Repair of aging customized bikes: Any difficulties encountered?

[Mister Mellow]

It occurred to me that the more mods someone does, the more difficult it might be to repair a failed or damaged part. This would be especially true for custom-fabricated parts, custom wiring harnesses and electrical components, the one-of-a-kind something you found on eBay, a piece bought from a defunct custom-parts manufacturer.

What do you do to ensure future serviceability? Do you keep records of purchases, instructions, pictures, drawings, web addresses, etc.?

Has anyone encountered a situation where something failed, or was damaged in a spill, and had difficulty re-sourcing it?

 

[jd750ace]

I haven't encountered a situation where anyone but the guy who put it together, or bought it second hand, will even touch it. Many bike shops will not touch a chop.

Most "line dealers" won't touch a bike over about 10 years old, unless it's still a current model.
At least that's been my experience. Doesen't matter. I'll never take a rolling machine to a shop again.
I think most folks just RIDE and don't worry too much about it, they'll cope when it happens.

 

[gggGary]

If you buy a custom you have to either be willing to figure out where the parts might have come from or re-engineer to use the parts you fit to replace them. If you don't have that mentality/ability then a true "custom" may not be for you. I suppose there are builders who are that fastidious but my guess is not many. Heck I have bought plenty of products with lousy documentation. Every car maker today charges you for the privilege of getting that info and they never tell you where they sourced the parts.

 

[Mister Mellow]

jd750ace, I do my own work and never take anything to have repaired. The occasional oil change, maybe. My question is the coping when it happens. I'm not convinced that most people don't think about the possibility of replacing something non-stock while they're building a bike. It's how people plan for this that is at the core of my question.

By the way, I've gotten the turned-up noses from Jaguar parts departments looking for spares for my '83 XJ-6, so I know what you mean about the 10-year rule.

 

[Mister Mellow]

gggGary, do you keep records of your builds? I'm not saying I'M not willing or able, I'm asking what others do to plan ahead.

 

[jd750ace]

If I were extensively modifying a bike (after all, if you start with a bike, you don't exactly "build" it) I would do my best to incorporate things that were used in the past to ensure longevity, such as grease fittings at pivot joints, plating/coating that lasts (remember ceramic coated stoves!) environmentally sound wiring practices, basic relay modules (where needed) to replace some of the more targeted application types we find, and refusing to half-ass anything!

 

[gggGary]

I am more of a restorer/fixer upper than builder, but I'll fess up that the custom stuff I have done has very little record keeping. I like to take pics, a build thread can be useful. Now that I buy most things on line I do keep email my files sorted by category and that has helped me many times.
For instance My Prius has a mail folder as does my van and about every bike I work on. All related purchase emails go in the folder. I also am an online reference maven and keep a folder for each of my projects or more complex pieces of equipment and save any docs I find there. At sale time that type of stuff seldom seems to matter to the purchaser. An XS11 I just brought back from a ditch run now has an XS750 speedo and an XS650 headlight from the parts bins. In the last month I have traced and repaired two "chooper" wiring systems. There was no documentation of what went where but a bit of head scratching and VOM work had them on the road with working charging systems after I added in a few "missing links" to the harness and traced down some faulty connections. A simplified wiring diagram on here helped a lot. I have a blow up photo of it thumb tacked on the garage wall. Is that what the builder tried to follow? Beats me. I also have giant color blow up of the stock wiring diagram and have used it several times to trace electrical issues.

 

[gggGary]

A one man carpenter craftsman builder and I built a 3200 square foot custom log house from prints I pencil and ruler drew. House came out awesome with no major snafus other than a foundation mason who just "decided we didn't mean that big of a fireplace jog out dimension. We did not catch that until way late in the process when a stone mason couldn't get the chimneys in the stack. We got around it but what a pain. The carpenter kept a dialy log notebook but would not hand it over at end of construction. That and a bulging file folder of receipts was the documentation for the house. The building inspector would show up often and say "no don't stop" you guys are doing great, I just like to see your ideas and work and 20 minutes later would leave. He never said a word about anything we did other than to have us explain the mental plan for what he was looking at. I kinda doubt that happens often anymore.

 

[Mister Mellow]

Nice. I've done some fairly extensive repairs to my nearly 100-year old house, including tearing the entire front of the house off to repair carpenter ant damage. I keep everything from my CAD drawings to pictures of each stage. I've heard that this stuff doesn't matter sometimes to buyers, but I'm hoping that showing documentation of the now-invisible repairs to the house will sway someone. Homebuyers, it seems, love to knock everything they see to push you down on price, so I plan to knock back when I sell.

A good friend does nut-and-bolt restorations on Nortons, Triumphs, AJS's, Jawas and a host of other unique collectables. Each comes with a notebook with everything that went into it, and he routinely sells these bikes to collectors looking for prestige acquisitions. I'm impressed by his meticulousness, frankly. I'm not quite as anal, but I do document.

The example of an XS11 with an XS750 speedo and an XS650 bucket is a good example of something an owner-builder/restorer could really scratch his head over if, down the road, he needed to replace but didn't recall what he used. Especially if you really like something you did and want to re-do it if you spilled the bike and broke a bunch of stuff.

 

[gggGary]

Yeah the XS1100 is the fixer up part of my stock in trade. Just no room in an old road burner like that for fancy. Working, safe and back on the road, is about what I head for. The 11 sold last night for $800. I'd love to make each bike a labor of love but it seems like I get sucked into "cheap easy fix" projects so it's a good thing I don't have to live on what I make an hour doing them. Except for the extreme high end often less detail is better. I have posted detailed ads many times with no response. Wait a bit, remove about 2/3 of the description relist and it sells the same day.

I appreciate the guys who can do long documented painstaking restorations but I have come to the point in my life where I know it's not me, and I am comfortable with that.
It's tough making money building customs not much room for hours of paperwork.

 

[weekendrider]

I've often wondered about Johns bike.
15 yr.s down the road. Someone decides to fix the head gsket and finds 2.
Checks the timing and finds it retarded.
Maybe he didn't start with just some pipe and ideas, but I would classify him as a custom builder. The extra on/off switch. Rocker oilers. Modified airboxes. To say nothing of the carbs with his custom 46 pj and needles.

Like Gary other than a few pictures for reference and saving some receipts I don't record much.

 

[JAGUARGOD]

Shiteye, dont keep record one...too much to do to get into that. Been lucky so far not to need much in the way of receipts and such. Would rather spend my time building (knockin together) or riding or playing. Yep, haphazard, thats me. I do keep manuals and istruction sheets .All those receipts and papers get trashed at some point anyway. Not enough room in the house as it is....
just me.....Kev.

 

[jd750ace]

Aging customized airplanes are a cast-iron bitch!