How many of you started building something ten years ago and are still ?working on it?. You?ll finish it one day, won?t ya" When you get time. Or when the parts become available. I?ve got a few on the go. And I?ll finish them one day, honest. But in the meantime, I?ll continue using every excuse I can think of when people ask me how my unfinished project is going. And you?re welcome to use them, too. Here are a handful of the best/worst from Boothy?s Book of Excuses, Volume 44.

Parts Problems

Customs and Excise can be real buggers at times. Especially when they?ve had hold of your spark plugs for a couple of years, demanding you pay the duty on them, before they?re released. And America was the only place you could buy them from, wasn?t it" Well, you could have got them from a UK supplier, but they would have charged you double and nobody likes getting ripped off.
If that?s not going to wash, you could always say that your waiting for a bespoke something-or-other to be made, and the ?artist? that?s creating it for you only actually works during the hours of darkness and when the moon?s full. Because that?s artists, for you.

Generally speaking, the older a bike is, the trickier parts are to come across. So if you?re rebuilding a classic bike, you shouldn?t have a problem choosing something to struggle with. And if someone tells you to ?just use aftermarket?, tell them to give their head a bang.

Time Constraints

Time is money, or so the say...