Motorcycle storage
Motorcycle storage with a lift, a bench and somewhere to sit.
- Baron, floor area
- 1,350 sq ft
- Second floor above the bay
- 320 sq ft
A motorcycle collection is not really a storage problem, eight bikes fit in a two-car garage if you do not mind turning sideways to get past them. The problem is that you cannot work on any of them, there is nowhere to put a bench, the compressor wakes the house, and your wife would like the garage back.
What a motorcycle owner is actually buying here is a workshop with a lounge above it, that happens to be climate controlled, that happens to be on a deed.
- Service per unit
- 220V, 150A, 1 or 3 phase
- Gated, camera-monitored access
- 24/7
Layout
How a motorcycle unit gets laid out.
A 1,350 sq ft floor plate with a 320 sq ft second floor above it turns out to be almost exactly the right size for a serious bike collection with a working area.
- 01
A row of bikes down one wall
Ten to fourteen machines on wheel chocks along the long wall, front wheels squared, with a walk-through aisle that stays clear.
- 02
A motorcycle lift in the middle
An air or hydraulic table lift positioned so you can walk all four sides. This is the thing that is impossible in a home garage and trivial here.
- 03
A real bench and a tool wall
Eight to twelve feet of bench, a vice, a parts washer, and pegboard or cabinets above it. 150-amp one- or three-phase service handles a compressor and a heat gun without thinking about it.
- 04
Tire, chain and fluid storage
Off the floor, in the conditioned air, where rubber does not perish and fluids do not cook.
- 05
The second floor as the lounge
320 sq ft above with wet-bar plumbing. A sofa, a television, a fridge and a view down onto the bikes. Owners describe this as the part they did not expect to use and now use most.
- 06
A full bathroom
In every unit, with a shower. It sounds like a small thing until you have spent a Saturday in a garage without one.
Space, power and the second floor.
- Garage door
- 16 ft wide × 14 ft high, insulated
- Clear ceiling height
- 25 ft
- Electrical service
- 220V, 150A, 1 or 3 phase service in every unit, individually metered
- Climate
- Dedicated HVAC system serving your unit alone
- Roof
- 60-mil TPO membrane
- Access
- Gated, 24/7, camera monitored
- Bikes per unit, typical
- 12–20 in a 1,350 sq ft unit with a working bay retained
- Second floor
- 320 to 960 sq ft, plumbed for a wet bar
- Bathroom
- Luxury full bathroom with shower, in every unit
Ethanol, corrosion and a bike that has not run since April.
Motorcycles suffer from sitting more than cars do, and they suffer faster. Carburetor jets on older machines gum in a season on pump fuel with ethanol in it. Chrome pits in salt-carrying coastal air. Fork seals and tires take a set. Small lead-acid batteries, the kind on most bikes, are flat in six weeks and permanently damaged in three months.
The two things that fix nearly all of it are stable, conditioned air and easy access to power. Dedicated per-unit HVAC deals with the humidity and the temperature swing. 220V, 150A, 1 or 3 phase service on your own meter means every bike can sit on a tender permanently, on a proper circuit, with no extension leads down the floor.
The third thing is the 24/7 gated access, which means the bikes get ridden. A collection that is fifteen minutes away and open at any hour is a collection that gets used. A collection behind someone else's gate and someone else's hours slowly becomes an inventory list.
What it costs.
The association fee is $1,000 per quarter on a 1,350 sq ft unit, increasing pro rata with size. Property taxes and your own contents insurance are additional.
That one fee covers the building, the grounds and the gate, and the bikes, the power and the second floor are yours.
The plan most motorcycle owners choose.
The cars
Four on the floor, more on lifts
The RV
Driven in with the tow car still hitched
The boat
Trailer and tow vehicle, nine miles inland
The second floor
320 to 960 sq ft, plumbed for a wet bar
Baron
1,350 sq ft · 320 sq ft second floor · From $399,000
1,350 sq ft with a 320 sq ft second floor. Enough floor for twelve to twenty bikes and still keep a lift bay and a full bench wall, with the lounge above it. This is the plan almost every motorcycle owner ends up choosing.
Baron plans
Knight
1,800 sq ft · 450 sq ft second floor
1,800 sq ft, for the owner whose collection includes a truck and a trailer, or who wants the working bay properly separated from the machines that are finished and on display.
Knight plansQuestions about motorcycle storage
The site-wide facts, stated once: 170 mph ultimate design wind speed, FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf, and an association fee of $1,000 per quarter on a 1,350 sq ft unit, increasing pro rata with size. RV dump station on site, included in the association fee. How the building is engineered and what it costs to own are explained in full on their own pages.
See how 1,350 square feet becomes a private collection space.
Excalibur is one property with 41 units inside 2 buildings on 5 acres. Both buildings are complete. Walk a finished unit before you draw your own layout.
Best-matched plan
Baron
- Floor area
- 1,350 sq ft
- Second floor
- 320 sq ft second floor
- Price
- From $399,000
For four cars or more with lift(s), a workshop wall and a second floor you will actually use.
Tour a finished unit, see Baron