One sunny afternoon in September 2021, history teacher Luca Signore stumbled upon an interesting bike. Little did he know, this bike would later become the very object that would make his youtube channel, Speedy Garage, “all worth it.”
“Throughout the stages in which we were still at home, it was kind of just my side gig: something to work on for fun,” Signore said. “But this was the video that made my channel really worth it.”
The bike in question was nothing special — it was old and rusted, propped up against a dumpster like a relic of someone’s forgotten past. With one look, Signore knew that it was in desperate need of repairs — paint jobs, replacements for the wheels and handlebars — a labor of time and love. But Signore took the bike home. He found himself resolving to repair the bike, as it reminded him of happy times with his late grandfather, whom he would bond with over bikes, and who had sadly passed away just a year prior. Not only that, Signore documented his entire journey, from the moment he took the bike home to cinematic shots of the finished bike cruising a mountain road, on his YouTube channel.
What he didn’t expect was the outpour of support that he would receive from posting about his little pet project. At first, the video obtained a small smattering of views and likes, as most of his previous videos had. Yet, about a month later, Signore logged onto his account to find that the video had taken off, racking up 40,000 views to date.
“A lot of people commented on it, saying: ‘I love the story, I lost my grandfather too.’ Or, ‘I really connected with that,’” Signore said.
The video, succinctly and beautifully narrated, touched viewers with the retelling of his grief and growth — how his grandfather had kept a bike waiting for him every time he visited Italy, always in top-working condition, never in need of fixing. Repairing the new bike and giving it a chance to have a new life, a chance to be what his grandfather’s bike was to him, transported Signore back to those soothing summers and allowed him to feel connected to his grandfather once more.
“I made something that was valuable for me, but it was also something that other people got value out of,” Signore said. “That made me really happy.”
However, this was not Signore’s first rodeo. Indeed, his YouTube journey began far earlier — in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. March to August of the newly digital 2020 school year had flown by without much excitement, and Signore had begun to feel the need for a new hobby. He had always thought about making videos about cars — being interested in photography from a young age and recently exploring cinematography as well — but had previously been too busy. Suddenly, with abundant free time and cars that needed fixing, Signore created Speedy Garage out of both passion and perfect timing.
In fact, Signore’s first video was on how to repair a car’s window and center console. His car, a Miata, was quite a popular model, yet the videos explaining how to repair or upgrade such a car were few and far between.
“I was always looking at other people’s YouTube videos and learning from them, but I was having a hard time finding stuff specific to the car I was working on,” Signore said. “After a while, I thought it’d be cool to make a video to help someone else out on how to do these things.”
But it wasn’t just his passion for photography and cinematography that gave Signore an edge. Signore says that being a teacher also helped. Signore knows that something he understands like the back of his hand may be new information to his viewers. But his viewers also have some of their own previous knowledge. To be an effective teacher, it is important to strike a balance. This principle, and others, supported him in his videos, allowing him to create imaginative yet easily comprehensible stories.
“I don’t want to talk down to people,” Signore said. “You have to assume people have some knowledge of the thing they’re watching if they’re looking for it. But you have to simplify it to the point where it’s understandable but still informative, and also hopefully somewhat entertaining.”
Two years later, Speedy Garage has now shifted from a car repair channel to a channel that focuses more on bikes and bike repairs.
“That’s what I do more of now — I work on bikes and ride bikes,” Signore said. The change was not a purposeful shift, but rather, a gentle redirect of attention. But his long-term goals for the channel have not changed.
Signore’s beautiful, newly repaired bike leans against the door of his garage, the inside teeming with projects and parts. These projects are a testament to his final goal, the very basis for his entire channel. Through these changes, no matter what happens, his goal remains the same.
“I just want to make videos that make me happy,” Signore said.
