Whenever I get bored I run to the same old habit of finding a "project".... And inevitably my projects are "expensive"...
Well, I finished reading the sci-fi books. And I finished modifying and upgrading my RC aieroplanes. And "Skeleton" season has finished, And Ive finnished working on the Bronco (my little truck restoration).
But, thankfully, Spring is about here now and although its still raining quite a bit, I thought Id try to sell that "spare" motorbike that I have in the garage... My garage is rather over-full at the moment since I bought that big new motorbike late last year, and having done that, I committed to my-self that I'd sell one of the other bikes this spring. So, last Fall, I did some final "clean-up" work on the bike I was going to sell and then hooked up a battery tender (so the battery stays charged over the winter), put a cover on it and have been waiting for spring so I could advertise it.
And last weekend, I went down to the garage and started the bike up (It fired up easily .. yay).
And so, during the week, I started looking at the listings on CraigsList to see if bikes were being advertised yet...
... and I didnt mean too, but, well....
Yeah... I bought another one... Im really so pathetic! and weak... and predictable...
Anyway, this one is as I said, intended as a project, much like the Bronco was.
So, I bought an old bike thats in rough shape that Im intending to do a restoration/renovation on.
In fact its a model from the same year of manufacture as the Bronco is...
... and, like the last motorbike I bought, its also a Black BMW...
Its a 1972 R75/5 BMW
It looks pretty good in those pictures, and indeed, even though its fourty years old and has 550,000 miles on the clock; its virtually "complete" with pretty much all of the right parts in the right places (just a few "bits" Id need to hunt down to replace.
But the guy I got it from is, well, how would I put it... Shall we say, fairly "mechanically dis-enclined"!...
Dont get me wrong, he's a great guy, and he has not abused the bike... in fact he really loved the bike and had owned it for 18 years! The only reason he was selling it was because he and his wife have just had a baby; So his life has "moved on" and he isnt going to have time for such "flippant indulgences" as motorbikes for quite a few years to come!... And adding to that, he really doesnt have any good place to store the bike either, and its just been stored out-side under a back deck in the open for the last few years...
And thats a telling factor for the bike too.
Its just so wet and humid over the winters here in Vancouver (remember those pictures of the moss covered tractors I put up a couple of posts back!) that anything thats left outside just tends to corrode and turn green!
So, when you look a bit closer at the bike you start to see how the weather is really having a bad effect on the bike and there is rust and corrosion and mildew and algae building up rappidly...
On the plus side though, he did use it as a "daily driver" so to speak and it was registered and running as recently as last August... And sure enough, once Id got it home to my place and put the battery in, it didnt take me more than a few minutes to get it fired up and running.... I was sure happy about that!
So the previous owner was not "abusive" to the bike but I do think he was taking it a bit for granted and the bike was having a pretty hard time.
But, not any more!
Now its at my place, and in the garage (which was already full!) where there is now barely room for a mouse to squeeze in! :)
So, now I have another fairly long project started... I expect it will take me a couple of years to finish this one... especially given that the winters are so long and I dont really have a good space to work on the bike (garage is small, crowded and not set-up well for winter work).
Im not yet sure what exactly I want the bike to be like when Im done... I dont think the bike is in good enough condition to warrant putting it back together as "exactly original" (If I really wanted to do that then I should spend more money and get a bike that is in much better condition to start with). And come to that, the bike is not that special or rare either... There are plenty of them out there that can be fully "restored" by any one who has the urge.
So, Im feeling rather tempted to head down the "renovation" rather than the "restoration" path...
Ive been looking on the web and there are some pretty nice ideas out there for "renovations"... I like this one the best at the moment...
but thats a while away yet... No rush to make any decissions for the time being...
Though I MUST now sell that other bike very soon...
note to self...
...I will not buy another bike, i will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike, I will not buy another bike...
