SCOOPERMAN!

The sunny side of the classic world, with the VJMC’S Steve Cooper

Impetus, motivation, stimulus, incentive, momentum and drive: these and other adjectives or rather their antonyms can be the death knell of any motorcycle that comes under the heading of ‘work in progress.’ If you don’t keep an eye on the calendar then it’s oh so easy for ‘WIP’ to become ‘PSP’ or Permanently Stalled Project. And then when you do finally rip off the dust cover, pull the engine out from under the bench or dig the mudguards out from the furthest reaches of the attic you begin to wonder where to start. Frame? Wheels? Electrics? Gearbox? You can very easily go around in circles and rapidly get nowhere. Spending even more time deciding what to do doesn’t help either. As the saying goes – procrastination is the thief of time. Someone once told me when it came to a project or a resto that you needed to be doing something/anything to the subject matter regardless of what that action actually was. If you’ve stalled because you’re waiting for a crank to be rebuilt, go hunt down the engine seals. If the painter is quoting 12 weeks turn round then sort out the carburettors or re-upholster the seat. The truly dedicated (or obsessed) will do something pretty much every day but that’s not necessarily viable for many of us. However, if you know that you have Tuesday evenings and most of each Sunday free why not make a mental commitment to do certain jobs and see them through to their logical end? Of course you may get baulked for want of parts so make sure you ring-fence what you’ve done and make a note on where you got to. If it takes four months to locate a clutch basket you probably won’t recall exactly where you got up to. Working on an old bike as a series of sub-assemblies means there’s always more opportunity to progress at least one element of the project. Oh and never, ever, under any circumstances throw old, worn or broken parts away until you are completely and totally convinced they have no intrinsic value whatsoever. That mudguard that’s really only a collection of holes held together by a tissue of metal has genuine value pending location of a replacement; it’s potentially your only reference point. The same applies to old bearings and even seals; they may just contain vital data. If it’s too cold in the shed or you’re really not in the mood to twirl spanners why not do a stint of online research, check out alternative parts sources or join an appropriate forum. Who knows what you might learn that will get your project back on track? One thing is for certain… no one is going to pay you the money you’ve laid out on your bike if you sell it off as an unfinished project! If that doesn’t motivate nothing will.