Socrates, Ignorance and Cheap Motorcycles

One of Socrates’ most annoying habits was that he would remind people that he was to wisest man in Greece because he was aware of his own ignorance. While I don’t intend to drink hemlock any time soon, I am aware of my own ignorance when it comes to motorcycles.

I must be very wise, indeed.

So what to do about it? Well, read, of course. And talk. Talk to lots of people.

I have managed to find a Clymer shop manual online that will become my daily reading and I have been scouring bike shops, talking to sales people and parts people about bikes in general and mine in particular. In my scrounging around, I have come to the conclusion that motorcycle people are generally a friendly, open lot. The people in the bike shops have taken their time to talk at length and help me in all manner of things, from what courses to take, what type of helmet to buy and where to get parts. Now, I am not naive. I know goo sales people take time with customers even when they know there won’t be an immediate sale. But bike people just seem to like to talk about bikes.

I have also started a recruiting campaign. While I want to know motorcycles, I know I will enjoy the experience more if I bring in others to help. My first recruit… My father-in-law. He was an industrial mechanic before retirement and fiddled with motorcycles a bit back in the 50s and 60s. While he doesn’t know Japanese machines at all, he knows machines. And luckily he lives just a few blocks away. Another, potential recruit may be the guy from whom I bought the bike. He offered to help in any way. Now, I am sure he was just being a typical Canadian and was offering out of manners. But the problem with manners is that they may come back to bite you. I may just take him up on his offer when he least expects it.

I also hope to recruit some motorcycle gear heads out in cyberspace. It is one ulterior motive for writing this blog. Please send me a comment if you have expertise to share!

I have set out some goals for this project and I hope to stick to them. They go beyond the bike itself. These goals are as follows:

For the Bike:
1. Get the motor running as smoothly as possible over the next few months. I am aiming for June.
2. Once the motor is running, do the other work necessary to safety the bike. I don’t anticipate this being too difficult. The back tire look fine, most of the signals are working. I know I need a new front inner tube, but I may look at a whole new tire. I will redo the brakes regardless… I like to stop.
3. If the bike works well, in the long run I may look at further restoration. You can’t see from the photograph, but the seat is a mess. I’d like to have the bike repainted. Someone did a home job to give it the robin’s egg blue it has now. I don’t think I want to restore it to original colours (It came in burgundy or black originally), but I would like a more professional finish.
4. Most importantly, I want to do this spending as little money as possible. At present, I have put $371 CAD into the bike of hard money. The bike was $300 CAD and it cost me $71 to rent a truck to move it home. I am not counting cost such as gas and printing. I will keep a running total, so people can see what it costs to fix a bike. I’m interested to know… And so is my wife!

For Me:
1. Learn to fix a bike.
2. Learn to ride a bike.
3. Learn and maintain the discipline to acquire a new skill from scratch. I have found that as I grow older, this is becoming increasingly difficult. With life pulling me in so many directions, I find that I give up on new things and revert to tried and true patterns of living. Even ones that aren’t good for me…

Especially ones that aren’t good for me.

While awareness of ignorance is an important first step, remaining ignorant is not wisdom. While wisdom does not come from knowing many things, it does come from striving to know things better.