What a nightmare week I had – the motorbike had problems, and I very nearly killed it off permanently when something broke and could only be bodge fitted to keep it going. Thing is, you go down this path with motorcycles where ones happiness revolves around how its running – its like a physical heartbeat that needs to be stabilised, or else its going to explode, or conk out or whatever. It reminds me of the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mainentance, (Robert M. Prising) wherein he has fun times mixed with hard lessons, in real life, mine I mean, it can be so brutal, when your maintenance goes horribly wrong, when a bike is so old it no longer is viable its so sad – well nothing lasts forever of course.

I did a lot of work on it this year, its so that the enjoyment value becomes questionable if there’s really more strife than anything else – then its time to get another one, but I don’t want to, cos I like this one, you can see how personal this can all become? 

Years ago I had this bike that was causing me terrible problems, I was so unlucky, cos it just kept going wrong in every way imaginable, yet I loved that bike so much I went on with it, then I bought a second bike, and had two, while I fixed the other up, but eventually that one went wrong too, so I had two bikes, tons of debts and no way to fix either really, other than tinkering about before eventually selling both of them as a bad job. I was without transport for a few years and actually felt better for it, but my life was directionless, and in the end I got another motorbike some years later.

This one I bought 17 years ago, and I still have it, and it runs pretty good, so I can’t grumble, but because its so old and done so many miles, things inevitably are going wrong, each year a new set of problems, I’m not the worlds greatest mechanic, not by a long chalk, but when I ask the garage to fix things they don’t want to know, so I’m forced to tackle things myself – what a conundrum, motorbikes aren’t really treated fairly by the bike shops, they just want to sell them and look after them for a couple of years, but when you come in with something 17 years old, they’re like “look at that rust bucket!” 

Anyhow, I had enough of all this crap, you got wheels they’re fine, suspension, bit worn but ok, frame is fine, just the engine, its worn out, it used to be tight and responsive, not so much now, it still goes ok, but not exactly great, its just like the human body really, its life is finite, it will probably outlast me, (if anyone can afford to put petrol in it) but it wont live forever – wether its cared for or not – its just a lump of metal, its silly to be consumed by it, but that’s how it is. When its good, you can forget all your woes, and just ride! Ride like the wind!