Every single one of my project bikes would be done this week if I just threw parts at em until they were road worthy, but road worthy isn’t the entire reason I do what I do. There is something so immensely satisfying about searching to the ends of the earth to find the correct part with the correct finish for a bike. I think it’s a drive that is from my soul because its certainly not monetary judging by how much money I invest trying to make a bike correct. The same reason I generally wont even buy or take on a bike that isn’t original finish because to me its like piecing together a snapshot from history, a little carved out piece of an era that will never come back and once a bike has been destroyed to that point, the history is there in its bones, but the words are gone off of the pages and it feels like a great historian who’s developed dementia and forgotten all the amazing things he’s seen. Its about the bikes, and cruising (and I do a ton of that), but its so much more than that to me, its archeology. There is just something so perfect I cant explain about the feel of an old grip, or the squeak of an old saddle, the slight hesitation of an old New Departure hub or the faint rattle of an original fender…..its pure satisfaction. The real true history of this bike is lost to time with all its original parts, but I can give it dignity again.