I did a trip to Sydney’s northern beaches yesterday, riding shotgun for my brother while he delivered a bike (above) to a buyer there. Now, before you go, what the heck. the bike is NOT Paul’s beloved Scarlett, his much-prized 2000 model VFR. It is a 1998 model which Paul bought some time ago and the story behind it and the title of today’s article are very much linked. Before I tell the story I must add that nothing that I’m going to say here is meant to be critical and is, instead a distillation of what he has said about the situation.
So, let me explain. Some months ago, Paul and I went for a long ride that encompassed some of our favourite roads. On the way home (in the last part of the trip – where have you heard this before?) we stopped at the Robertson Pie Shop for a pit stop. Well, actually HE stopped and I kept going – he was behind me at the time, and it was a couple of minutes before I realised that he wasn’t still behind me. I quickly doubled back fearing that something had gone wrong. I saw his bike parked in front of the shop at the eastern end of the park and it wasn’t until I stopped that I realised that something HAD gone wrong. Paul had stopped the bike on a slight slope and, as he put the sidestand down he realised that the slope was more than what he expected. The bike fell to the left, throwing him off and smashing the clutch lever, the mirror and badly scuffing up the fairing on the left side.
You get a really empty feeling when this happens to you and it’s the same if it happens to someone you know. After gathering up his wits, we rode on, Paul somehow negotiating Macquarie Pass in heavy traffic while not being able to use the clutch. Experience got him home and an inspection of the bike the morning after showed that only one fairing panel (the middle one) had actually been damaged. Paul had a spare mirror and a spare clutch lever so that part of the repair was simple. What was not going to be simple was replacing the damaged fairing. Scarlett is as close to immaculate as it is possible to be so a quick and dirty repair with some sandpaper and a rattle gun was not even a consideration. BUT, a quick check of the Honda parts catalogue revealed that the panel had a retail price of $800 and, even though Paul had that, the panel was just not available for love nor money.
As it turned out, simply buying another panel (had it been available) would not have solved the problem. So it was a panel repair job which means only one thing in the Hall household, our old CRRC clubmate, Paul Campbell of Redback Racepaint in Canberra. Paul has done all of our work for donkey’s years and was responsible for the stunning paintwork on the Shadowfax Kawasaki.
But, when Paul rang Paul (yeah!) he was told that Redbacks was backed up with work and that his job could be between 6 to 8 weeks getting finished. Now we don’t mind waiting if it means getting the optimum job that Redback’s always deliver but…..
…here is where the “patience” part comes in. Paul couldn’t ride the bike without the panel so that meant not riding for an extended period. A 2nd hand panel from my collection was obviously not an OEM one and it didn’t even go close to fitting so Paul took what was, to me, at least, an extraordinary course of action, he found an old VFR in a shop in Melbourne and bought it for a very cheap price. It was made to go by the people at the shop but they made it clear that it hadn’t gone for some time. That would have been the kiss of death for me, but Paul went ahead, had the bike shipped to Wollongong and taken to our favourite shop where a full service was done, blue slip and pink slip and 12 month’s registration.
To be fair, the bike had plenty going for it. Two new tyres, a brand new chain, a Remus pipe and all evidence suggesting that the bike hadn’t been crashed. But all of that work made a very cheap bike a deal more expensive and, once Paul tried to ride it the first time, another serious issue arose. Someone had played around with the fuel breather pipe in the fuel tank and the tank would only hold about 3/4 of the fuel that it should have taken before spilling fuel everywhere. Gary also warned Paul that the tank was a bit rusty but the breather pipe issue really meant that it probably shouldn’t be ridden anyway.
So, as a stop-gap, Paul took the left middle panel off the donor bike, put it on his good bike and was able to keep riding. But this left him in the situation of having to fix the tank of the donor bike before he could sell it. A second hand tank from a wrecker in Sydney seemed to be the answer, but examination of it at home showed that it was very rusty inside and in far worse condition than the tank he had. The wrecker was happy to give him a credit for the price he’d paid but not a refund if he returned the tank (fair enough, too).
While all of this was happening, PC kept working on the damaged panel and, to his credit, had it ready before the promised date. However, (another however) the panel was not painted in the correct Honda paint shade. Evidently Scarlett HAD had an accident at some stage and the painter had not matched the red correctly. The answer was that Paul had to ride the bike down to Canberra so that PC could see the actual colour and “feather in” the two panels so that the colour matched. Talk about a can of worms. All of this was completed ahead of schedule and Paul had Scarlett back to her best.
BUT, there was a problem, still, What was he to do with the donor bike? By now he had spent much more than what he had paid for it getting it to where it was and it still wasn’t right. Patently, he was unwilling to spend any MORE money on it than he had already spent so, if he was to sell it at all, it was going to be at a loss.
Thankfully, Paul found a buyer in Sydney who was more than willing to take on the project. a former sidecar racer who has enough tools and machinery in his garage to take on a restoration of the Titanic was not fazed at all by the jobs that needed to be done. For one reason and another, his present only road bike is a “postie” so he was more than happy to pay the VERY modest price that Paul was asking. I could see him mentally rubbing his hands together at the prospect of getting into to the VFR and making it right.
And Paul? Well, he admitted a long time ago that buying the donor bike was a mistake. In retrospect he admits that he should have been patient and just waited for the panel to be fixed. I thought so right from the start but, he’s my brother and that sorta makes things a bit difficult. The upside is that this is the first time that Paul has actually bought a major item and sold it at a loss, and it was a considerable one, so I shouldn’t get on his case too much.
Patience IS a virtue and every now and again we need to be reminded that this is so.