I have a hunch that the larger bay was built to accommodate the owner's boat which didn't quite "fit in" back at home.
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New Game: Old Garage Photo w/your XS
- Thread starter YamadudeXS650C
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- game garage photo
I'll bet the handling of the tow vehicle is adversely affected by the out-of-alignment wheel that is visible on the trailer....
....oh - that is the spare.
Silly me.
....oh - that is the spare.
Silly me.
Hey Dude - just catching up on this one. I love that ring gap grinding tool - genuinely useful and pretty too!
Great stories and photos from everyone - as always!
We three nutty Canadians also got a very cool "old garage photo" with our bikes on the Great SW Ontario National Ride Day Extravaganza this weekend - but RobinC found the spot and took the shot so I'll let him post it in this thread.
Pete
Great stories and photos from everyone - as always!
We three nutty Canadians also got a very cool "old garage photo" with our bikes on the Great SW Ontario National Ride Day Extravaganza this weekend - but RobinC found the spot and took the shot so I'll let him post it in this thread.
Pete
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Yes, all 3 of them share the same structure, even the same 42 cent-per-gallon price. All that's different is the paint color and branding decals...
Good eye, 2M.
Thanks Pete !
BTW, I have an update on Steven Kowalski, the "Mayor of Blenheim".
I have driven by his old garage
in The Catskill Mtns 7 or 8 times this season, and have never seen him there.
The doors have all been closed. I have feared the worst...
After all, he's admittedly not a spring chicken any more.
And then this week when I drove past again to glimpse a dark garage, I remembered that he had last fall run for office in the local elections.
So, I checked the web when I returned home in the evening, and there he was at the County website !
Kowalski had won the election, so he's been "at work" in his office !
Village of Middleburgh Superintendent of Public Works
Steve Kowalski
I have driven by his old garage
in The Catskill Mtns 7 or 8 times this season, and have never seen him there.
The doors have all been closed. I have feared the worst...
After all, he's admittedly not a spring chicken any more.
And then this week when I drove past again to glimpse a dark garage, I remembered that he had last fall run for office in the local elections.
So, I checked the web when I returned home in the evening, and there he was at the County website !
Kowalski had won the election, so he's been "at work" in his office !
Village of Middleburgh Superintendent of Public Works
Steve Kowalski
Meddy
XS650 Addict
Now I'm on the road I can finally jump in on this thread, so what better place to start than my hometown.
First pic is an old "Golden Fleece" servo that shut down around 10-15 years ago, the signs on it now are not from when it was up and running they were done a couple of years ago as a backdrop for a music video.
This next one was the local Yamaha dealer until the owners retired and closed the business down about 15-20 years ago, its now an industrial supplies type shop, oil, tools bolts, steel that sort of stuff.
I still have a collection of XS650 workshop manuals and supplements and 2 NOS 650 std bore piston and ring kits that came from here when they were closing down.
You can see were the bowsers used to be where the new concrete is, the current owners only removed them about 5 years ago.
That orange panel on the wall is one of the old early type self serve machines, you deposited your 20c coins and hopefully it worked and you got some fuel.
Those are lights alongside the amount that was deposited, mind you $2.00 wouldn't buy much today about 1.5 Litres!
Last one today, I never new this place was a service station until I was talking to my neighbour the other day who said it used to be an Ampol service station. Must have been a fair while ago as I have lived here almost 30 years and it's always looked like this.
Funny thing, when I first moved here you could buy fuel at 7 different places, now all we have is a Roadhouse open 12 hours a day and the Hardware Store that sells fuel.
First pic is an old "Golden Fleece" servo that shut down around 10-15 years ago, the signs on it now are not from when it was up and running they were done a couple of years ago as a backdrop for a music video.
This next one was the local Yamaha dealer until the owners retired and closed the business down about 15-20 years ago, its now an industrial supplies type shop, oil, tools bolts, steel that sort of stuff.
I still have a collection of XS650 workshop manuals and supplements and 2 NOS 650 std bore piston and ring kits that came from here when they were closing down.
You can see were the bowsers used to be where the new concrete is, the current owners only removed them about 5 years ago.
That orange panel on the wall is one of the old early type self serve machines, you deposited your 20c coins and hopefully it worked and you got some fuel.
Those are lights alongside the amount that was deposited, mind you $2.00 wouldn't buy much today about 1.5 Litres!
Last one today, I never new this place was a service station until I was talking to my neighbour the other day who said it used to be an Ampol service station. Must have been a fair while ago as I have lived here almost 30 years and it's always looked like this.
Funny thing, when I first moved here you could buy fuel at 7 different places, now all we have is a Roadhouse open 12 hours a day and the Hardware Store that sells fuel.
Cool !
Welcome to the Old Garage thread, Meddy !
Those are some rusty, crusty old buildings. I like the self-serve gas pump.
Welcome to the Old Garage thread, Meddy !
Those are some rusty, crusty old buildings. I like the self-serve gas pump.
Great entry Meddy! I also really like that old coin operated gas pump. Never seen one like that before.
Beautiful special, Meddy!
Meddy
XS650 Addict
Thanks fellas ,I think the self serve pumps were mainly used in rural areas, I suppose they would shut the garage at midday Saturday until Monday morning so travelers could still get fuel.
They were not as popular in the cities and major towns as their was always a "duty" servo open on the weekend.
Thanks Goldenboy
Meddy
XS650 Addict
Perfect riding weather today and there was an old garage I wanted to check out in a little village called Condah, not far from us.
The actual main street (if you can call it that) is not on the highway so it has become pretty well forgotten to all but the locals.
There is or was no garage, just a general store that closed a few years ago.
A couple of pics from my phone camera.
This is pretty typical of rural Australia now, small farms taken over and turned into giant corporate farms or sold out to agro forestry, less people needed to run the farms with modern farming practices and small towns like this just fade away.
The actual main street (if you can call it that) is not on the highway so it has become pretty well forgotten to all but the locals.
There is or was no garage, just a general store that closed a few years ago.
A couple of pics from my phone camera.
This is pretty typical of rural Australia now, small farms taken over and turned into giant corporate farms or sold out to agro forestry, less people needed to run the farms with modern farming practices and small towns like this just fade away.
....but are kept alive in our memories through pictures like these.....
That happened in the 1930's in America and there's a book about it called,"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. It's also a movie with Henry Fonda.
And still happening in small "farm towns" in Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska etc.
The health and existence of small towns in our lives and landscape (they are not yet all gone) is to some degree within our control.
We can choose to support small, independent businesses.
....and at the same time benefit from the value of maintaining a long-term, personal connection with the folks who run them.
.
.
We can choose to support small, independent businesses.
....and at the same time benefit from the value of maintaining a long-term, personal connection with the folks who run them.
.
.
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Meddy
XS650 Addict
Well said Dude, much nicer to pull up at a small local shop than one of those huge roadhouses that are springing up on the side of freeways these days.
Meddy
XS650 Addict
Some old garages from country New South Wales from my recent bike trip.
This bowser no good these days only goes up to 99.9 cents per litre
Not a garage but the local rural trading store I like the sign though.
Again not a garage, this is inside one of the hotels we stayed in, very motorcycle friendly.
Same Hotel
Nice old Garage at night, irrigation supplies now.
Most of these places we visited this year are in the middle of a fairly big drought, so I like to think our tourist dollars help out in a small way.
Not a garage but the local rural trading store I like the sign though.
Again not a garage, this is inside one of the hotels we stayed in, very motorcycle friendly.
Same Hotel
Nice old Garage at night, irrigation supplies now.
Most of these places we visited this year are in the middle of a fairly big drought, so I like to think our tourist dollars help out in a small way.
Great piccys of the bike Meddy and some great tales of little towns - which sadly, are fading in many parts of Canada as well.
Some, however are doing OK as older people retire and want to leave larger centres for a quieter existence and also turn some of their big-city house money into a smaller home plus some added cash for travel etc. Even a larger place like Windsor (pop just over 200,000- Canada’s 10th largest city) is experiencing a real estate boom as “Toronto money” floods in. A nice 2000 sq.ft. home on a nice lot here will cost around $3-500K whereas such a home in Toronto would sell for more than $1M - so people are making that move.
