Moving Forward While Looking Back

 The last two days my wife has been away and my youngest daughter has been out doing whatever teenagers do. There was talk about her going to the tattoo parlor to watch a friend get branded. You can imagine how thrilled I am about that. Anyway, that means I had time to work on the BSA. If you follow this blog then you know that this year, same as every year, is the year I fix up this bike.
 The last time I worked on the bike I found engine problems. This session would be about tearing it down to the frame and figuring out what else was needed. For the most part what I'm seeing is a frame with a lot of welding splatter from the factory. 

 It needs some detailing and paint so I snuck in a 90 mile ride on the sportster to buy one of those oscillating multi-tools. I'm using the sanding attachment to clean things up. I'm not quite there yet. It's taking a lot longer than expected. Every time I handle a different piece it would spark memories from decades ago when I first worked on this beast.

 When I was searching for the service manual I ran across an old pic someone scanned from a high school yearbook and sent to me. I guess they knew spending money on a yearbook wasn't my style.

  It's a crappy pic. All the other kids had professional pics taken. Not me. You need a pic, I'll stand here long enough for you to snap the shutter. The only sport listed was golf and theres a good reason for that. We did a lot of partying during golf practice and other sports just took up time that could be better used for motorcycle activities. They asked me for a quote. Really? I guess I never looked through any other yearbooks before. How about "Motorcycles speak louder than words". Not as sappy as the quotes from the honor roll students but it fit my personality well and this BSA was in the stable at that time. Back then I didn't give a shit about anything but bikes with the exception of one girl friend that I eventually fell in love with and married.

 So now I really need to decide which way phase II of BSA ownership will head. I have probably 95% of the original parts needed for a restoration. The problem is that if I restore it to original then I will have a copy of someone else's vision. Scotty don't roll that way. Part of me wants to blend some modern elements into the bike. Another part wants to "customize" it the way someone might have done back in the day using only parts available in the 70's. Thats been done before too. The cafe racer thing is cool but getting old. Unless done right it just seems like a lazy effort to be different.
 I don't have a clear vision of where this is going yet but I know that I don't want to hack on the frame. This means I can continue with my frame cleaning and painting efforts. Oddly enough I do have a vision of what the paint might look like but I'm not ready to share that right now.

End.