i need help in northeastern/midatlantic states

[Ghost-Flame]

I am so pissed the shop I go to for extensive work like engine rebuild just told me they don't work on old bikes. 1981 isn't that old? I have had no trouble finding parts, the engine is all apart bagged and tagged. Just want it speced and rebuilt, they said nyet.

Does anyone know of a MC shop that ll work on a 30 yr old bike in PA, NJ, NY,MD,DE,CT. I will drive up to 300 miles or so from 18901. Damn, I have the c,ash... never thought they would refuse.

[TOOLS1]

I know about shops not wanting to work on older bikes. The few here in Kansas City that do, are turning work away right now.
Why don't you give it a try yourself? They are not hard to rebuild.
TOOLS

[Truck]

I'm sure its out of your range but there is Oceana Cycle in Va Beach.  They only work on old bikes, mostly Brit, but they will work on anything.

[Ghost-Flame]

Truck wrote

I'm sure its out of your range but there is Oceana Cycle in Va Beach.  They only work on old bikes, mostly Brit, but they will work on anything.

Thanks Truck. that would be okay. make it a 2 day trip.

Tools, I want to ride this bike when I'm done. I want the engine to be flawless mechanically when done. If I do it I'll always be wondering when that washer I dropped will find it way into some moving part and stop me dead. I don't like to see grown men cry unless they just won their first race or the lottery. My mind would not rest for what I might have overlooked.

I just answered my own question. I asked this question back in May. Someone suggested Liberty Vintage in Philadelphia. I forgot all about this place and found the name in a search under my own thread... Oletimers disease I think.

This shop is literally 45 minutes from my house in Philadelphia... land of Ben Franklin, Billy Penn, and Sol Gouldenberger founder of pollution pretzels... those soft pretzels they sell on the corner.

http://www.site.libertyvintage.com/

Thanks Ghost-Flame this just might work.

[shinyribs]

[Ghost-Flame]

I emailed Vintage last night. I hope he is able to fit my engine
in. I'm the kind of worker that has to complete one phase before I go to the next, its a mental thing.
Next is making a new wire harnes and circuitry. New lights
Switches, etc.
Space is a problem for me and the engine is taking up
Space.

[Ghost-Flame]

Okay,
I talked to Adam at Liberty Vintage today and he is going to take in my engine this thursday. I'm getting excited about this project. Instead of just tearing down and taking apart, I'm actually going to have something   done.

[Ghost-Flame]

www.site.libertyvintage.com

You gotta check out this guys web site. I took my engine to his shop today. What an interesting guy! He lives  and has his shop in the Northern liberties section of Philadelphia which is where all the artists and off beat weirdos have their studios and shops. To say this guy is a mechanic is a misnomer.

He does metal sculpture and portraits and makes films. He has the most eclectic group of college interns in mechanical engineering, ex-cons, recovering drug addicts, juvenial delinquents and "retarded" people working in the shop. He has a girl that is getting her masters degree in mecanical engineering at University of Penn, he showed me some tech school kids that were interning... they were out in the back yard digging holes, when they think the hole is perfect like a perfect round sculpture they come get Adam. Adam always gives them a thumbs up then tells them to dig another one but, try to make it different and an expression of themselves. If the kids come back the next day he lets them work on a bike with one of the mechanics for an hour or two then back out to the yard for hole sculpting.  He does this for at least the first week and by the end of the week the kids are asking for pieces of junk to adorn the hole. Then when they graduate from hole duggery he let them work all the time with a mechanic. Sometimes he lets the retarded men be the teachers to the interns in what they know how to do. like cleaning and picking up tools.

The graduate student was a girl and the mechanic gave her instructions and the reasoning behind what she is supposed to do. Then the mechanic said repeat what I said like you were going to teach me. The image was funny here is this one eyed, dread locked, ex con tutroing this sweet little college girl in the art and mastery of motorcycle mechanics and they were both taking it as serious as anything I've ever seen. It was one of the most human scale operations I think I've seen.

I felt like I was in Mr Miaggi's... wax on wax off. Then he said sometime during the day they, the whole shop, all walk to the ice cream store or corner store for a drink and more life instruction. He just works on vintage bikes. He has a helicopter hanging in the middle of his shop. which is like a motor museum.
Like I said he is one of the coolest people I've met. read his stuff on his site.

Any way the engine is at his shop ETA  February first 2013. He is going to make a video about the rebuild and polishing of my engine... I guess for the site or a teaching aid for his tech school kids. I told him I wanted to paint the engine and he said no, I will polish the engine and you won't paint it... I took that to mean I won't want to paint it... oh well I guess I have to rethink my build again!. I fear what this will cost, LOL!

[Lincoln Highway Bullitt]

Where are you from Ghost Flame? I'm from south western Pa. A couple miles from the flight 93 crash site. I am always heading out East around Harrisburg and Carlise. Is that far from you?

[shinyribs]

Very cool. It's a shame there aren't more places like this.

[TOOLS1]

Hey it's been almost a year now, and no updates. Whats going on with your engine? Is it finished? Did you paint it?
TOOLS

[Ghost-Flame]

I'm embarrassed to say that life has got in the way.  The last thing I did strip the frame and forks down last August.  And that's it.  I put my engine on hold until later this fall... I hope.
Yeah life gets crazy somtime.

[Lucky 1]

It was NOT common in the past for Honda shops to rebuild engines unless they
were under warranty and that almost never happened.

Cycle exchange  in Wisconsin rebuilds SOHC CB750 engines and are very good at it.
But you have a DOHC engine. I do not know if they could help you.

Motorcycles are not like cars where every car garage will rebuild a car engine.
Motorcycle shops are just now beginning to see there is a market for that service.
Most owners in the past rebuilt their own engines or the bike got sold to someone that could do the work.
But now there are so many young men that have no mechanical skills because they grew up working on computers and the economy is so bad that people cannot afford a new $10,000 motorcycle ,so you have all of these people asking for new engines. There is none.

[Ba5sKing]

"www.site.libertyvintage.com

You gotta check out this guys web site. I took my engine to his shop today. What an interesting guy! He lives  and has his shop in the Northern liberties section of Philadelphia which is where all the artists and off beat weirdos have their studios and shops. To say this guy is a mechanic is a misnomer. ..."

Did he ever finish rebuilding the engine for you? I would love to know how it came out, I'm finishing up school now, and have always dreamed of designing my career around bikes. I would honestly apply as a free laborer at this guys shop, if he actually turned out a nice motor for you. Let me know when you get a chance!

Thanks,
-Ba5sKing