Well, there she is in her current state. I got most of the body work done on the tank and sprayed her with gray primer. After putting the bike together, the last step to get her running was to reattach all the wiring and lights.
I thought it was going to be simple, but after attaching all the components, I turned the key, and nothing. It took two days to figure out that it was just a dirty fuse box. So after some thorough cleaning and new fuses, she was up and running.
Here's a shot of the hole under the seat where the battery and air box used to be. All the components such as the regulator rectifier, fuse box and CDI controller are tucked under the seat.
After running her for a few minutes, it was time for a test ride.... a short one. She died a few times. The carbs still need to be tuned and the engine tuned up. But at last, I got to ride her up to Starbucks.
The next day, I went back and picked her up from Steve's shop, went to Starbucks and went for a ride around town with my friend Raymon. And after much deliberation, I decided to take her home to Dallas. I was kind of hesitant at first because I have never really ridden on the interstate before, but I sucked it up ad made it home safe in one piece... well at least I thought. Somewhere between my home town and Dallas, my license plate fell off.
I guess there could have been worse things that could have happened. I got a new plate the next day. Here she is at home. I hooked up the battery tender to her and got her juiced up. She was having trouble starting, Short trips and and the lack of the battery being on a charger for months finally got to her.
Now its time to get her running smoothly. A tune up, some fresh oil, re-jet and synch the carb and she should be good to go.
There are a few other things I need to address. One of which is the issue with the breather hose. After removing the air box, the excess fumes from the engine has no where to go to get reintroduced to the carbs to get burnt off. Pods are great looking and it makes sense for adding power, but it doesn't have the efficiency of the old design. So I will have to think of a way to do that to have the engine run more efficiently. That and I am suffocating from all the fumes billowing out from underneath my seat.
The last thing is that, last night, this kid showed up at Starbucks with his 1980 Suzuki GS550. Here it is below. Such a cool retro bike. Its essentially like my bike but smaller. It was cool to see what my bike used to look like. Can't wait to have my sit next to this one and see the changes side by side.
Needless to say that I have been all smiles the last few days. Finally being able to ride my bike after months of waiting. Now I can ride her and work on her at the same time. I'm hoping to get her all cleaned up by next spring. Painted and running smooth would e great. I'll make sure to post videos and more photos of me riding.
Until next time.
GZ
Looking good Glenn.
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