Right?
Well, not quite...
I've been unbolting and bolting shit on my R1 for a better part of four years now. It's been an adventure on its own to be scouring the net - Craigslist, eBay, eBay UK, online forums, etc. - trying to find aftermarket parts for my 10-year old bike; either a used bit of unobtanium kit, or a new part that's been sitting in some moto shop's shelf in the last ten years, collecting dust. Apart from that, it's been (eventually) fun to make things that aren't supposed to work on your bike, work on your bike. For that, I thank my good friend Rob for his continued support and willingness to frankenstein whatever I want frankensteined on my bike. For example, if it weren't for him, I would've long dropped nearly $5000 for a race swingarm made for my bike, instead of paying him a couple of hundred here and there to make a regular one look like a race swingarm.
If I was Danny Ocean, Rob would be my Rusty Ryan.
Without his help, I couldn't have molded my bike to be what I always imagine it to be.
The latest bits to go on the bike:
Samco Sport Silicone Hose Kit.
So will I ever be done with this bike?
I don't know, and I don't typically think about it. I will say this though: I am at a point now that after four years of modifying the bike, it would be easier for me to list what remains original in the bike, rather than list what I've upgraded.
So what's with the title to this entry?
It has nothing to do with Stella, actually. Rather, I have a tentative plan to retire this bike at 50,000 miles and/or the end of this year (odometer is currently at 45k miles). I've sculpted this bike into a form that I cannot get tired of looking at, and so with that comes the feeling of wanting to preserve it the way it is, removing it from the riding risks I take every day on the street, or the track.
So the point in time between now and the end of the year or hitting 50k miles is akin to sleeping it off; we'll see how I really feel once I the mark(s).
Until then, I better keep plugging away at the damn thing.
"Love. You can learn all the math in the universe, but you take a boat in the air you don't love, she'll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home."
- Mal, Serenity (2005)
P.S.
This Sunday is the 7th Annual Awarness Walk for TAAF, so the couple of panels I had repainted should be done no later by then. I can't wait to have my bike "whole" again. It's been too long!
