Ouch, they did that well!

Sorry I mean the strange big kid that did it & ran away did that well.

 

Yeah, been there. My boy who is now 9 used to hang around in the garage with me. One day when he was about 3 his Mum called me to the kitchen window. In the time it took me to turn around he had found a little pick hammer and was playing a tune on the freshly cleared tank. I’ve not bothered to fix the chip in the paint, I want to point it out to him when he is old enough to get it.

 

I remember scratching my Dads car in about 1967 with a bicycle. Not sure if he noticed it so got away with it. My 40 year old knocked a bottle off my shelf and it clanged my Rocket 111 exhaust and he went bright red as he could see a dent. I laughed a bit as it was i who had dented it a few weeks before.

 

It hurts my eyes to look at that

 

Patina

 

That is hardly patina....it looks more like vandalism.

 

One of the reasons tarps and covers were invented.

 

I am "over the hill".

Many of my bikes have gotten scratched, even the nice ones.

I no longer care.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not one to baby my stuff, I am building this bike to ride and look forward to having the wear and tear on it be a reminder of all the good times I will have with it.

This one just hurts since I have been working on this bike for 2 years now, so close to finishing it and having the first scratch be done by someone other than me before even getting the chance to see it all done clean was disappointing.

The good news is that my painter managed to fix it already for the cost of a coffee and some company. So back on the bike it goes ready for the final reveal

 

I've said to people before I actually prefer my HD now I've been knocked off it to before that. It feels like a bike I can use now, not a pristine thing I've got to spend all my time looking after & being careful with.

 

When none of my kids would own up to something like this, my wife and I just passed it off as "Gigy did it"...our child that we didn't know we had nor ever saw.

 

I say embrace the scratches and be grateful for the kid that did it. They are only little once. My oldest who hung out in the shop with me when he was small is no longer here . He would have been 35 this year but died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022. I was in the process of helping him with a 72 650 before he died . I never was all that neurotic about having things perfect as I used them all but ?
I guess what I’m trying to say is I wish he was here and today I realize what is important . Imperfections can be annoying or seen as history or character . When I was younger I would try and fix the scratches.

 

Ok I am retired, all my kids have left home but I am not in the clear yet. My young dog has a love of picking things up and chewing them. Last month I had taken the rear lens off, carefully ensuring to put the screws inside to keep them safe. Ten minutes later they were gone, didn’t even see the dog come in. She was happily chewing the lens on the grass. Recovering the lens was a bit of fun but finding the screws in the grass was a PIA.

The lens has a few teeth marks but not cracked so I can live with it.
John

 

A mate & neighbour runs a custom bike shop. Their dog waited till the day he needed the forkseals that'd been sitting in a pile on the floor to chew them up...

 

Oldest son (now 42) did the same thing to my ‘48 HD when he was about 7. When questioned, he owned up to it as he was the only one around. Broke my heart at the time but in the grand scheme of things, pretty minor.