Subject: Progress report, karma, et al, LONG
Author: Tom Bowes
Date: May 12, 2001, 9:26 PM
Post ID: 1706700255
So, just as I was beginning to question my sanity for ever taking on the
Ambo restoration project the powder coater calls. Three hundred dollars
later I am the proud recipient of a buch of Guzzi parts that I could
swear were cast from black glass. Learned a few things about the need to
thoroughly degrease EVERYTHING before hauling it in for blasting and
painting, but overall the stuff looks great.
I fought the battle about a month ago of trying to find a decent chrome
plate shop in the area that didn't want an arm and a leg to do my parts.
The first place I went to wanted $1240, with NO crash bars included in
the quote! Stopped by a friend's house, a guy who does Indian
restorations for a living, to discuss the problem. He volunteered to
take the stuff in with his next batch to a place about 70 miles away. A
friend of his stops in on her Harley that has gobs of custom chrome on
it. I asked her where she got it done and she directed me to a place
about 15 miles from here. Again, another beautiful job, and only 480
bucks!
I found a local place that does bright cad. Took my stuff in one
afternoon, they called me the next morning and said it was done. $75 for
all the various bits and pieces, and again, an excellent job.
Having gone three for three, I run into a friend of mine who has
restored more old brit bikes than anyone else I know. He asks me how I
managed to find all these places, none of which he has ever heard of. I
can only attribute it to karma. Who knows maybe its mine, maybe its the
bike's, but so far it seems to be working, except for one thing.
My son and I spent the previous two weekends taking the motorcycle
safety foundation beginning rider course. Both of us pass, he gets his
endorsement, I already had mine. Last weekend a 19 year old friend of
his got killed in a single vehicle accident, trying to pass on an
s-curve. A "buddy" of his was with him on another bike and estimated
that they had their crotch rockets going about 100 MPH when the kid lost
control and hit a tree, head on. Definitely some bad karma going on
there. Not much left of the bike, the kid or the tree. The funeral was
open casket but probably shouldn't have been. Kinda' sobered my son up
to the realities of riding carelessly. At least it made for a good
opportunity for me to point out a basic truth of motorcycling; "You can
always go faster".
Ride safely.
Tom
'70 Ambassador
'82 V50-III
Shelby Township, Michigan