Most satisfying thing to do with a bike (other than ride it)
 

I was thinking about this in the garage today, inspired by thinner fumes. I've got to the point where I enjoy not riding my bike as much as I enjoy riding it- I'm never happier than when locked in the garage with the stereo and the wee heater on, mucking about.

At first I thought the best thing is just having an idea (or if you must, a plan) come together- I've been getting a lot of this recently with the respray, as well as rebuilding my bellypan to fit the WRP exhaust... Or gettign the rear wheel speedo drive trick to work properly, which to the best of my knowledge has never been done before (but has been done quite a lot now :) )

But then, it's usualyl anti-climatic. There's not really a precise moment where one moment it's a pile of parts and the next it's finished- especially when it's a first-time build and there's always something to sort out later. So...

Restarting the bike after some invasive procedure or repair is always nice... I remember the first time I had the carbs off, the feeling of reward when against the odds it started again was wonderful. But it wears off fast, soon you take it for granted that it'll work and that just makes it even more crushing when it doesn't. Too much of a rollercoaster.

Maybe it's painting a bike... There's something deeply satisfying about every part of that- sanding off perfectly good paint is amusing, and freshly primed panels have a really nice clean look about them... But all of that's totally surpassed by putting on the final colour and watching it build up. I'm using a lovely rich shade and building up the thickness is really rewarding- as is peeling off the mask and seeing the final design. When it works. Painting bikes is great.

Except it's not, not all the time, often it's frustrating, smelly, hard work and boring and the results aren't always what you'd want. It takes twice as long and costs twice as much as you expect, and you expect it to take ages and be expensive...

Then today, I had a flash of genius! The absolute best thing about meddling with bikes is- PLASTIC WELDING! It's fantastic! You start out with a completely fraggled fairing, no use to anyone, and half an hour later it's fixed! Quick reward, has that special feeling you get when you do something most folks can't do, saves you money, and has that special X factor- FUMES! I do like those fumes.

So what's your favourite bit of messing about with bikes?

id say the best bit is taking it for a test ride afterwards :)

"(other than riding it)" I said, you subject-ignoring monkey :) Test rides are frequently no fun at all anyway, the shakedown ride for the GSXR front was... interesting.

ok, in that case,

it would have to be the "waxing" ceremony.

For me it is two fold....as I dont have the facilities or time to really get involved in anything approaching a project....my faves are following any piece of maintenace or upgrade whe n all works well....case in point the fitting of bling clutch pressure plate, springs and cups to my Ducati.

I always still get a buzz from spending a couple of hours of therapy in cleaning and polishing the bike. The end result always makes be so proud to own what I have.

Although sorry Andy..nothing,yet nothing compares to being out there and gliding through some curves. :wink: 8)

I had a very good friend who totally adored his Vincent Black Shadow. It was more than mere infatuation....he even made love to it.

Unfortunately, he later became extremely ill, and after seeing his Doctor, it was confirmed that he was HRD Positive.

El Boc...that made me titter that did! :lol:

Lucky it wasnt a Honda race bike as he might have caught HRC and that is real serious! :D

I think Northwind is doing drugs :P :lol: :lol:

either that or the fumes have got to him :D


personally fettling the bike in any way shape or form is theraputic BUT riding it is still the most rewarding (and i don't need Drugs (or fumes) :P i run on adrenalin) :lol:

I didn't say it wasn't! But riding just now's not the best with the weather, but the garage is always warm and dry :)

Yeah riding is the best, but a close second is working on it. I love doing it. I actually like it when the bike has something "not quite right" because it means that I can tinker and get it right again.

I especially enjoyed changing the colour and look forward to doing that again. However, this process means I need a complete 2nd set of parts so that the bike stays on the road during the process. Last time, the job was rushed and not done as good as it could have been because I needed the bike on the road.

I just gave the calipers a complete overhaul and the brakes now are so sweet. It gives me great pleasure knowing that it was myself and not a garage that sorted them. Not just because I saved some money, which is good, just because it was ME that did it. I am keeping the bike road worthy, I can do it. It's a great feeling.

I think it's great to be able to stop and actually be able to help another stranded biker get back on the road when they were actually wondering what the hell they were going to do or what's wrong with the bike.