Down to basics

I still don't know what to do with this bike.  Should I continue with trying to get it on the road? or should I simply get rid of it and buy an old Vespa? (I love Vespas)
I sat miserably in the kitchen pondering and wasting my time.

My plan of a few days ago was to do nothing with the bike until I knew I had a working engine (without which the bike is pretty well worthless) - there is no point simply creating a box of bits if I am not going to progress with the project and so I've been tinkering with the engine; but taking it very gently as I don't want to damage anything on this rare old thing.  The flywheel is still refusing to shift so I am patiently soaking it with penetrating oil and waiting.  The trouble is, this leaves me with nothing to do but browse the internet for knowledge and hopelessly bid for expensive bits on German ebay

And so I decided to drag the scooter out of the shed to inspect it.  Now that Ive started to read the technical diagrams and see what people are selling on ebay, I thought it would be useful to have a good look over the bike to see what was what.
So there I was, out in the garden with the sunshine on my back, poking around this lovely looking old barn find.  And I was feeling good.  So good in fact, I made the rash decision (against all my previous better judgement) to strip the whole thing down.  And boy, did I enjoy myself!  I would have happily paid £200 for an afternoons activity like that.

I tried to be sensible about the whole thing - there was still a chance that I could reassemble it and sell it as is, so I took lots of photos, and bagged up in sealable sandwich bags all the nuts and bolts.  And eventually I got the bike down to 4 or 5 key parts (front end, chassis, bodywork, rear end)  I sloshed some white spirit around the oily bits to clean it down and make it more pleasant to handle but I was surprised just how little oil there was on the bike.  My 20 year old Vespa by comparison was caked in cruddy oil.  As an aside I also noted how little mud (and rust) there was inside the mudguards - I suspected that the bike hadnt long had a respray before it was taken off the road and put in the barn.

     I think the thing that compelled me to strip the bike down was the simple face that it was in such good condition.  The chassis has no more than surface rust on it.  There is a slight bend on one of the outriders, but I reckon a half hour in the vice with that, and I could (if I wanted) get the frame, and the front and rear forks to a powder coaters for a shotblast and black powdercoat and I would have the start of a very nice rolling chassis to build upon (or even sell)
The body work is looking good too.  I am amazed and delighted!

By the end of the afternoon my mind had swung right round and I had made the decision to continue with the restoration of this project.  The engine and electrics are going to need some pursuing, but the bike itself is sound and is going to look fabulous :-)