In the beginning...
Assumption can be a dangerous thing – trials riders going across the fells assuming the track is okay, then all of a sudden they’re handlebar-deep in the bog which had looked like a sound path; or the MXer who assumes the gap in the pack ahead will still be there when they’re nosing their bike through it, or the enduro rider assuming the path between the trees is actually handlebar width or… well you get the picture. It doesn’t stop us doing it though, and I’m making an assumption here, that most people reading this will have rebuilt a motorcycle of some sort at some time.
In this scenario I can also safely assume there’s an ‘oh my goodness what have I taken on’ moment before work begins. If the project is one which the restorer is familiar with then things can go quite easily, the majority of the special tools will be on hand as will some reasonable knowledge of the way the bike is. You know what I mean there, things which are wrong for the machine will be obvious as in ‘hold on a minute, sure they didn’t use the 125mm front wheel on the 1976 model’ and other such observations.
From there a working idea of what’s going to be needed is easy-ish to work out and there will be certain ‘givens’ such as a two-stroke will
