Thanks Rat.
Right now I just want to get her rolling. Call it "Phase 1."
sac
Ahhh yes very familiar with this phase....I call it the "Pulling-On-The-Sweater's-Loose-Thread" stage....
It is also known as the "Holy Mothermake the beast with two backs! What The Hell Was That make the beast with two backsing Moron Thinking" stage.....
This is the Discovery/Due Diligence period in which you fully comprehend that the bike was apparently pre-owned in series by a squadron of Village Idiots
Dolts who were equipped with crescent wrenches and 3 bent chewed-up screwdrivers and a few rocks to employ for blunt-force on delicate apparatus
Determined VI's subconsciously bent on Darwinning themselves off the face of the planet (no such luck usually)
Oh and the Bank Account...that comes into play in.....
Phase 2...."The-Point-of-No-Return-Phase"
on this part of the journey you realize that you cannot back-out by re-assembling the project as-is and recoup anything remotely resembling your original investment
you are going to need to spend money to get it back to some viable measure of re-assembly
and you realize that the original purchase price coupled with the cost to reassemble
are far more than what ANYONE would pay you for the bike
You have become the proverbial man in the old joke
who now finds himself too far out in the desert with the crazy camel to abandon the beast
and walk alone back to safety and water....
the camel is no longer satisfied with a hand-job every three miles to keep going....
it wants Oral now in order to continue the journey to the destination
Then there are the parts issues...which may not be as bad with Hondas as they are with certain other bikes
The cottage industry of Repro Parts will have you realizing where the Village Idiots went for employment
after they gave up being motorcycle mechanics
Do not look for In-Spec repro parts....what you will get are 80-90% approximations of the real things...
parts that are pumped and pounded out by exhausted Chinese, Taiwanese and Malaysian sweat-laborers
in factories overseen by QA departments staffed with the Village Idiots
Phase 3 is called the "Bataan Death March" phase....you realize you are captive....you have expended all your resources
and are now on the dull plodding exhausted stagger toward your (now dubious) goal....you revile yourself with every bloody footstep, skinned knuckle or new discovery
of more to be fixed/repaired
Phase 3.5 accompanies Phase 3 it is known as the "There is no Geneva Convention In Marriage" Phase....there is now the spouse...the tender and affectionate lass you knew, loved and married.... who now, has transformed herself into a shrieking WWII Japanese soldier hurling curses at you.....jabbing at you with Bank Statement bayonets as you make your tortured journey
Well I think you get the picture.....
restoration/rehabilitation work is not for the faint of heart...
but if you make the journey yourself...you will never look at someone else's restored machine
with the same eyes you had before you made your own personal Hajj
you alone will see and appreciate the dreadful price that was paid in every unstripped, un-rounded nut and bolt, every shiny rust-free surface
in this innocent-looking finished product
