This is a good read and and a great motorcycle coffee table book. Like most coffee table books Motorcycle Dream Garages by Lee Klancher is big, features outstanding photography and is printed on high quality paper to show off the beauty of the bikes and garages shot in this wonderful book.
To call this a coffee table book might be a huge mistake on my part. It’s not only artful in it’s production but it’s a great guy read! In comparison to most motorcyce books this is a departure from the rest. Most of the motorcycle books I own are either about a person or about the bikes. This is neither but both! Motorcycle Dream Garages is a journey to seventeen motorcycle sanctuaries. Each is unique and tells an interesting story about the motorcycles it houses, the people who own the bikes and the building itself. No this is not a collection of drool inducing driveway jewelry. This is a collection of special places owned by motorcycle addicts who think tools and bike lifts are more important than spacious living rooms and designer furnature. Are you starting to get the picture?
The book is broken down into five catagories:
- Palaces
- The real deal
- Sanctuaries
- Takin’ care of business
- Racer’s refuge
In the first catagory, Palaces, you get a glimpse into the world of motorheads who have the means to finance their addiction to gasoline, oil and two wheels. Among the four featured palaces is the garage and motorcycle collection of famous stand up comic, television show host and motor sports enthusiast Jay Leno. The dream garage house featured on the cover is an over-the-top home in Kelowna, British Columbia. It has four separate garages and sold in 2008 for $7.2 million. The motorcycle parked in front of the house is Goldmember. Famous motorcycle builder Roger Goldammer set a land-speed record at Bonnevile in 2007 with this bike and then won the World Championship of Custom Building in 2008 with the same motorcycle.
In the catagory of Takin’ Care of Business there are three garages that disguise themselves as places of business. My favorite is Yoshinobu “Yoshi” Kosaka’s Garage Company. Yoshi came to America from Japan in the 80’s. He brought a few bikes with him and added to his collection by spending his life perusing swap meets, garage sales and classified ads. When his collection exceeded 100 motorcycles and countless parts his wife rented him a storefront in Venice Beach, CA and had his collection moved there. People would wander in thinking it was a motorcycle shop and buy t-shirts. The shirts sold like hotcakes and a business was born.
In the final catagory of Racer’s Refuge you will find the garage of John Hately. Hately was the first racer in history to win both motocross and flat track AMA national numbers. As his professional racing career wound down John started a second career as a Hollywood stuntman and devloped a reputation for building and supplying motorcycles for the movies. His garage isn’t a place where the UPS guy drops off parts from the big book. It’s a place where the tradition of building parts with a hacksaw and file lingers on.
You might never get to visit John Hately’s garage in person or listen to the tales of a real motorcycle legend first hand, but you can live vicariously through the author and photographer of this fine book. Read the short features in this book and you will be transported briefly away from your living room to some of the greatest motorcycle sanctuaries you could imagine. Meet the owners and see their collections of bikes and tools. This book is a great read and a good gift. Keep it in mind for your favorite motorcycle nut or gearhead when you do your Christmas shopping. Click here for more info.
Tags: Books, Movies & Music by Jay Green
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