Cool little motorcycle adventure - Sugar Merls
Submitted by fluxrider on Tue, 20/01/2009 - 12:36pm
Cool little motorcycle adventure - Sugar Merls
Pictures are linked to full versions at the originating site . Original site linked at end of article .
As most of you know I think I do quite a bit of bike riding. My uncle and I have a good friend that owns a cycle shop here in town and has been doing that sort of thing for like 30 years. Anyway, he knew of this place in Lockport (about an hour north of us) where this guy owned this big building full of bikes - and I mean full. We went and visited it today (and naturally brought along a shopping list). I took a couple pictures where I could, which you can see. You REALLY had to watch your shit where you were going and pay attention to where you walked.
The story goes like so:
This big building was built in 1880 as a cider mill originally. It traded hands until about 1920 when this other guy bought it. The guy that bought it was an AVID collector of motorcycles and had basically spent his lifetime squirreling away bikes since the 20's on up until he sold it to another guy named Fran sometime in the mid 90's. The first owner that started putting bikes in it would basically go all over the place and any company that was going out of business or whatever, he would buy all their bikes and put them in this building. He eventually died and his wife, not wanting anything to do with the place (and not knowing what treasures were inside) sold it to Frank, the current owner. Frank knew what gems were inside, knew what it was worth, and took the whole place for like 50k or something absurd like that. Frank basically did the same thing, bought bikes, stored them there, and sold them. The guy has made a FORTUNE off this place. He's super leery about who he lets go there though because the place has been collapsing for the past 20 years. The pictures DO NOT do this place justice. Bikes are just JAM PACKED in this place - there's mostly no walking room. It's a 4 story building (3 on the end pieces you can't really see + basement), and it's in complete disrepair. There are many sections that you just can't get to because it's too dangerous. There are basically these big sized areas of the floor that have collapsed taking like 20-30 bikes at a time to their deaths, crashing from the 4th floor, through to the 3rd, through to the 2nd, straight on down to the basement. In the picture of the main floor you'll see is what we called an "island" of bikes - that whole big open area full of bikes, you can't get to because the whole damn thing is || that close from caving in. The guy bought the place for basically nothing when the old man died, made a fortune just letting people go in there and getting what they wanted out of it, and owes nothing on the place. It's pointless to try to restore, it was beyond restoration when he got ahold of it, he just knew what was inside and what could be sold.
You can't even imagine what kind of treasures are to be had in that place. Rare, unique, foreign bikes that you can SCOUR THE UNIVERSE to find parts for...this guy has ROOMS, whole ROOMS, just full of, a lot of them very near brand new. The place is so huge you could spend like two full days just looking at two floors. We went there and bought 5 off the guy, a couple for parts, and a couple for restorations. The picture you see of the rusty looking bike with the "H" on it is one we got, it's a German made Hauffman and it's worth a small fortune in good running condition - the guy had about two dozen of those bikes. You just can't even imagine this place. It's amazing.
Everything you see to the right of the pillars on the left is all part of the "island of bikes" that we unfortunately couldn't get to.
It may be hard to see, but that section of brick wall, which is holding stuff up above it, is only supported by a couple of pipes...yikes!
Bikes crashed through the floor above us through this floor into the basement
These two below shots were taken from one of the rooms we were trying to rescue two trail 90's out of before it collapsed and destroyed them (the room probably had 100 bikes in there but we only wanted these two). The collapsed area you see also was full of old vintage bikes. It's really too bad, we'll never know what other true treasures this place had.
A small part of the gas tank room. This place is like a big department store: one room may be devoted only to tanks, another to handle bars, another to engines, etc. Rare stuff you can't find ANYWHERE - he has TONS of them.
The story goes like so:
This big building was built in 1880 as a cider mill originally. It traded hands until about 1920 when this other guy bought it. The guy that bought it was an AVID collector of motorcycles and had basically spent his lifetime squirreling away bikes since the 20's on up until he sold it to another guy named Fran sometime in the mid 90's. The first owner that started putting bikes in it would basically go all over the place and any company that was going out of business or whatever, he would buy all their bikes and put them in this building. He eventually died and his wife, not wanting anything to do with the place (and not knowing what treasures were inside) sold it to Frank, the current owner. Frank knew what gems were inside, knew what it was worth, and took the whole place for like 50k or something absurd like that. Frank basically did the same thing, bought bikes, stored them there, and sold them. The guy has made a FORTUNE off this place. He's super leery about who he lets go there though because the place has been collapsing for the past 20 years. The pictures DO NOT do this place justice. Bikes are just JAM PACKED in this place - there's mostly no walking room. It's a 4 story building (3 on the end pieces you can't really see + basement), and it's in complete disrepair. There are many sections that you just can't get to because it's too dangerous. There are basically these big sized areas of the floor that have collapsed taking like 20-30 bikes at a time to their deaths, crashing from the 4th floor, through to the 3rd, through to the 2nd, straight on down to the basement. In the picture of the main floor you'll see is what we called an "island" of bikes - that whole big open area full of bikes, you can't get to because the whole damn thing is || that close from caving in. The guy bought the place for basically nothing when the old man died, made a fortune just letting people go in there and getting what they wanted out of it, and owes nothing on the place. It's pointless to try to restore, it was beyond restoration when he got ahold of it, he just knew what was inside and what could be sold.
You can't even imagine what kind of treasures are to be had in that place. Rare, unique, foreign bikes that you can SCOUR THE UNIVERSE to find parts for...this guy has ROOMS, whole ROOMS, just full of, a lot of them very near brand new. The place is so huge you could spend like two full days just looking at two floors. We went there and bought 5 off the guy, a couple for parts, and a couple for restorations. The picture you see of the rusty looking bike with the "H" on it is one we got, it's a German made Hauffman and it's worth a small fortune in good running condition - the guy had about two dozen of those bikes. You just can't even imagine this place. It's amazing.
Everything you see to the right of the pillars on the left is all part of the "island of bikes" that we unfortunately couldn't get to.
It may be hard to see, but that section of brick wall, which is holding stuff up above it, is only supported by a couple of pipes...yikes!
Bikes crashed through the floor above us through this floor into the basement
These two below shots were taken from one of the rooms we were trying to rescue two trail 90's out of before it collapsed and destroyed them (the room probably had 100 bikes in there but we only wanted these two). The collapsed area you see also was full of old vintage bikes. It's really too bad, we'll never know what other true treasures this place had.
A small part of the gas tank room. This place is like a big department store: one room may be devoted only to tanks, another to handle bars, another to engines, etc. Rare stuff you can't find ANYWHERE - he has TONS of them.
__________________