[herr_oberst]

You might change your mind if you watch the Wyoming video. That little bike took him through 600 miles of dirt roads - snow, rain, muck. The guy came thisclose to giving up because sometimes the road was just too hard, but the bike never let him down, except when the front fender jammed up with mud, and the cable from the oil pump slipped it's groove - and even though the bike was stalling because it was starved for oil it never seized fully and the bike got him through the adventure.

He's got the tools and skill to completely split a crank and put in a fresh rod and big-end bearing and reassemble and rebalance the assembly, as well as refresh the whole bottom end of the crankcase without resorting to butchery.

I think he gave the little bike what it deserved, a complete mechanical refresh, to give it another chance for an adventure while keeping the patina of 54 years of service right there in the open for everyone to see.