A short while back I got a book bought for me – Motorcycle Dream Garages. It’s a lovely coffee table type book and I reckon most bikers would be happy to have a copy, if only to see how the other half lives!

The book itself is a 190 page hardback edition written by Lee Klancher and first published in 2009, and basically builds on his idea that many people who are passionate about motorbikes don’t necessarily fit perfectly into an increasingly surburbanised McDonalds type world and that they bring with them something individual, or as the author puts it ‘many people who are attracted to motorcycles don’t colour inside the lines’ 

He was keen to look at the spaces they use: garages, sheds, workshops etc and the essence of the book is that it offers a peek inside some of the more offbeat ones that he found across North America and each ‘space’ is well described with supporting narrative and plenty of glorious full colour pictures.

Some of the garages are simply stunning and clearly the owners have had plenty of money to spend on them, as well as fitting them out to a level and specification that I guess most of us can only dream about … and that’s before you get to the bikes themselves! I think one of my personal favorites is a garage built in the early 1990’s  in California and on land that many years ago used to be used to graze cattle for Franciscan missionaries.  Its actually pretty staggering and occupies some 2,400 square feet it really is magnificent and it would probably be more appropriate to describe it as a palace rather than a garage.

Some of the ‘garages’ pictured and written about are more akin to museums than garages, and others are quite rightly described as ‘shops’.

None of them are even remotely close to my own garage experience, but I think that’s part of the attraction of this beautiful book as  it allows you to see and read about how some bikers keep their bikes in what really are motorcycle dream garages.

You can find out more and purchase the book here