at Girton - just outside Cambridge - and I noticed the lack of garages. Asked the sales guy why no garages but plenty of parking slots. His reply was that the Council would not give permission - the idea was the get people onto the buses more :nenau. Only the houses costing 500k upwards had a garage.
Click to expand...

Interesting this. They knocked down the (very successfull, very popular) pub opposite the station here - planning permission for (I forget how many, but it was a lot) flats. Aimed at City Bankers (train fast into London Bridge). They had permision for all these flats, and 2 parking spaces, on the basis that these City Wiz kids would be commuting into London by train, hence wouldnt have cars.

Dunno what the flats would have cost (this was a couple of years ago, they knocked the pub down in days, and it is still just a derilict wasteland) but the ones just down the road where on the market for between £600k and £1 million.

Obviously people buying 2 bed flats for a million quid aren't the sort of people who are going to own a car.
 
Get ready to readjust your sensors SoFaSl, everything is very close together here. Your personal space is about to shrink to a tenth of what your used too especially on the roads. I think you could probably fit England into Oklahoma with room to spare. Hope you enjoy yourself, plenty to see here :thumb2
 
Garages

My cousin is married to one of your collegues,and they rented a very nice bungalow in Eriswell which is couple of miles from Lakenheath.
That had huge garage which housed his huge Harley,don't worry there are plenty of nearby villages that have rental properties available for service men.

And do you still get those fuel vouchers?I know there is very cheap fuel on base,but they use to come in handy when we use to ride together,bit like a travellers cheque where you have to countersign.I took him and a couple of other guys on a weeks trip around Devon and Cornwall once and it didn't cost me a penny for fuel or beer:thumb2,sadly they have all been posted back your side now,but what a great bunch of blokes.
Make sure you get out and about asap,one of them had been here nearly three years with a bike and never rode more than 50 mile from camp.Andy
 
Iv'e just had a thought.
One of our East Anglia section members (who I can put you in contact with) has already let one property to a US serviceman and is currently refurbing a small bungalo in Brandon (just north of Lakenheath) to do the same.
I'm not sure if it would suit you, as it's quite small and may not have a garage, but it may be worth a look.

Mike.
 
Don't do it mate, stay over there. I'm peelin potatoes to save for a steerage class ticket as we speak... :D
 
Greetings

sofarkingslow said:
i fly those big 707 things. they suck. i cant wait to hang out with you guys. riding around over there sounds sweet. i just hope i can figure out all where to live and where to keep all the toys.
Click to expand...

Good to hear from you Im in Betty Winsor's Flying Circus or the RAF as it is some times known and look forward to meeting you when you make it across the pond. :beer:
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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