Greetings Gentlemen,
Thought I should pop in here and set the record straight. My son and I run a very small time specialty Vintage Japanese restoration business. We typically knock off one or two bikes a month if we are lucky. Back in October we found this bike through my other son in Iowa. We were able to track the History of the bike through the former owner back to the original owner....that makes three owners including myself. I had no idea the case had been replaced until I was contacted by an unknown on eBay. It sure could have been replaced I guess, but I was not aware of the possibility until it was pointed out to me. Now as perhaps some of you are aware, you will always get comments (some cruel and critical) about your bike when you post on eBay. We took great pride in the work we put into this one and probably got a little defensive at first. After I decided to check your website I discovered the blog about my bike and the comments about my response to the critical emails. One started out this way..."you state in your description that the bike is 100% original, and you also say it is restored, which one is it?
It can't be both!!!" If you saw my ad it very clearly states it is a ground up restoration, I reiterated that point many times. By original I only meant that the original parts were maintained to do the restoration...The reason I became defensive with that comment was the tone in which it was delivered. My son pointed out that I should ignore the negative and focus on the positive....wonder who taught him that??? He's right, I just get so wrapped up emotionally with these bikes that I sometimes get defensive....for that I am very sorry.
At any rate I did make retractions to my listing including deletion of the "official" registration and also I inserted the information about the case being replaced. Today I decided to end the auction as the bike has gotten way too much negative press and do not wish it to be "blackballed". I wish I could sell it as that is how we make a living, but I would rather keep it than sell it too cheaply. We have put way too much time, money and love into the project so I think I will go ahead and replace the worn seat cover and win a few trophy's with it and then try to sell it again later.
Seems Bickle from Canada has me pegged as a dishonest crook, his words, not mine.
I can assure you....."I am not a crook!" Just leery of people sending critical emails without identifying themselves first. There are a lot of "haters" out there that just love to put people down, and sometimes those haters just get under my skin....not one of my best traits......
If you have a few moments check out my website. wwwjwsdreammachines.com as well as my feedback on eBay. We are just trying to make a few bucks while doing what we love.
By the way, back in 1995 I had a very early pristine and original sandcast that I sold to a gentleman from France for $6,000 if I remember right....sure wish I had that one back.
Oh yeah, someone asked about how we get the forks to look so good. We disassemble them and spray a good quality stripper to the parts, like zip strip. Then power wash them and just buff the heck out of them. The stripper will remove most of the old clear coat on the forks....also works on engine cases, wheels etc.
JW