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.