FROM THE FRONT
It is that time again. No no, nothing important, like a birthday, or a best pal’s turn to buy dinner. Although… In this case, it’s (inevitably) motorcycle related. Once again, one of The Shed dwellers is running well. It has an MOT (even though it doesn’t need one), it’s entertaining to ride, and it’s even taxed (free, of course). So what is ‘that’ time?
This is what always but always happens to me when an old clunker is up and running. Starting reliably, pulling as well as it can be expected to, and as entertaining to ride as they can be. Like the world’s silliest case of déjà vu I immediately find myself wondering what to do with it. Ride it, of course, usually in ever-increasing circles until inevitably I find myself calling a man with a van to come and collect it. But… But…
What is equally inevitable is that in the past as soon as I was satisfied that the bike was indeed actually useful as a riding machine again, I decided that it is cosmetically challenged (it is), that its consumables are elderly and possibly fragile (they are), and that I should expend a little more time and money making it look better. For example, although the rear rim is an Akront alloy item, for no reason I’m aware of, the front is original Jones chrome. How difficult / costly would it be to replace the rusty Jones rim with a nice Akront item to match the rear? In any case, the front tyre is too elderly for me to be entirely comfortable with it – especially in the wet – so if the wheel needs to come out for new rubber, then plainly I should seize the moment and replace the rim at the same time.
My reluctance is not idleness or pretend poverty. No. My concern is that the front brake works very well, unlike some others of its type, and I worry that if I go down the wheel rebuilding route the result – as well as a shiny new rim – might be yet another lousy front anchor. Up with which I cannot put. The ace guys at Ace Mosickles can fit new rotating rubber without dismantling the brake – the local wheelbuilder will certainly want to separate the brake plate from the hub. Eek, etcetera.
Likewise, the paint is generally scabrous.
I’m not even sure how much of it – if any – is original. So why don’t I just pull off the tank, mudguards and side panels and beam amiably at a convenient chap with the talent and ability to remove the old peeling nonsense and replace it with glittering newness? And in any case, I have no idea how old the clutch and brake cables are, although both mechanisms are working well, so why don’t I just change them? Better than waiting for one of them to break, surely?
You can see the problem, of course. You may even experience such nuttiness yourself. Take an old bike that’s running well enough, and tear into it to make it look nicer. And the immediate result of this spurt of enthusiasm is? Correct, a running motorcycle has been taken off the road again. For the best of motives, but taking a bike off the road when you’d intended it to provide wet winter weather classic wheels is simply silly. So I’ll not do that, then. But I want to. It’s February now, and if I pull the bike apart I should have it back on the road by April, maybe May. Assuming that when I put it back together again it actually runs as well as it’s running today, that is.
This is of course madness. What would be almost sane is to ride it just as it is, and wait for the next breakdown before tackling the cosmetics. So that is what I shall do. That would be sensible. On the other hand…
Ride safely