Garage Finds

Need Love Too...

by R. Bruce Thomas

A friend who I'd known for over 40 years succumbed to his 6th heart attack in January 2025.

He had been a hoarder and I helped his wife clean out their house in the spring. After taking the summer off to go riding I got back over to help clean out the garage. She told me there was an old motorcycle in there somewhere.

My friend had ridden a mid-size Kawasaki in the 80's and had been t-boned on it in 1994. He never fully recovered from his injuries. I had never heard him talk about having another bike. His widow had no idea where or when he had gotten it, only that he'd ridden it to work in the 70's.

It had been over 20 years since I'd been in his garage but I didn't recall seeing a bike in there. Imagine my surprise when I uncovered a 1965 48CC DKW Violetta Sport bike with only 937 miles on the odometer. It looked to be in pretty good condition and I sent a couple pictures to some friends. Like that old shampoo commercial, my friends told some friends and those friends... Well, you know. At some point one of these friends expressed interest.

Within a few weeks this shampoo friend of a friend came over to look at the bike. Using his hand he slowly depressed the kickstarter (which surprisingly is on the left side tunneled through the shift lever mechanism) and the engine turned over. It just needs some love and attention after sitting in the garage for 45 years, and the new owner is just the person to provide that care.

So, moral of the story is that if you have an old bike hidden away somewhere, don't let it sit. None of us are getting any younger and all of us could do with downsizing.

It's almost the New Year so make this a resolution.

Find those old bikes, or computers, or games, or whatever, and make someone happy. Give a person a winter project to keep them young and interested while uncluttering your life.

I for one am really excited to see the transformation in this old DKW bike.