This weather is killing me!

11 days until the start of the class! I am really excited to get this underway. Recently the weather has been awesome and the fact that I don't have an endorsement and insurance is killing me!

The bike is still running. I am having some problems keeping the battery charged. I'm wondering if maybe I didn't kill it trying to get it up and running. We'll see what the problem is later this week. I'm also working on adjusting the throttle and the idle speed. once I get it started and warmed up it idles okay, but it feels low and after 5 minutes of idling it will kill itself. I hope that I just need to adjust these and we will be up and going!

today is another sunny day so I am going to work outside setting footings for the deck. This week it should rain so I'm going to dedicate time in the garage while the weather turns south.

Success at last!

Finally after a month of tinkering I finally got ride the beast today! Took it out twice, the first better than the second. First time I was a little nervous and after a block of figuring out shifting and such, began to feel comfortable. Not being endorsed I was taking a huge risk, so I kept each ride within a mile of home and really only took it out because it was finally running. The second trip was actually needed as I was low on petrol and needed to hit up a service station.

So what did I do to get going? well I was looking at the ignition coil and wondering if it was setup the correct way. After conferring with the manual I pulled both coils off and cleaned up the contacts. Putting back together I put it all in as the book showed and with a little love from some starting fluid it really turned over! I was so excited I couldn't wait to get it up and running.

Since I had just fidgeted with the carbs I was extremely apprehensive about putting the tank on and running it. Mostly fear about screwing things up! But I needed to know if it ran, and so ridding the high from it turning over we headed out to auto zone to get some fuel line. When we got back I hooked up the fuel line and called monica to the garage.... stupid thing wouldn't turn over. At this point, knowing I was so close I sulked for 10 minutes or so and then a light bulb went off! My fuel valve is a pressure regulated fuel valve. Apparently in order for this to work , you must hook up the vacuum line to get fuel to the carbs! So another drum roll please... it jumped to life! I was on cloud nine!

I put the battery on the charger and went to bed with visions of summer rides in my brain. Waking up this morning I started up the bike and found the idle is off, but it is certainly good enough to run! I decided to play a little james dean rebel and hit the streets. Was out in the neighborhood keeping it slow and working on shifting and turning. I played in the closed school's parking lot making turns and braking.

When I got home, it really didn't like to sit still and idle. After a conference with dad, I think I got it fixed a little bit. I still need to fine tune it, but it really close. The second ride was purely an adrenaline ride, I had to have more! So I headed down to get some gas. Sitting at the stop light the bike died and it took a little persuasion to get it up and running. Then after getting gas it wouldn't start again and I had a dead battery to boot, most likely from the starting attempts at the stop light. Thankfully the gas station has a commercial fueling side too which leads to a really big parking lot where motorcycles can be bump started.

Made it home and felt really comfortable, I'm super excited about all this and can't wait to get the TEAM OREGON class done with. Today Im going to call the insurance guy and add this baby to the ol policy. Class starts in t-minus 14 days at PCC sylvania...

until the next time... see you on the road

Been gone a month????

Okay I have been slumping here on the ol blog... We hit a wave of really good weather and I got wrapped up in the planning of our deck remodel and some outside projects. On top of that my motorcycle class was rescheduled to this month, so that put a wrench in the spokes so to speak.

Okay enough excuses lets get down to the bike. Had bob, dad, uncle and friends give me advice on the bike and have won some and lost some. Took the tank off and got down to the air intake. Put some starting fluid down there and the bike to catch every 10 turn overs or so. I was stoked when it caught and really wanted to keep moving forward. When I put the tank back on and tried to run it on gas instead of starting fluid. It caught a couple of times, but still wasn't satisfactory. Then I got to wondering how the fuel pump was working. After disconnecting the fuel lines, i ran into a 26 year old fitting which of course crumbled. so now I need to go get some fresh fuel line.

I decided to bite the bullet and clean the carbs too. Got those pulled and cleaned out what little crap was in there. I soaked the jets in cleaner and did find that one my choke valves doesn't work. I think it will survive without replacement considering its only the one cylinder and it is in the run position, not the start position.

So carbs are cleaned, fuel system is clear and flowing. I am off to hook up the battery and see if we didn't crack this nut!

Thoughts for the next steps? I'm thinking its time to look at valves and see where they are in adjustment.

Gas Gas Everywhere

Yesterday was quite the day! After reading Jon's response to my last post (thank you so much) I decided to drain what gas we had put in and flush out whatever I could from the lines and the tank. This was so much easier in my head!

In order to get the gas out I took off the three way valve under the tank and opened the gas cap to breathe the tank. Then held the dang thing over my little lawn mower gas can with a coffee filter setup in a funnel. I wanted to see if the liner that the last owner had put in the tank was dropping little presents in my gas. Thankfully the only thing to come out was bad gas and a little debris. The mess I made however was quite the other story. Lets suffice it to say that my aim was less than desirable and I was on the vigilant watch for ignition sources so as not to alert Clackamas fire! hahaha in other words the gas spilled all over my driveway and I didn't want my house to burn up. I was at least smart enough to do it outside in the fresh air.

Once the tank was off I used the opportunity to check the air filter, the breather box and the air intakes to make sure they checked out, and they passed! I cleaned up the dirt under the tank and reassembled with only one minor glitch. Apparently gaskets only work if they are laid flat and not rolled up in the three way valve spilling gas all over (quickly realized and remedied). You may then question why is gas leaking out of the tank I just drained, well I didn't get every drop out and some was leaking under the rolled up gasket.

I read in the manual about the filter screen in the three way valve and went ahead and disassembled, cleaned and checked it all out to make sure no debris was holding up the show inside the housing where there is a filter screen. Then I used the compressor and blew out what fuel lines I could get to.

After reassembling the whole contraption I'm not sure I have gained much ground in the fuel system, but it is ready for fresh gas and a new filter. Unfortunately the money fairy (wifey) has put the kibosh on further work until payday (Thursday).

Since it was such a nice day yesterday I did pull apart most of the cowlings and clean and polish with some plastic cleaner. The very bottom of the lower front cowl was pretty grimy and beat up. Since it is not visible to the eye I put a coat of protector paint on it. Can't tell its there unless the bike ends up upside down and that would be a TERRIBLE day for me. Suffice it to say, its not noticeable and probably just me futzing all day in the sunny weather.

Working today and tomorrow which means I won't do much cosmetic work this weekend and since we have a moratorium on funds I will be taking next week off too. I did already buy a new oil filter at the honda shop, so I will probably do an oil change on monday just because I can and I don't know the last time it was changed.

Big post today, leave ya all in suspense until later. Hopefully the next post will be my complete elation as the bike fires to life!

Next steps: Price out seat re-cover, New Fuel Filter, Oil Change, Fresh Gas, Carb cleaner gas treatment, charge battery (too many attempts to start it up...Im really antsy!)

Motorcycle 1 - Rob 0

Okay so there really isn't a score in this adventure, but what blog doesn't have a stupid title like that.

So today is Tuesday March 2, 2010 and I had a breakthrough on the bike. Lets review where I have been since the last post (which ironically just went up but was written a while ago).

We got the bike home, truck returned and bought a charger all on Sunday. Got her a good home in the garage and went right to work trying to troubleshoot the bike without a manual and with quite the eclectic mix of tools. My deal is that I will try to get things done with the tools I have or can borrow and then buy only if I can use the tool a lot or really need it.

I got the battery all charged up and ready to roll. Tried to start it again out of excitement and got strong sounding turn over. The good news is, good battery and starter motor is working good. Decided to pull the plugs and see if I had spark, and this is where speed bump number 1 showed up, NO PLUG Wrench that fits! After some googling and scrounging I ended up finding an 18 mm wrench at autozone and lo and behold it BARELY fits the spark plug hole. In my spark plug quest I found the Honda shop in North Portland and made friends with the parts guys there. It is a little nagging to me thinking about parts. Since it's such an older bike I'm not sure I will find the parts I need and hopefully I can scrounge.

Alright back to the work at hand. I bought four plugs and ordered a new oil filter from the guys at the shop. Once I pulled the plugs from the bike I found them well used, so I changed them and put in the new ones (wayyyy easier said then done). Important lesson today was that motorcycles are smaller than cars, and it sucks sometimes with small clearances.

After the bike wouldn't start with the new plugs, I checked both plugs on the crankcase to see if they had good spark. Easy enough, the bad ones sucked, the good ones had great spark; I'm really glad I changed them all out.

So new plugs are in and she still won't start up. However the turn over produces better sounds now (small victories? Hahaha). Next thought on the tree is fuel. Time to get smelly with gas.

Found the fuel filter and checked flow on both sides of the filter. Crazy enough, the filter stops the flow of fuel. So now the new plan is to focus on a new fuel filter and tomorrow I will call Honda to see what they have in store.

Plan from here: order new fuel filter and pick up when I get up there for the oil filter. Considering draining the tank and running some sort of cleaner through the tank. The issue is, the previous owner sealed the tank walls because of a leak he had found. May look to the forums on that one. Once parts are in, change the oil and the fuel filter, the listen to her purr (optimistically).

Costs:

Previous Post: $404.00
New costs:
Manual $14.98
Tools: $55
Parts: $37.30
Plastic Cleaner: $5.00

Total Spent: $501.30

Week 1 (whew)

Okay so where to get started...?

Well to start off I bought my first motorcycle. After a childhood of picturing myself out on the open road and constant thoughts of how to purchase my first bike, one just happened upon me. A week ago my dad called out of the blue, it was mid afternoon and he is usually working hard so it was an odd call. I enthusiastically took the call and found out one of his co-workers had an older motorcycle he was trying to get rid of. As it turned out his friend had a 1984 Honda VF-500F Interceptor for sale for the bargain price of $200.00! Now the rub lies in the details. Apparently the bike ran well before he parked it in the garage for 2 years. He was kind enough to drain the tank and take care of storing it properly. Dad attested to this guy's mechanical aptitude and the deal was struck.

Last Saturday my wife and I borrowed her step-dad's pickup and we headed from our home in Oregon City down to Philomath. It was there that I met my first bike. After buying the bike from dad (due to Oregon law we had two transactions), I took ownership.

So here is the first impression of the bike:
Cosmetics - Torn seat covered with masking tape. Broke plastic in a couple of places, namely the left side cowling was broken and will need to be fixed in some manner. Several miscellaneous screws are missing, but the bike is in one piece. It looks like the bike was dropped on the left side at some point in it's life. That is where the majority of the broken plastic lives and the tank has a ding on the left side. The paint on the tank is pretty worn down as is the windscreen. Having said all this, I'm stoked and nothing cosmetic is a deal breaker.

Mechanical - Here we get into the nitty gritty. Prior to storing the bike, the previous owners friend cleaned the carbs, however it sounds like the four carbs weren't properly aligned as he complained about rough idling. My biggest issue with mechanical right now is the fact that she won't start. We put fresh gas in it down in philomath and tried to crank it over. The bike turns over well, the battery needs a good charge, but I believe there is hope in the mechanics.

Game plan from here - first and foremost, gotta get it running. Gonna check the spark plugs, find a Honda shop in town (make friends lol), and begin the process of cleaning her up!

An added bonus, I got two helmets for my birthday from dad. They are hand me downs, but they will work until I can afford nice ones.

So far moni is on board, and money wise we are still okay. The bottom of each post I will try to put in the amount of money I am into the bike thus far and that way I can keep track of how much my $200.00 bike really costs hahaha!

Previous post amount: $0.00
Current Purchase:
Bike $200.00
Gas transport $25.00
Team Oregon Motorcycle Rider Class $179.00
Total $404.00