Limits

Limits: I don't like them.

Years ago, I was going to be a Famous Luthier Some Day. This was before I found out I was an inept carpenter. I built some bee hives for my homebrewing hobby (making beer led to cider led to mead), and I was lucky to get them built to where bugs would call them home. I let my uncle do the instrument making.

Still, I impose limits on myself. I don't dive because I'm afraid of belly-flopping again. Even though I last made an earnest diving effort 25 years ago. Yet I hassle my own kids to face their fears and do what seems impossible.

So anyway, I've always wanted a motorcycle. If not always, at least since Jimmy Carter was President, okay? It's always been a someday kind of thing. Someday I'll buy a bike.

There's a few ways it could happen. I could shell out a couple-three grand for a decent used bike, ready to roll. I could spend more money than a car would cost for a testosteroney chopper. I could buy an old Honda or Yamaha and learn to clean fuel systems and replace rings and gaskets.

I was 33 when I learned to change the oil in my car. Not real mechanical.

Or am I? Is the 'not mechanical' thing just a script I run? I mean, changing the oil isn't hard. And there was a time when I knew nothing aobut water chemistry or cell biology, but when I got into making beer I was able to learn it. I went from being a C and D math/science student with some college to reading grad school yeast culturing texts. Might I not learn chain maintenace for a 1975 CB-750?

I have a coworker who fixed up an old Honda CB 350 to commute to work on. He's saving a good $75 a month on gas. I don't have quite such a long commute, but as long as I'm running with no air conditioning, why not have fun with it? Especially if I can buy and fix up an old bike for less than what one month's car payment would be?

Then the question becomes, do I buy a small engine like a 350 and accept that I won't be doing any road trips, or do I seek out a slightly larger engine, a touring bike I could theoretically make a White Castle run to Cincinnati on?