I discovered another anomaly about my old 1982 motorcycle last week.

It has been about a month since I've given my motor over to professional, equipped hands, right? Something like that.  Too long, anyways.  Much too long.  Paul clearly does not require much business to stay afloat in his dingy little alley in Oxnard.  One fine warm morning, Thursday of last week, in fact, I receive a message asking to call back.

I call back.

"It's a real questionable situation here.  You have some irregularities, some corrosion" (leakdown from me washing the engine, I bet) "and it's one of those, well I don't want to TELL you what to do.  It's right on the edge there, of whether to bore it out, or not to bore it out, you know.  There's a few irregularities in there.  I ran the flat hone through it, took it to two thousandths, you can run it out to four, four and a half thousandths and be within spec.  So what do you want to do?"

What do I want to do.  Paul says a new cylinder kit costs 600 bucks.  I'm not liking the sound of that.

"It's curious here, it's already overbore, 2 mm over already.  And look at this, it's got the old style circlips on it, really old school, the spiral kind"   So this thing was bored out very shortly after it was bought in the early 80's. Really.  The surprises keep coming.  Rearsets.  K&N pods.  Now this.  Why didn't he, if this mysterious previous owner bothered to go all the way to have it bored out to 1134 cc, (1134? From 1097? I mean, come on!) why didn't he bother to put a V&H four to one on it and rejet the carbs?  Hell, maybe he DID rejet the carbs.  Does he know more than I give him credit for?  Who the hell rebores a motor and leaves the exhaust STOCK? And leaves the cams stock??

I drove out the next night to talk to Paul and look at the bores.  They do have some imperfections.  It would, more than likely, eat some oil.  So do I do it right?  Is it only money?  Will I hate myself for having to add oil to a 26-year old bike with a fresh top-end?

Reality is, when it was running I wasn't having to add oil between changes, and it had a leaking head gasket and crumbled exhaust valves even then.  It can't be that bad.

It's hard, because it's not just money, it's my future.  I'm facing the difficult reality that I may have to sell this machine sometime in the not too distant future, a future that involves a four-wheeled, practical vehicle that costs insurance and crap like that.  And I'm not going to get more than 2 grand for it.  Hell, with say 110k, it won't fetch more than $1500, tops.  Tops.  And if the tranny does decide to go, it will be worth whatever lifeless steel is worth.  Nothing.

And "top end rebuild, 1134 cc" sounds exactly the same in a craigslist ad as "top end rebuild, 1167 cc" since modified bikes are worth less than unmodified bikes, at least in the world of UJM's.  They're like used Honda Civics.

Fact of the matter is, I can afford to re-ring, but with nearly 2 grand sunk into this project already I can't afford to put shiny new hammers in.  So I guess that answers that....