The Cold Start

The project started in March 2009. I was blogging it elsewhere but could never find it in any search engines, which is why I've moved the blog to this locale.

It started because my brother Martyn ('Marty', 'Mart', 'Cosmic') has 3 motorcycles and a sidecar stored at my place, and they have all starting to show serious signs of neglect. There are legitimate reasons for the neglect, as Marty has spent the last 10 years living in central Australia, and has little time in our home town of Adelaide, and even less time to spend working on bikes.

Marty, whom I love dearly, is 2 years younger than me.
He's made good decisions most of his life. In this, we are very different. He has never been married, and has had only two significant relationships, which didn't work out. I, on the other hand, have been married and divorced a couple of times and had one serious (7 years) relationship after my second marriage (of 20 years) didn't work out.

When it comes to getting non-essential tasks started, though, Marty is hopeless. He needs a very large boot up the backside to get him started on these non-essential tasks. So things like getting the bikes fixed and running have lapsed into nothing happening. Frankly, the bikes have been neglected for many years, and despite him expressing the desire that he's gonna do something about them, nothing has happened.
Enter me, Dave, 'The Motivator'. I am sick of hearing Marty crap on about getting the bikes going. It's time for action.
'The Motivator' is a 54 year old single parent to a 15 year old daughter, with another (21 year old) daughter who lives with her mother. I'm more than a little relationship-averse. You can only get whacked around the chops emotionally so many times before, like Pavlov's dog, you develop some behaviours that respond to the stimuli you are subject to........
So now I am projecting on inanimate objects.
Forget Angelina, or Scarlett. The objects of my lust are two Moto Guzzis, and Laverda Jota.

These bikes have been silent for so long, and all 3 are real fine bikes. It's a shame to see them lie so cold, when their real power and beauty is to be found in the revving of the engines, the changing of the gears, the hum of tyres on asphalt, the whirring of the chain and final drive, and the thrill of the ride.