How we got here.
Le Hangar 23 is named after two airplane hangars on a farm in France, where I learned how to make things.
What started there — welders, scrap, an engine off a pressure washer — has wound its way to a vintage Triumph shop in Costa Mesa. Here’s the long version.
The Farm
I grew up in Southern California, but every summer my family went to my grandfather's farm in France. He had two massive airplane hangars on the property (the kind you could actually land a small plane in) and both were absolutely stuffed. Welders, tractors, scrap metal, old bicycles, old everything. Whatever you could dream up, he had the parts for it, or he knew where to get them.
He taught me how to weld. He taught me how to take things apart, and how to put them back together — which is a completely different skill. I spent every summer of my childhood in those hangars, and pretty much everything I know about making things with my hands started there.
Tutus
Meanwhile, back home in California, my mom was a costume designer and seamstress for local theaters and colleges. When she got swamped — which was often — my sister and I ended up on the floor of her workroom, helping her sew. A lot of it was tutus. There's only so many tutus a kid can stitch before he starts dreaming about doing something else.
The First Motorcycle
I was thirteen when I decided I wanted a motorcycle. No money to buy one, but I had a neighbor throwing out a pressure washer, and I had a grandfather who'd taught me to "weld" — weld in quotations because I wasn't the best student.
I cut up some scrap, welded together something that vaguely resembled a frame, bolted the pressure washer engine on, and took it out. The welds snapped before I made it off the block. I walked the wreck of it back home, equal parts embarrassed and delighted, and started over.
Flipping Bikes
From there I was buying and fixing whatever I could afford. Mopeds. Beat-up little Hondas. Working my way up on bikes cheap enough that I could afford to mess them up.
Then one day I saw a picture of a Triumph. '60s desert sled, sitting on a fire road. I stared at it long enough to know what I wanted, and I haven't wanted anything else since.
Tink
After I'd flipped a few Triumphs on my own, I got a job at a vintage Triumph restoration shop right here in Costa Mesa. The head mechanic was Tink — one of those guys who knows every quirk of every year of every model, and can diagnose half a bike's problems by the sound it makes. I worked under him for years and he taught me more than I could have ever figured out.
When the owner of the shop ran into some issues and had to step away, I was lucky enough to take over the lease on the space. Tink stayed on — he's still here — and helped me figure out how to actually run the shop he'd spent so long teaching me how to work in.
Full Circle
So here we are. After sitting on the floor of my mom's workroom sewing tutus, we're spending our time learning how to make clothes again. Luckily not tutus but shirts, pants, jackets — because we couldn't find good workwear that fit in with the bikes we were working on and riding.
Turns out the tutus were preparation. So was the welding, the pressure washer engine, the scrap-metal frame, the Hondas, the Triumphs, and every bike that's come through the shop since. Seems like it's all coming together.
Five of us now.
Nowadays we’re a team of five. Everybody wears a few hats, but here’s roughly who handles what.
- Lead mechanic
Tink
Holds down the shop and makes sure we don't burn the place down.
- Mechanic & fabrication
Bazz
Right behind Tink on mechanics and custom builds. He's got the fabrication down.
- Operations
Billy
Logistics on the clothes, parts (coming soon), and the shop.
- Design
Logan
Design and direction for the clothing.
- Owner
Elliott
Still figuring it out.
Le Hangar 23 is in Costa Mesa, California. We fix vintage Triumphs. We build them. We race them in the desert. And we make the workwear we wear while we’re doing all of it.
We believe keeping one motorcycle running and on the road — being actually ridden by someone who loves it — is worth more than a hundred restored bikes sitting in garages collecting dust.
That’s pretty much the whole thing.
If the door’s open, come say hi.
We’re in a warehouse space in Costa Mesa. Usually 4–6 bikes on the lift, too many waiting in line, and enough spare parts to get a race team going.
Le Hangar 23
1281 Logan Ave Ste E
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
By appointment,
and whenever the door’s open.
Read more about us.
A few places that have stopped by, asked questions, or made something with us. If you want a sense of what the shop is like without driving to Costa Mesa, start here.
Heritage Threads — Le Hangar 23
Triumph stopped by the shop to talk shop wear and old bikes, and to ask how the place got its name.
ReadKeeping the Spirit Alive
A long-form piece on what it actually takes to keep these bikes on the road.
ReadBritish Vintage Motorcycle Restorations in California
A shop profile on the work and the people who keep coming back for it.
ReadOld bikes don't die, they get rebuilt
A short film shot at the shop — engines on the bench, bikes on the road.
Watch