I haven't forgotten you

It's nearing the one year mark since I last worked on this old xs650. Ok, maybe it hasn't been that long, but it's definitely been a busy nine months and I haven't touched this bike in that time.  I put the project on hold sometime in October 2018. I knew we were coming into a busy time at the store and that I wouldn't have much time to get out to the shop. I thought for sure that I would be right back at it once the new year hit. I was wrong..

We ended up staying pretty busy at the store in January and February. We bought a 1989 Ford Econoline which wasn't intended to be a project but ended up taking a lot of my time to get in on the road.  As so often happens with these motorcycle builds, I kept waiting for the right time to come. Some magic moments when I would have nothing but spare time to work on hobby projects. Needless to say, that time never came. If anything, I feel like I just keeping getting more and more busy with each passing month. 

Suggesting that my failure to get the build completed was already a foregone conclusion

The bike ended up sitting in the shop collecting dust and looking more and more like a lifeless heap of parts. Sometimes when I would go out to the shop, I felt like it was taunting me. Laughing at me. Suggesting that my failure to get the build completed was already a foregone conclusion. Other days I would walk past it and I felt as though it was staring at me, sad.. wondering what it had done wrong and why I had abandoned it. I could almost hear Sarah McLachlan singing that song from the animal abuse commercials. As if my old Yamaha was an abused, one-eyed retriever with a limp staring at me through a cage.   

Our spring didn't offer much opportunity to go riding last year. It was mostly cold and raining. Eventually, as the weather started to turn, I began working on the Norton for Lindz. She was eager to get it out on the road as it was the 50th anniversary of that bike. Being out in the shop and working on the Norton led me to do some routine maintenance on my Honda as well. I don't do much work on that bike but luckily it treats me better then I treat it. While I was out there I kept looking over at my chopper project. I thought maybe it was time to get the xs moved.

It was like we were reunited

I put it up on the long term workbench. I threw the back wheel on loosely and propped the frame up on some wood I had laying around. Took a very quick measurement of where the front wheel will be with the four over shocks and put it in place. I used some welding magnets to mockup where the tank will sit and stepped back. Looking at it at that moment gave me hope. I could see it again. I felt like I was almost there. The lines I wanted and the look I was going for was finally visible. All it took was five minutes and what a difference it made. It was like we were reunited.

Planning each next step

As happy as I was to see it roughly mocked up, I knew I didn't have time to work on it quite yet. But somehow I felt like I had made some progress. Even if it was only a mental thing. In my mind, it changed from that bike I was working on to the bike I am working on. Over the next few weeks, I spent a lot of time thinking about the build some more. I was spending more time out in the shop. Not working on that project, but finishing up some other things that needed to be done. As I was working on other bikes, I was staring at the xs. Thinking about it. Building it in my head. Planning each next step. I have a few more things I need to get wrapped up, but I know that I am getting closer and closer to being able to set some time aside to get going on this again. I am determined to get back to work on this again.