[cite_start]The correct number of motorcycle projects is one[cite: 385, 390]. [cite_start]One project, one bike in active service, and nothing else in the garage that requires your attention and hasn't had it in three months[cite: 390]. [cite_start]This is the answer[cite: 391]. [cite_start]It is also, for reasons I have spent considerable time studying from the inside, essentially impossible to maintain past the eighteen-month mark[cite: 391].
[cite_start]Something happens[cite: 392]. [cite_start]A listing appears, or a friend is moving and has a bike he needs gone at a price that makes you feel like you're doing him a favor by taking it[cite: 392]. [cite_start]You add a project[cite: 393]. [cite_start]You now have two projects[cite: 393]. [cite_start]Two is where it starts, and two is not where it stays[cite: 393].
[cite_start]I have owned four projects simultaneously[cite: 394]. [cite_start]I want to be honest about this because the column requires it and because pretending otherwise would be the kind of thing the column has specifically argued against[cite: 394]. [cite_start]Four bikes in various states of disassembly, all of them waiting for time that was already divided between the other three[cite: 395]. [cite_start]What I had was not four projects; what I had was four expensive things taking up floor space and generating low-level guilt on a rotating basis[cite: 396]. [cite_start]A project without attention is not a project; it is storage[cite: 397]. [cite_start]I had four storage units and I was calling them motorcycles[cite: 398].
How it happens
[cite_start]The sequence is consistent enough that it qualifies as a pattern[cite: 400]. [cite_start]You have one project, which is going well[cite: 401]. [cite_start]This is the "good phase," which produces confidence, and confidence produces appetite, and appetite is browsing listings at ten o'clock on a Thursday[cite: 402]. [cite_start]The second bike arrives because it was "too good to pass up," a phrase that implies some real value will be lost if you don't act[cite: 403, 404]. [cite_start]In practice, it means the price was low and the seller was available on Saturday[cite: 405]. [cite_start]The cost of not buying the bike is nothing, but the cost of buying it is a third of your available attention until you finish it or sell it[cite: 406, 407].
[cite_start]The third bike usually arrives via circumstance[cite: 408]. [cite_start]Someone brings it to you, and not taking it feels worse than taking it[cite: 409]. [cite_start]It is free, or nearly so, and free is its own kind of trap because you cannot evaluate it the way you evaluate something you paid for[cite: 410]. [cite_start]You paid nothing, but you got a third project and the psychological weight of it, which sits in the corner under a tarp for months[cite: 411].
[cite_start]"A project without attention is not a project. It is storage. I had four storage units and I was calling them motorcycles." [cite: 412]
What four looks like
[cite_start]Four looks like going into the garage on a Sunday morning and knowing what each one needs: the CB needs a top end, the Kawasaki needs wiring, and the Honda is almost done[cite: 414, 415, 416, 417, 418]. [cite_start]The fourth one, under the tarp, needs everything, and you suspect you will never get to it[cite: 419, 420]. [cite_start]You spend the morning moving things around to access the Honda, get two hours in before something comes up, and cover it back up[cite: 421, 422]. [cite_start]The other three have watched all of this without comment[cite: 423].
[cite_start]**One project:** Good[cite: 425]. [cite_start]This is correct; protect this[cite: 425].
[cite_start]Two projects: Manageable, briefly[cite: 426]. [cite_start]Finish one before acquiring a third (you won't, but it's worth saying)[cite: 427].
[cite_start]Three projects: The garage has become a negotiation[cite: 428]. [cite_start]One bike will sit untouched long enough that you stop seeing it, which is the warning sign[cite: 429].
[cite_start]Four projects: You no longer have projects; you have a collection[cite: 430]. [cite_start]Collections expand easily, contract with difficulty, and generate specific ambient guilt[cite: 431].
Getting back
[cite_start]The way back to one is selling, which is harder than buying and happens more slowly than it should[cite: 439, 440]. [cite_start]Selling requires admitting that the project is not going to become what you thought it would[cite: 441]. [cite_start]The bike under the tarp could still be great, but it is hurting your attention budget[cite: 442]. [cite_start]Sell the tarp bike[cite: 443]. [cite_start]Get back to three, then to two, then back to one[cite: 443]. [cite_start]One project, attended to, making real progress, becoming something—that is the state worth protecting[cite: 444]. [cite_start]Everything that pulls against it has a cost, and the cost is the thing you most want to be doing: actually finishing something[cite: 445].