A great quote from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Doc B

Doc B

Former President For Life
Staff member
Some of you may know that I have spent about 15 months of virtually all my spare time building a custom motorcycle. Last night was the first tentative ride, up and down my driveway. I was elated that it actually ran quite well, and afterward I had this strange sense of a certain mental focus and direction that was gone, or at least more distant. It made me think of a quote from Robert Persig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -

"My favorite piece of technical writing: Assembly of Japanese bicycle require great peace of mind."

This applies to Bottlehead kits in spades. Don't try to build a kit when you are stressed, worrying about something else, distracted or in a hurry. Consider the build as food for your mind. The journey should be just as fulfilling as the destination.

As an aside, my next bike build with my son Colin will be a 1962 Honda Superhawk, which happens to be the same model that Persig was riding with his son when he wrote his masterpiece.
 
What used to work for me when I was 'stressed, worrying about something else, distracted or in a hurry' was to plan building another amplifier. The mistakes didn't matter since it was only thinking and planning, but it was enough to take my mind off work etc.

Of course, now I am retired so I don't have the same 'stressed, worrying about something else, distracted or in a hurry' issues. And I still make mistakes in the planning and building.

ray
 
I have seen many many flow charts of the design process, and it's the rare few which are realistic enough to show all the "back to square one!"  arrows. When pressed, I call it a process of "nested  iterative refinement."

Oh - and congrats to Doc, it's been a long and serious road. I'm a little terrified of what he will take up next ...  :^)
 
Tycho Brahe had a prosthetic nose made of gold and silver. He died from an infection caused by "holding it in" at a fancy dinner. These two facts are all I remember from my college astronomy class.
 
amateur-danish-rocket-nose_36431_600x450.jpg


"Bottlehead" mk1.
 
1962 Honda Superhawk, which happens to be the same model that Persig was riding with his son when he wrote his masterpiece.
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As I remember, that didn't work out so well and they completed the trip a few years later on a BMW. not that I'm biased or anything.  8)

As it happens I am leaving on mine, down the blue ridge parkway next week. Down to the Great Smoky mountains. Then who knows where.

This is why I will not be at the Bottleneck PP competition...John       
 
Thank you Doc. B!
Its been perhaps 15 years removed from my last reading of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance".
I used to read this book (and a couple other philosophy books) every year just to get my head straight.
Its time I revisited this captivating journey to readjust my life.
Thank you for reminding me of what I knew I needed but had forgotten.
 
SET amps, multiamping, reel to reel tape, rangefinder cameras and crt projectors. Motorcycles, luckily is something you won't "ride me to"! Enjoy
 
..... to say nothing about antique radios, organ refurbishing, DIY guitars, meerschaum pipes, antique watches, and homemade gin .....
 
For me it's local craft beer, great food, vinyl records, SET amps, single driver speakers, "puttering around" in my shop and playing with my best buddy (the dog).

Sadly I don't get to ride my motorcycle much anymore. Distracted people in oversized cars don't seem to care much about guys like me on a bike. I fear that one of them will turn me into a smudge on the asphalt one day. That's a harsh reality that remains difficult for me to face.
 
Tubejack said:
..... to say nothing about antique radios, organ refurbishing, DIY guitars, meerschaum pipes, antique watches, and homemade gin .....
Click to expand...

Lessee, I've built a custom rifle, a 15 ft. trebuchet that launched flaming explosives, an LCD home theater projector from scratch, an Alfa Romeo autocross car, roast my own coffee beans with a pop corn popper I modified and of course I was a pastry chef and a baker off and on for about 20 years.

Never know what might be next, just depends on when the urge strikes. I may or may not be working on producing my first album, not sure if it will pass muster. (no, it's not me performing!) And I have had this urge to own a turbine engine for some time.

Natural Sound said:
Sadly I don't get to ride my motorcycle much anymore. Distracted people in oversized cars don't seem to care much about guys like me on a bike. I fear that one of them will turn me into a smudge on the asphalt one day. That's a harsh reality that remains difficult for me to face.
Click to expand...

I had that experience 30 years ago. I had lived in the East Bay where I could ride on nice quiet back roads and in the 'burbs. I moved back to San Francisco and into the traffic and one day when riding I looked down at the pavement and imagined sliding along at 50mph. Gave the bike to my brother in law.

However since then I have not had a traffic accident, but I have dislocated my shoulder walking my dog, broken my hand by losing my temper and punching a wall, and completely trashed my leg playing with my kids in the front yard.

So for me motorcycle riding may be safer than the day in, day out stuff.
 
My point is that the riding environment is mostly in your head. So yes, he was in a safer environment at the time.
 
A very good read along these lines is a book by Mathew Crawford. It goes under 2 names depending on where you are in the world. "Shop Class as Soul work" in the US or "The Case for Working With Your Hands" in other regions. An essay in the NY Times on it can be found here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
It certainly goes some way to explaining why some of us are inflicted with the compulsion to build things or restore them and the journey in the mind you take.
My affliction over the years has been diverse,centered around audio with Revox,Studer,Ampex,MCI and Nagra tape machines, ITC and PR&E cart decks,Quad,Fisher,Revox,Phase Linear,Bryston etc in amps &Tuners.Technics,Denon,Thorens & Revox linear track turntables, A Gates "Gatesway" tube Broadcast console and RME(Defunct Australian Manufacturer) mono & Stereo class A solid state consoles. A HD Sportster that I have slid down the pavement under(that hurt) A 1928 Ford Tudor that now has a 302 Windsor,a top loader and a Mark 10 Jaguar rear end .Old AM radios Tube of course, and at the moment a wooden sailing boat that my father built in the 60s and a 1978 Gottlieb "Solar Ride" pinball machine. The dog still needs a walk every day and the kids have been trained to lace the Studer A 80 properly....
I have thought about building a trebuchet, but the closest I've got to that is a Potato Bazooka.

Yes it is an affliction, but working with my hands ,be it restoring or building something is the best form of stress relief I've found.
 
A few years ago I thought the idea of essentially lavishing excessive time and money on something way beyond its true monetary value as total folly and madness I certainly didn't get it. Then all of a sudden I became afflicted myself, it started a few years ago with a 39 year old wooden canoe my father built for me as a present for my six birthday, McC  Six. The canoe was now in a very rotten and sorry state and I am surprised it had even survived at all after the neglect and abuse it had witnessed during those 39 years.

But with my own a daughter fast approaching six the seed was planted one day with a little thought of "wouldn't it be neat to do it up and give it to her for a sixth birthday" for the amount of time and money it took I could have easily brought a couple of new ones.  The enjoyment and focus it brought during the restoration process was unexpected and the look of delight on both my daughters and fathers face on her sixth birthday was worth every hour and pound spent ten times over.





 
 

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