The Big Inventory Job

 Been down in the basement this last week sorting through boxes and boxes of motorcycle parts. It's an overwhelming job at times but I'm finally starting to see progress. I've been collecting parts for the 4 models of Yamaha two stroke bikes I'm interested in for the better part of forty years now . Last inventory was twenty years ago when we moved into the house we now live in. It all started way back when my little 1969 Yamaha DS6C got stolen from my back yard in 1978 . What happened is that it got
stolen, destroyed, and recovered back in the late 70's . It sat while I fooled around with this 650 Thiumph that was nothing but grief and
aggravation , sold it and found myself without a bike . That lasted for about
3 days. I looked around and found this 70 DS6 with no papers.
Back then no papers was a real problem so I got the bike
cheap. I had the paper on my DS6C so I took the new one apart
and set it up on my DS6C frame. It was ugly but it was a good
runner. I drove it like that for 10 years. It was my only bike! I looked
and looked but could never find a DS6C . In 1985 it needed work so I bought a 1971 Yamaha R5 to replace it . Then I found a ds6 parts bike to fix my old DS6C . Got her running again  so now I had two bikes on the road and running. One day I saw a 1966 Yamaha YM1 for sale in the paper so I bought it. This got me started on this thing about finding a YDS3 like I had back in the 60's and crossed the country on. The M1 was a close relative of the YDS3 so I started to restore the
blue YM1 and started sending out wanted pictures of a DS6C in
all my letters and parts orders. One day I received a call and
some guy in Pa. told me about this Harley Dealer in NJ. who had
about 100 old Yamahas in a storage building.It turned out the
dealership was originally a Yamaha dealership and these were
all just left behind by the previous owner. I called and made an
appointment for the next day and when I got there I couldn't
believe my eyes. There were about 150 Yamahas from the 60's
just sitting there and a parts room full of NOS parts! I found my
DS6C and another one for parts.The good one was left there in
1969 over an unpaid repair bill!! It had 1400mi on it,a dented
tank,smashed instruments and a dented rear fender,the rest of
the bike was like new.I got the pair for 300 dollars. After we did
the deal I asked if I could look around the parts room some.The
owner said sure go ahead so I did. I found a YDS3 front fender
and all sorts of bits and pieces for my M1. I also found a front
brake for the TD1B that my friend Don Scarborough was
building. This place was a gold mine. Over the next year I told all
my friends about it and we cleaned him out. The one thing he
didn't have was a green DS6C gas tank. That was the only part I
needed to get back my DS6C. I looked and looked and one day I
found one in NC. at Wilson Cycle Center. This place turned out to
be another gold mine.The owner was a real gentleman. He used
to send me my parts with a bill and give me 30 days to pay! So I
order the tank and I wait and wait,no tank.  I call, he says he sent it
UPS so I track it.  It turns out he sent it to my friend Don in
Michigan. I finally get the tank and a fully restored DS6C with
1400 miles on it. Like the YDS3 I use it all the time and it looks
and runs as good as the day I finished it.I 've owned this bike
since 1972.  I rode it to Newfoundland, all over the Adirondacks,
and Main & Nova Scotia. It's probably the best motorcycle I have
ever owned but now that I've been riding my 1975 Moto Guzzi 850-T for the past 15 years  it's now a tie between them in this best of contest. So, this is how I ended up with all these damn motorcycle parts . I just kept on bringing home wrecks ,broken ,non running rusted bikes that people didn't want. I stripped them for whatever parts I could salvage  and built an inventory of parts to keep my bikes going .I haven't been in a dealership to buy parts since way back in the 1970's ! Now I'm an old man and I need to lighten up the load a bit so it's a good thing I'm spending all this time down in the basement digging through boxes of motorcycle parts. I think of it more as treasure which makes it hard to part with but I have been selling parts for a while and as I go through it it's getting easier to let go. Look , I sold that beautiful DS6C I built as a replica of my original one. It was orange when it came from the factory but I could only find green parts in the 1990's so I restored it as a green one.  Had to have factory paint and chrome to keep it original . I learned to do auto paint and then built an orange one.  Well age brings an end to the needs to have certain things and having two of the same bikes is one of those things so I let the orange one go. This is sort of how I feel about the inventory of parts now. I'm coming to accept that I won't be needing all these parts and motorcycles much longer.  I turn 75 in April . I'll always have a few but I don't need 6 registered and another 6 or 7 projects . So, this winter project is a good thing for me. Here are some photos of the mess I'm dealing with and how it's shaping up.

The original 1969 DS6C that I bought in 1972  

What she looked like in the 80's 

What she looked like in the 90's and still looks like today 

And finally the replica I built of her in orange that I sold to a guy in California who I since became friends with.  This is what I love most about riding motorcycles , you always make these incredible friends . These two photos are of the day I finished it and the day I handed it off to the shipper

But , who knows , as I keep going through these boxes of parts I keep finding all this cool stuff to work with. So far I only dealt with the YDS3/YM1 parts.There were over 60 boxes when I finished this model . Today I start on the DS6 model. Who knows what I'll find in there and how it may or may not inspire me.I have a strange feeling there is another orange DS6C in my future only this time it will have the European fuel tank and it will be a keeper. I think it would look real good in orange with this tank .

I traded a seat for this tank. In the US it's a rare piece , not so much in Sweden where it came from. I can't ever see myself not in the motorcycle world !

 

Yesterdays Ride And Thinking About Tomorrow

 So yesterday it was beautiful outside and I went out on the K100 like I said I was going to do. The ride was great ! I ended up going for a 3 hour ride all over the place. Ended up at the beach for a short break then rode some more. I returned home around 3PM when the school buses hit the road. This is also when the number of assholes multiplies by a factor of ten. I have a window when I ride here in Long Island . I ride from about 10 AM until 3 PM when most of them are off the roads and working . It's my survival strategy . Now up in the Adirondacks I can ride as long as I'd like in summer which is one of the big attractions for me . The only problem up there is the number of days in the year one can actually ride due to the weather. The season is short , maybe five months and out of that time it rains about 60% of the time . I'm rethinking my plans on moving north for this reason and the fact that winter is just too brutal.  It's a problem I need to solve but not today.  Nope , today I'm thinking I'm going to work on a new painting or at least get ready to . Yesterday upon my return from my ride there was a package waiting on the porch. My new oil paints have arrived ! You see, I left my paints up in the Adirondacks at my camp thinking I would be returning in late September but didn't. I got buried under all this work I had to get finished here at home on the house so when I went to paint after feeling better from the Covid I couldn't. I'm excited . I bought these really nice oils  , Williamsburg hand made oils . I love this paint. The colors are really good for the paintings I do . So, it looks like I'm going to start painting again once my wife takes down the Christmas tree and decorations . They're in my way and I can't paint down in the basement because my inventory project has the basement all torn apart .

 There are 6 shelf units like this . This is the 1st one . These parts are all for 1965 /66 Yamaha YDS3/YM1. Cool bikes , 2 stroke road bikes .  Almost 60 year old twin cylinder machines that I have been riding  and restoring most of my life. I was planning on selling this stuff as a retirement business but I've come to the conclusion I waited too long and I just don't have enough time left on this Earth to accomplish this goal so I'm going to try to find a younger guy who wants to buy it in bulk . I may sell it as three lots designated by model . Who knows , I need to get it sorted first !  

This project is part of the first lot I'll sell.I have two of these and all the parts that are specific to this sub model that I'm going to start off with.

Then after the project Big Bear Scrambler stuff goes I'll focus on selling this bike , a 1966 Yamaha YM1 . A 305 cc two stroke twin . I have two of these and don't need two. The other one came from the same dealership where I bought my 1 st bike way back in 1965 when I was in 10th grade . It even came with all the paperwork from there , you know , bill of sale and so on signed by the guy who sat me on my first motorcycle . It's a keeper ! This will get sold along with the  remainder of the YDS3 /YM1inventory. This bike is the first bike I ever restored .Did that back in the late 80's /early 90's.

 It seems there are always these layers of stuff I have to work through before I can actually do what I want. It's hard and my time is getting short. Maybe I have ten good years in front of me or maybe I have ten minutes . At 75 this is how I think . Well , we'll see what today brings and not worry about the future. I love where I live . This little house has been one of the best things in my entire life.  It brought stability , prosperity , and good neighbors into my life .Who knows , maybe when my wife retires we will be able to stay .The pension and SS may be enough to carry us . If that's the case we can just carry on and  spend a little more time up at the camp where I can ride and work in the woods. That's really all I need at this point in life besides a couple of old motorcycles and cars to play with. So now it's off to get into something and make this a productive day.

Mid January Riding

 Yes it's mid January now . We have had some nasty weather here in New York but no real snow yet.  Serious rain and wind have been on the menu weekly but it's been on the warmer side. I managed to get the side yard in front of my garage all cleaned out last week. I moved the wood stove I bought back in September or October  into the garage . This was no easy job doing it alone at age 74 but I managed. Once in the garage where I had cleared a space for it I completely cleaned it inside and out then oiled the whole thing to protect it from rusting while not in use. It's going up to the Adirondacks at some point this summer once I get someone up there to help me get it off the truck and up the hill to my building. Anyway , after getting this project finished I worked some in the basement on my motorcycle parts inventory. With some good luck I will get that mess all sorted out and find a buyer for it. I posted a notice about it on my motorcycle group and a couple guys showed some interest so we'll see what happens after it's all organized , repackaged , and inventoried . Today is a beautiful day here in New York with abundant sunshine and temps in the high 40's F . Yesterday was the same just a little cooler  and I got out for a ride on the Moto Guzzi 850-T . Sure felt good to ride. This was my first ride of the new year. The Covid prevented me from riding back in late December and early January. I needed to let myself fully recover from that crap before I could head out into the cold and ride. So today I ride the 1988 BMW K100RS for an hour or so . Life is pretty good these days even though it's winter. Snow is forecast for next Tuesday and cold weather starts moving in tomorrow so it looks like this is my last ride for a week or so. This is how it goes when one retires . If you don't keep busy you end up with dementia or some other shit . So I keep busy with my motorcycles working on them , riding them , sorting through parts for them , and restoring them. If all goes well with the inventory thing I may be able to get to the cool little 1975 Yamaha RD350 that my friend Pete gave me.

This will be a fun project. I built this bike about 25 years ago  for him out of a total basket case. I don't think he put 4000 miles on it since I built it so it should be an easy fix up rather than a restoration. The next owner can do that if he or she wants to. The bike just sat in the corner of his little garage wasting away. He was afraid to ride. Well some guys dream about it and some guys actually do it. Anyway , with some luck I'll have my other projects out of the way , there won't be any more disasters like last summer to deal with , and I'll actually have the time to do this so I can put it on the market and get it out of here. It's 10:45 AM here in NY and starting to warm up nicely.Should be warm enough to ride by noon so it's time for me to feed my tortoises  ,  have some lunch , get suited up in my leathers , and head out on this beast !