Hey. How ya doin. Me? I'm fine. Great really.
Yeah, it can be cold here in Canada, but the summers are hot, and it's such an empty country that there's a ton of places to ride.
For a living? Well, I'm a stay at home dad. Mom always said to marry a doctor, and that worked out pretty well for me. I've got a 15 month old daughter and a 4 pound dog. They keep me pretty busy, but I still have a ton of time on my hands.
Most stay at home moms either veg out on the couch, or start makin' stuff to sell to other stay at home moms. Usually knit sweaters or macrame, whatever the hell that is. Me? I got it into my head that I should try fixing up bikes.
Dunno it I'll make a penny on this, but it'll give me something to do while the baby is asleep, right?
So I picked up a 1982 XS400 DOHC yesterday. Didn't run, oil leaking from the head gasket, oil leaking from the oil filter gasket, bad paint job, but otherwise looked pretty good. The exhaust is toast, but not a lot of rust otherwise (we have rust issues up here - lots of salt on the road, and some crazies like me will ride year round in snow drifts higher than your helmet.) 32000K or so on the dial, and it looked like the problem was with the electrics. We agreed on a price, and I trailered it home.
Today, I got the bike running. The ignition fuse was shot. 20 cents invested and I doubled the value of the bike. But I kinda like the way it looks. It's a good lookin bike. Reminds me of my old 550 Nighthawk. And I gotta admit I liked the way the engine sounded.
So it's sticking around, for a bit. During my daughter's nap I took off the tank, mufflers and carbs. Looks like someone screwed an extra regulator rectifier on the intake panel, after stripping the screws on the original. Intake plenums look like they're about 100 years old, and obviously improvised. Wires everywhere - I've already got the wiring diagram, and I'm sure I'm going to need it. Got a gasket kit in the mail, and I'll see if I need to rebuild the carbs in a bit. I'll post pics once I know how to do it, but in the meantime, I'll share what I figure out, and probably ask a lot of questions.
Nice ta meet cha, and I'm sure we'll be talking lots.
Bentwrench
Yeah, it can be cold here in Canada, but the summers are hot, and it's such an empty country that there's a ton of places to ride.
For a living? Well, I'm a stay at home dad. Mom always said to marry a doctor, and that worked out pretty well for me. I've got a 15 month old daughter and a 4 pound dog. They keep me pretty busy, but I still have a ton of time on my hands.
Most stay at home moms either veg out on the couch, or start makin' stuff to sell to other stay at home moms. Usually knit sweaters or macrame, whatever the hell that is. Me? I got it into my head that I should try fixing up bikes.
Dunno it I'll make a penny on this, but it'll give me something to do while the baby is asleep, right?
So I picked up a 1982 XS400 DOHC yesterday. Didn't run, oil leaking from the head gasket, oil leaking from the oil filter gasket, bad paint job, but otherwise looked pretty good. The exhaust is toast, but not a lot of rust otherwise (we have rust issues up here - lots of salt on the road, and some crazies like me will ride year round in snow drifts higher than your helmet.) 32000K or so on the dial, and it looked like the problem was with the electrics. We agreed on a price, and I trailered it home.
Today, I got the bike running. The ignition fuse was shot. 20 cents invested and I doubled the value of the bike. But I kinda like the way it looks. It's a good lookin bike. Reminds me of my old 550 Nighthawk. And I gotta admit I liked the way the engine sounded.
So it's sticking around, for a bit. During my daughter's nap I took off the tank, mufflers and carbs. Looks like someone screwed an extra regulator rectifier on the intake panel, after stripping the screws on the original. Intake plenums look like they're about 100 years old, and obviously improvised. Wires everywhere - I've already got the wiring diagram, and I'm sure I'm going to need it. Got a gasket kit in the mail, and I'll see if I need to rebuild the carbs in a bit. I'll post pics once I know how to do it, but in the meantime, I'll share what I figure out, and probably ask a lot of questions.
Nice ta meet cha, and I'm sure we'll be talking lots.
Bentwrench
