future of sandcast

[Steve Swan]

Last Saturday, i had the privilege of meeting a 13 year old who hung out in my garage for over 7 hours, showing keen interest in old motorcycles and asked all sorts of intelligent questions.  only briefly was he bored for short intervals, but otherwise was peering over his step dad's and my shoulder as we shared the finer, funner points of restoring our 1927 JD's.  and this young man (and his step-dad, a new found friend of mine via JD) was just as interested in the other bikes in my garage as he is in his s.dad's JD.  once again, this time more so, it brought home the privilege we have of sharing what we know with any young interested human.  so, in spite of my rant in another post, i'm glad two of the three on the "panel of experts" were younger.  i would welcome any young person to this forum who is not in it for the hype and keenly interested in sharing our passion for research and riding CB750 sandcast machines.
 

[hondasan]

For sure the future of motorcycling and the continued preservation and restoration of any older vehicles is only assured if younger people are encouraged to become a part of the scene.
One day, sadly, my collection will likely be disperesd / converted into money by my not interested in motorcycles daughter, presuming of course that enough others have come along and become interested for them to have a value of more than that of the materials they are made of. A sobering thought indeed.
Chris R.

[CBman]

Steve: I was not borned yet when sandy came out on the market, but I love that age design. And what about future young generation ? I´m sure you can´t be woried if somebody will know sandcast after 20-40 years. I know many people that are riding new bikes, but also would like to have old bike to enjoy the old time feelings as well. Second category will be collectors that will be still in a world, and I think there will be more collectors in future, than nowadays. I see that "panel of experts" will be used very likely now......  At first we were wondering if this young guy ( editor ) from panel of experts is competent to talk about these old bikes. OK, he is young. But he is also that new young generation you are talking about now ! Thanks this guy we can see our bike on youtube or in magazine. And this is great aportunity, that some young/still child will see it and will fall in love. Than he will put "CB750" in google and will find out sandcast and all history, so he will know this is really special bike.

hondasan: maybe you have daughter without interest in bikes and your collection will be converted to the money, which actually will help her. But I´m sure you had forget that your bikes will make somebody really happy. Same as you had bought your bikes in last, and I think you are happy now you bought them. So your collection will help your daughter and also will help to the new collector. You will made double happiness. Am I right ?

[ashimotok0]

For sure the future of motorcycling and the continued preservation and restoration of any older vehicles is only assured if younger people are encouraged to become a part of the scene.
One day, sadly, my collection will likely be disperesd / converted into money by my not interested in motorcycles daughter, presuming of course that enough others have come along and become interested for them to have a value of more than that of the materials they are made of. A sobering thought indeed.
Chris R.

My daughter moaned about the 'Pile of scrap' I stored under her bed . It was in fact a brand new set of HM300's, new K1 seat and new front fender. After much more moaning I put them in the loft with my paintwork. Which brings me to another sobering thought. We all probably have lots of NOS stuff stashed away which, as we all know, is worth a significant amount  of money. It's not particularly true in my case but many people buy this stuff without the rest of the family knowing how much it cost   or its current market value.  However, if for some reason were no longer 'around' to use it or sell it,  I suspect it would be treated as a 'pile of scrap' by our family members and taken to the local rubbish (garbage) tip.
It saddened me a couple of years ago to see a set of 6 Bahco adjustable spanners thrown away at our local tip .........probably someone's cherished tools........ (BTW against all local council rules they didn't stay there!!)

My son and two daughters are not interested in bikes at all, just like your daughter Chris and even though my wife was a keep pillion passenger and still would be, she would not sleep at night if any of them took up motorcycling !! My mum was the same with me but sadly was not around when I got my first bike at 17. Funnily enough she would have been happy for me to ride a 'scooter'.

Cheers.... AshD

[vnz00]

I too wasnt born when the sandcast was available.  I think the first motorcycle I fell in love with was my mothers honda cub!

I remember the first time I saw a CB750 K0 was when I was looking for a CB400f on ebay here in Australia.  Once I saw it, I was hooked on the blue green beauty, and  the chrome.  By that stage I had already started restoring and earned a few bucks restoring old coffee machines.  My first bike resto was a Honda GB500 - now an in demand bike here in Australia and in the USA.  Back then, cosmetic parts for that bike were still available, although expensive.  And now, parts have become unobtanium for it too.  I realised back then what we all know now - the bikes to restore are the bikes at the top of their game for a given period.

Im speaking like it was a century ago but in reality its been a decade

Point being there will always be someone passionate about restoring and will hopefully persevere with it enough to build up to a Sandcast project.  I know the experience tradesmen who are familiar with the 'old school' techniques are retiring and becoming few and far between now.  So Im hoping those being trained now will be passionate enough to learn their trades well.   The joy of receiving a well finished part adds to the pleasure of tightening the final nut on a completed bike. 

Yamiya has also made it easier to breathe life into these projects now too.  I remember when I was starting out it was ebay sniping, or lucky dip at the swap meet which determined whether you completed a bike or not.  Yamiya should be commended as no doubt many of our bikes wear parts supplied by them.  Forums like this one and SOHC 4 are also available now with enough information available for even a newb to complete a project.

I just want to close with the thoughts that knowledge is not commeasurate with age, and knowledge is not ability.  Those with passion dont let inexperience stand in their way.

PS Its always safe to have a 'succession plan' for your assets.  It is too often that assets are sold off after a death by those who know nothing about their true value.  If you have a friend you can trust, you can leave their contact details in a work diary in case something happens, so they can advise what next.