Progress on the bike, and myself.

This is probably a little indulgent, but forgive me. Or don’t read. :). It’s how I came to ride a bike, met my motorcycle clique, and became a better person partly because of that process. Oh, and fixed a bike up.After an acrimonious and heartbreaking (for me) divorce at the age of 49, I found myself in Bangkok with a mate in Christmas 2017. Wandering around a market, I came across a stall outside of which a Thai man was playing a banjo. Inside it was western themed. And there were a pair of motorcycle boots in the corner. Sort of Johnny Rebs. They seemed solid enough. You see, I’d always wanted to ride, but my (by then) ex wife had discouraged it saying I was a sole breadwinner and a dad...blah blah blah, the usual stuff. So I bought the boots.They were a great fit.I returned to Sydney. I’d been working in North Queensland, but unhappiness needs familiarity and at my heart I’m a SydneySider. Trouble was that I’d been away for four years, and friends had sort of moved on. Add to that I was working from home and things got a little lonely in my inner city apartment. And sad. Depression can be a bitch. And still, the boots sat there, regularly worn, but the only piece of motorcycling gear I owned.Over the next six months I acquired a jacket and gloves. Finally I thought it was pointless to just collect these things. I bought a helmet and did my Ls. And that’s where it stopped for a while. Then early in 2019, I went to the pub to see a mate I rarely caught up with cos he lives in Braidwood a ways away. He had an 94 Virago XV250 for sale. I was down that way in a couple of weeks, and went and had a look. Mechanically, it was pretty sound. But the finish was horrible. It had some weird peel-off paint that had stripped from one side of the tank. The red-and-silver original paint job was badly damaged. But I bought it. I bodgied up the paint on the side, and started riding. Got to riding on the road. Was nervous, but riding was fun, y’know? I’d spent the past eighteen months not doing much. I’m a bit of a driven over achiever, and not doing that had felt weird. Now I was doing something. Badly, but it was something.But I didn’t know how to pass my Ps. I found Netrider, and learned of a practice group close by. On a Wednesday night in July I rode up. There were a couple of motorcycles there. The riders were welcoming. Kindly. Others came in. That first night, I ran over cones like they were grandmothers in Grand Theft Auto when doing the weave. The Virago, you might note, is not an ideal bike for doing your Ps. The raked front fork makes turning difficult. And it’s such a long bike. But I kept coming back. Gradually I met others in the group. I gradually improved. Finally got my Ps. Yay for me, but the thing that really helped was this weird little motorcycle group. None of them were folk I’d meet in the normal course of events, but every one of them became a friend. It’s weird how this happens among motorcyclists. Honestly, you bastards are some of the best bastards.Anyway, I was riding. Riding made me happy. But if I was going to call myself a motorcyclist, I needed to get my hands dirty. The first thing I did to was to replace the mirrors. That took a while. I learned that left hand Yamaha mirrors have a reverse screw and that they’re 10mm, not 8mm. I started tinkering. The Virago is probably the best bike for that. Simple, reliable, and parts are cheap. But this week, gosh. I decided to take everything off him and paint. Never done anything like that before. I’m an academic by profession, and there’s not a whole lot of use for spark plugs when discussing Grounded Theory. So over two days, I removed the fenders, tank, and side box covers with help from my Foxy friends. Learned about the value of primer. Repainted in a satin black. Today, I rewired the tail, put on new indicators and tail light, and put it back together. It looks great. I feel I learned more in the last three days than I ever have.I heard someone say that to be a better motorcyclist, you have to become a better person. That’s true, but it works the other way too. Seeking to become a better motorcyclist is making me a better person. When I’m on two wheels, I’m content. I’d been deeply content being in a family with a wife and a little boy in Queensland. I have a little bit of that again in a completely different way. Neither Vinnie nor I are complete. I There’s always more things to do on a bike...just like there are always more things to do on me. I guess we’re both works in progress.And I still have the boots that started it all too.https://ibb.co/NpfmGGt via /r/motorcycles https://www.reddit.com/r/motorcycles/comments/dz0dhd/progress_on_the_bike_and_myself/?utm_source=ifttt