I Inherited mine, unfortunately..... and far, far too soon too
My dad Bought a 1972 Commando 750 when I was 8-10ish, I am 32 now - Cause Mum had enough of the "boney F*ckin BSA" he had at the time
He doted over it (jokingly saying if there was a house fire, he would wake up mum so she could get us while he grabbed the bike) took it to shows, won a couple of awards, and went on rallies with Mum until 2006 when a shoulder injury pretty much stopped him from riding it ever again, registration went on hold, for the last time, and it went under the covers in a corner of the shed
It came out into daylight for a single day when we went to move it to their new house a few years ago, but it just went back into storage, I would poke him every now and then to see if he wanted to fire it up, give it a run, and I would help him, but that did not get far, he said we would, when he felt better, well, he never did get better I am afraid to say, And passed away about a year ago
His shed and cave basically became a dormant area, it was too hard to go there let alone do anything there, but this year Mum and Myself started to tidy up the place, get the genuine rubbish out, and organize the tools and equipment of his to make some space and make it a nice place to remember him still
And In the corner was that pair of handlebars under a bed sheet, I asked mum if she could give me a hand to move it and clean under it, and she cheekily said "nah stuff that, that's your bike now, he put it in the will for you, you realize?"
I had not even considered that, I had always known it as "his bike" "dads bike" - and that blew me away to tears on the spot, but at the same time, I knew right then and there, I had to get that bike going again, and do it for him! It was partially in pieces, mainly to make it easy to store
So I dragged it out into the fresh garage space we had, spend this entire last weekend wrenching on it, putting everything back on it again, until it was just the seat and side covers left to go on, pumped up the tyres that actually look pretty OK for the age, not perished at all and the tubes still held air!
He had drained all the fluids, fuel, oils, etc., and battery was long gone, so I figured out all I needed for that, plus a pair of Sparkplugs, topped everything off, turned on the fuel taps, made sure the carbs had fuel, ignition on, and gave it a kick.....
And the bloody thing fired up! it kicked and lurched and backfired with a puff of smoke out the pipes for half a second and roared into life! Mum heard the thing fire up too, and could just hear me cackling like a madman over it as I gave it a few revs and checked the oil tank was circulating
A few more tears were shed then for sure, such an emotional feeling hearing that engine make noise again, still gets me to this day
Today was a return where I gave it a bit of a sponge bath, of course It had leaked *around* the drip tray I put down
So now it is sitting under fresh and clean covers, and waiting for a few weeks until I can get it in for a warrant of Fitness check, and get a few things sorted on it at the same time, and then when its road legal again, I'll take it to go visit the old man and show him his bike running again