Motorcycle thread

Not quite as advertised.... "Clean one owner, well maintained, ready to ride" Picked up a second bike to compliment my recent KLR purchase. 09 650V-Strom with 9k miles. Needs a little tlc, and a lot of cleaning. The bike was not quite as advertised (at all) but I had a hard time faulting the guy selling it as he could barely stand for 5 minutes at a time (health issues) and I think he did not really want to part with the bike.
I spotted several of the issues right away but just did not have the heart to beat the guy up, he probably needed the money more than me.
It was a solid bike but had set in a barn for a few years, so mice had moved in. Currently waiting for tires and have stripped down all plastics and tank looking for damaged wires, corrosion and general cleaning. Sand and paint a few rust areas.






I knew the tires where bald .... but I did not spot this section until after I rode it home (30 minute highway) .... yikes!!

 

Well this cleaned up pretty good. Stripped down and cleaned all mouse funk out, cleaned and painted some rust spots, checked and repaired any wiring issues (only 2 wires slightly nibbled) and soaked the plastics in Pin-Sol to get out the mouse pee smell.... yuk. Slipped on some new rubber and lubed the chain. Put about 500 miles on it last week and can say I am much happier about the purchase now than I was when first bringing it home ha ha. I can see why people like these bikes, quite comfortable on highway, decent on gravel and dirt roads and just enough squeeze to have fun without "go directly to jail" speeds. The best part is being WAAY cheaper than a new bike.

 

We prefer " The AK 47 of Motorcyles " but yea, they won't win any beauty awards.






Mine yesterday, heading here abouts.









In it's natural state.








Camp Fire last night, in pictures.

Flint and Steel with the Machete, Steel Wool instead of Char Cloth.


























The Road Home, Today.

 

Yesterday in the Cascades.








The only tools I used for my trip, Coldsteel Shovel, Bowsaw Blade, Mini Leatherman.








Tools ready.









shot of camp.








Fire made by beating on Cold Steel Shovel with a Rock into Steel wool.







Line up for Morning Fire practice, Shovel, Rock, Cedar charred in last nights fire.











Packing up.







The ride out.

 

Looks like I'm about to drop about $800 in the engine. I was expecting $800 to get some tires and chain and sprockets too, but the timing parts are more than I expected. I could probably reuse the factory piston, but I'm going to put a wiseco in it.

I rode about 20 miles yesterday, mostly on dirt roads. It was smoking pretty good towards the end. I'm just glad I didn't stall it away from home. I call it my exercise bike. I wore myself out 3 times kicking that thing yesterday.

 

I picked up a basket case today.



I didn't realize how bad it was until I found a piston ring wrapped around the center stand. I don't know how they blew it up in 6200 miles. Hopefully that ring was just trash and I'm not waiting my time, fixing the cam timing. It seems that it was put together on the wrong mark. I just hope there's some new rings in it and the valves aren't bent.

 

I'm thinking about just replacing the engine. I fired the old sportster up today for the first time in 2 years. I was going to ride it over to the neighbors but it started pouring rain.

 

I bought a 7,000 mile engine for the ninja. That seems like the quickest route. There's a few pieces that I know need replaced or are missing on the original engine. It wouldn't be a big deal to tear down the engine and start over, but it would probably cost around half of the other engine. I will probably fix it eventually and put it in something it doesn't belong.



I wiped all the nastiness off of the paint on the Harley.

 

Out with the old and in with the new.

 

The gas tank is a mess. The dude claimed to have cleaned it. He is a moron. I had to make a temporary gas tank to get it running. Now I need to go put the exhaust on.

 

I got the exhaust on and ran it a while with my Mcgyver'ed gas tank. I went to town and got some pine sol to clean the fuel tank and the carb jets. Pine Sol makes a really good carb soak, just don't soak any rubber parts. Rubber will swell up. I didn't want to completely strip the carbs, so I just soaked the jets. The pilot jet was clogged on one side. That's something else that the seller lied about. He claimed that the carbs have all new parts, all he did was clean the bowls and cut one of the gaskets when he put it back together.

 

Apparently the guy put sealer in a dirty tank. I've been pulling ribbons of it out with long needle nose pliers. I fished out as much as I could, then put it all back together with a fuel filter. We'll see what happens. I took a lap around the property and then down the road to a friend's and back. It runs and rides good, the rear brake needs some attention.

 

I put a headlight on it, so that the cops won't bother me on this holiday weekend. I'm not staying far from home.



I may throw another light on it, just to make it look balanced. I was able to mount that light to the existing fairing bolt hole. I have a new fuel filler cap assembly ordered. I need to order a smaller front sprocket for now. I don't really like to go down in the front, but I might as well run it that way until it's time to replace them all. I've been looking at 17" knobbies for it, this afternoon.

 

It does look better with 2.

 

New fat front tire. It works really well so far, I'm comfortable pushing it much harder in the dirt now. I'm liking the gearing change too.