This article goes out to "jhendric" of the Slowtwitch Forum who said, in a nutshell, "Fuck the car, I'm putting a bike workshop in the garage." He asked for advice, and as it happens I've got plenty of that, including advice on how to do things differently that I have-done/am-doing them.

Cars do not need to be in the garage. Why? Because you're going to sell them as soon as the extended warranties are up, and all you care about is making sure your car's paint job lasts 5 to 7 years. In other words, you should not only, Fuck the car," but, "Fuck its second owner," as well. Serves him right for buying used.

So, now that you've got your priorities straight, how do you set up a workshop? I'll tell you how mine is set up, and then you're on your own.

I'm not going to delve into the question of tools, beyond a very few basics that are workshop-specific. I discuss tools elsewhere, and while I have not yet written the article on "the basic bicycle tool set," (at least I don't remember writing it) I do describe various tools their proper use.

I don't have a bicycle workshop distinct from my general workshop. However, it is certainly true that I have storage trays and bins for bike stuff in its own spot. But, if you're a tinkerer, you're a tinkerer, and you'll use your workbench, and bench grinder, your hammer, hack saw, air compressor, hand tools, for all sorts of projects. About the only thing I keep separate is woodworking tools. All these are outside, under an RV shed. Wood dust and machined parts don't mix, except that a nice patina of oiled wood dust makes for a robust protectant. So, if you want to preserve, and not ride, your bike over the next 20 years, then use your table saw in your garage.

Thing about bikes is, they take up a lot of space. I built a shed, attached to the side of the garage, just for the bikes. They hang up, vertically, nose-down, hooked by the rear wheel. Best to just have them out of the way. This leaves wheels to deal with, and these are also space killers. These I hang up via a simple frame that extends over the top of some metal racks that contain bike part bins. "I don't have very many wheels," you might say. If you're a bike tinkerer, however, there are certain things you are naturally attracted to. Chief among these are extra wheels. A real bike geek will attract wheels like your closet attracts wire coat hangers. So, make space for them.

Space management is the key here. To that end, you need to think about using all the space in your garage. Not just the square footage, but the cubic footage. Storage must be considered as a three dimensional problem. Consider, for example, the workbench and the pegboard above it. Get those tools and spare parts up in the air when you can.

The workbench: this is the beginning, the apex, the first among all workshop furniture. Me? I do not buy workbenches. They are never sufficiently heavy duty. On top of your workbench is going to be a big, heavy vise, and on this vise you'll be hammering, sawing, wrenching, torquing, banging, and you need that workbench to stay in one place the whole time. So, I build mine out of heavy lumber, with braces and cables and turnbuckles keeping it from flexing in any way whatsoever.

Then, of course, the pegboard. These are cool, because they give you a great chance to scratch your creative itch, and create patterns for tool display. There's something very satisfying about arranging tools on the pegboard. I put my general tools here, not my bike specific tools. So, open-end wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, hammers, stuff like that goes here.

Then, right next to my workbench is the big, red stand-up automotive-style toolbox. These are expensive. So, look for a deal on yours. I keep my bike specific tools here, along with drill bits, Allen wrenches, and every sort of wrench (side pulls, wire cutters, pliers, and the like).

Right next to that is my stack of shop rags, and dirty shop rag bin. I do not have a parts cleaner in my shop. This is because of the waste fluid disposal issue. It's very hard to find a place to get rid of dirty solvent nowadays. So, I don't clean my parts in a parts cleaner, although there is no doubt that this is the easiest way to do so.

If you go to Sam's Club or Costco, or to Harbor Freight tool or similar tool outlet, you'll find those red shop rags for sale pretty cheap. Just don't wash them with your regular laundry, as the red die from the rags leaks, and you'll end up with pink underwear.

Also noted on our forum by an astute regular is the need for a bench grinder, with both a stone wheel and a wire wheel. It doesn't need to be big. Maybe 1/2 horsepower, no more than 3/4 horse. Shouldn't cost more than about $60. Likewise, an air compressor is nice. Mine is about 3hp, maybe a 20 gallon tank, all mounted on wheels so I can roll it around. It's a single-stage compressor, which means it pumps to 125 psi. This is fine for me. In order to justify anything bigger than 3hp, and/or a 2-stage compressor (which pumps to 175 psi) you'd be looking at running some pretty big air tools, or working a hoist (like in an auto repair bay). I use my compressor for filling up tires, light spray painting, the occasional use of a smallish die grinder. But mostly I use it just for the cleaning value of compressed air. Air gets in places where rags cannot. So, if you want to clean your bike with soapy water, a compressor makes it easy to blow the water out of hidden places. Therefore, the two most important tools you'll need are a presta valve adapter for tire inflation, and a simple air shooter-thinger.

There's one other very important work area, the center of which is the stand that holds your bike. I'm partial to the stands made by Park, and in particular those with a hard, permanent, iron base. Yes, it's nice to have portable workstands for traveling, but I don't favor a portable stand in my garage. Others might. And, you don't want anything labeled "for consumer use." You want a heavy-duty stand for shop use. Nothing less. Oh, yes, and find yourself a nice, comfortable stool or chair on wheels that adjusts to the appropriate height.

What about a wheel truing stand? I don't own one. I wish I did. Frankly, I just don't have the space for it right now, and won't until I redo my garage yet again. Until that time, I just stick the rear wheel in the bike, put the bike on the workstand, and true the wheel there. Mickey Mouse I know. What can I say? I'm a work in progress.

Save just about everything. Especially bike specific nuts and bolts, ferrules, housings, anything that you can't get at your local hardware store. But categorize them in organizers. And, if you're the sort of person who hates not having things right there on hand when you need them, buy certain items in bulk. For example, I'll buy 50 innertubes and 15 or 20 tires, rim strips, a bunch of gear and brake cable and housing, lubricants, small tools, CO2 cartridges, cassettes, handlebar plugs and tape, during the winter when I don't need it right then. Come December or January I'll get all my wheels out, figure out what tubes are bad, what tires are worn, and put all my wheels in good working order.

"Buying in bulk is expensive," you might say. Not so. Go around to the mail order sites and write them emails and give them your bulk order, see what they're willing to do. You don't need aftermarket packaging or anything. You just want the stuff. So, asking a mail order company for a bulk order of several hundred dollars, without the necessity of aftermarket packaging, and doing so this time of year, will certainly yield you an eyebrow-raising savings (though you might have to email to a half-dozen of these retailers before you find one who's really willing to play ball with you).

One project I'm going to tackle within a week or two, and I recommend this to you, is to assemble a bunch of trays into which will go all your Allen wrenches, each tray representing a size. I've got a million Allens, and they are all sitting in one large drawer. What a pain it is to tyr to find the one elusive 4mm when you've found six or eight wrenches in each of every other size! So, I'm going to put these trays on top of my workbench, at the back against the wall, and have them handy. Yes, I usually keep my workbench clean and empty of stuff as it's the place I work on projects. However, these Allen key trays are going to be the exception to this rule.

Otherwise, my workshop consists of racks and bins where I keep my spare parts. I've got stems in a variety of sizes and pitches, cogs and cogsets, aero bars, pursuit bars, bottom brackets, cranks, and whatever part it is that I've somehow acquired and have discarded or not yet gotten around to using. Hubs, spokes, cable guides, saddles and seat posts. If you tinker long enough, and buy when you find a deal, you too will soon acquire your own stock of bike parts you'll never use in a million years.

One other thing. And this is very important. It's the tool you'll use more than any other. A broom. Actually, you'll need two or three brooms—a hand broom (whisk broom) for your table-top surfaces, a large push broom for the floor, and a corn cobb broom for harder to reach surfaces. And the dust pan. Keep them in a handy place.

This is the basic workshop set up for those who'll work on things other people build. When you're building your own stuff, well, then you need machine tools—a little desktop mill, and a lathe, maybe a heavy duty drill press, and a welder. But then you're treading awfully close to an alternative redneck lifestyle, in which you'll need girly calendars on the wall, 220-volt power, country music blaring in the workshop's boom box, and then it's guns and after awhile you'll lose interest in bikes altogether or anything that does not have its own motor (although my roofer hunts wild boars with spears after chasing them down on his mountain bike, so, put together your own shop as you like it—it's all kind of an individual thing).