We can re-build it, we have the technology

So, after peeling back over a decades worth of dust and grime from the bike with the use of a pressure washer and some engine cleaner I can finally see exactly what I am dealing with. The first issue of wheels has been solved when my brother kindly donated a set of old ones that he had 'surplus to requirement'. The bike now at least looks like a bike again - although the wheels are probably worth more than the sum of the rest of its parts.

I should explain that my ride was retired all those years ago after I managed to crash it - in a big way.

It was a regular occurrence back in the day for a group of us to disappear into the countryside in various parts of the UK for a weekend away biking. It was on one of these trips when my ambition clearly out weighed my skill on a kicker jump at the bottom of a long steep hill. I remember taking off - I remember being upside down, and the clear thought in my head that this was not going to end well!

When I had stopped kart wheeling and finally slid to a stop several meters later, I found that indeed it had not. I got off rather lightly with a dislocated shoulder and a few cuts and brusies - but the bike had faired slightly worse.

Most of the rear spokes were gone or bent - the rear derailleur had found its way through them before being torn off and travelling round the chain smashing the front mech too!

The bike had gone sideways, and started to low side me (with the rear wheel locked by the carnage) - that is until the off slide pedal dug in, changing the plan to a high side. The impact had bent the crank and left a crack right across the back of it.

As well as all of this, the handle bars had done a 360, taking off a lot of the paint from the top of the frame and bending them into a new and interesting shape in the process. The front wheel was also somewhat banana shaped, as was the rear brake lever.

The only plus for me here, is that I bought most of the replacement parts and had actually started to fit them in the weeks after the crash. I was still a little sore in the shoulder, so riding off road was out for a few weeks, and at the time I had just bought my first motorbike. As I let the engine dictate my routes more and more, the bike never did make it back to a fully operational state - until now that is.