Hey Everybody,
I was in the same old factory about 6 years ago. At that time, the bikes and parts in the place were owned by an ebay seller / "Mom and Pop" motorcycle shop, which was also situated at the old mill.
As well as the bikes, they also had a ton of really great NOS parts for sale.
I got a set of NOS megaphones and a few other things at really, really reasonable prices.
They let me walk around the place for awhile, with the caution "watch out for the holes in the floor, man", plus there were no lights at all in most of the place, so it was pretty spooky as well as dangerous. Probably rats the size of barn cats as well, seeing as it was right by the old Erie Canal.
I was told that there were over 5000 motorcycles in the building, but they weren't sure exactly how many and what they were. At the time they were just starting in on doing an inventory of what they had and I was hot for CB92 /CB92R parts (Honda Holy Grail stuff) so I kept in touch with them from time to time, but not for the last 3 years or so.
I do remember seeing row upon row of mostly Japo bikes from the '60's and early '70's, leaning against each other, stacked up, stuff like that. In particular, there was one row of 25 to 30 Honda CA72 / CA77 "Dreams", in various states of (dis)repair, from looking new but dusty to omigod why keep it. Oddly enough, don't remember any mopeds...
The story I was told was that "some old guy" used to collect bikes and parts and store them in the old mill, which he owned.
When he died, I gather that the bike shop put in the highest or maybe only bid on the property and bikes and got them.
I'm sorry to hear that they are out of business- they seemed like decent folks trying to make a reasonable living.
Be careful about trespassing on private property; it's not all that hard to find out who the current owner is and do things properly...and if you are from Canada, eh, it could go badly...
Pat Cowan,
Pacomotrstuff