So I have two '83's...an aspencade with 53k miles on it in beautiful condition, and an a mongrel made from a std (poorly dressed) and the driveline and bags from an interstate. The mongrel has a Vetter fairing on it that just grew on me. I figured the mongrel would make good camping bike, cause it just wanted to run fast and gobble up turns. If it should fall over in the muddy campsite, no worries cause I didn't try to make it pretty, just sturdy! In preparation for a longish trip (for me anyway) I went through the whole bike, starting with the driveline from an '83 interstate with only 66k miles on it. New tires, ( metzler), brakes (with fancy u.s. made pads) clutch, valve job and head gaskets, water pump, belts, trailer hitch and controller, bearings and a bunch of stuff I don't recall right now. The end result is the bike I took to tennessee and the carlyle campout with my teardrop trailer in tow. 2551 miles, not a hiccup, and I only drpped it once!
Now we get to the delemma...I've been battling a neck problem caused by aerodynamics and vertebre trouble. I solved the problem by cutting down the windshield and adding a spoiler to my helmet! No...it doesn't look silly, and I don't care if you think so 'cause I can ride all day in relative comfort. When I got home from my trip I started riding my Aspencade (the pretty one) and discovered that windshield needed to come down too. So after three cuts I found the right height for a Honda factory fairing and the resulting ride is way better than the Vetter. So much better I think I'll put the trailer hitch on the aspencade for next year's tour.
But what to do with the mongrel...I will never recoup my input by selling it, but maybe someone here would appreciate a mechanically perfect bike that isn't so pretty. I did polish and paint a few things while the engine was out. Maybe I should go to the trouble of painting it over the winter and put it up for sale in the spring. I'm a little nervous about taking a digital-dash bike on a trip, but I gues I could learn to fix that over the winter...
So help me out here, comments and opinions welcome. I'm running out of room to store all my bikes and projects (6-8) what's your opinion?
all part of the adventure....
Now we get to the delemma...I've been battling a neck problem caused by aerodynamics and vertebre trouble. I solved the problem by cutting down the windshield and adding a spoiler to my helmet! No...it doesn't look silly, and I don't care if you think so 'cause I can ride all day in relative comfort. When I got home from my trip I started riding my Aspencade (the pretty one) and discovered that windshield needed to come down too. So after three cuts I found the right height for a Honda factory fairing and the resulting ride is way better than the Vetter. So much better I think I'll put the trailer hitch on the aspencade for next year's tour.
But what to do with the mongrel...I will never recoup my input by selling it, but maybe someone here would appreciate a mechanically perfect bike that isn't so pretty. I did polish and paint a few things while the engine was out. Maybe I should go to the trouble of painting it over the winter and put it up for sale in the spring. I'm a little nervous about taking a digital-dash bike on a trip, but I gues I could learn to fix that over the winter...
So help me out here, comments and opinions welcome. I'm running out of room to store all my bikes and projects (6-8) what's your opinion?
all part of the adventure....