Japan Meets Britain
TallyTwo thoughts: 1) Is that it? I thought you had make a lot of changes. ;-) 2) I noted that you counted the number of changes, but not the associated costs. Wise. That's a total you should have a general idea of, but never a precise figure. Don't forget that there are others of us who have a vintage Honda (or two!) that need some inspiration that is short of perfection. The gap between our current state and "Vince's SH" is an ever-widening chasm. Hope to get another ride like Sunday's in again soon. PS - With that fancy new helmet, those tank side covers are pretty shabby looking. Not sure you should really ride the bike until those are re-chromed. ;-) Regards, Jeff
Yeah, I think the whole bike will need a repaint soon too!
As far as a 'whole lot' of work goes, the bike actually ran pretty well when I got it, so it wasn't a case of having to unfreeze an engine or anything like that. The engine and tranny didn't get done until the year after I bought the bike, and the clutch was only done last year. Now, there were some growing pains with the carbs - from stock ones, to Mikuni, to Amal - and much of the other stuff was a reworking of aesthetics. The big challenge was the overall idea of what I wanted the bike to look like and ride like in the end. So that required doing some things, stepping back, then either moving forward or reworking what you just did. Or, thinking that it was fine, then living with it for a while, then determining it really wasn't what you wanted, then back to the drawing board. Cost? Well I know how much I have in it (more or less). But those costs are over a 5 year period, and because I'm not a mechanic I'm shelling out $75.00/hour for that work - but I knew that going into this, so I'm not complaining about it, just pointing it out. Many of the other people on this Forum are quite mechanically-inclined, so they would not have the same degree of expenses that I've had. But, using the new helmet as a reference, I could probably have bought about 35 of these Ateliers Ruby Belvedere helmets for what I have in the bike :)
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