And now, the moment you've all been waiting for (well, the moment
I've been waiting for), the first test ride!
Got home from work, chowed down a quick dinner, and went out into the garage. At this point, the bike has a clean air box, a new air filter, clean carbs, proper valve clearances, rebuilt forks, a bunch of new seals all over the place, a full fluid swap, new battery, new tires, and lots of other little things that I deemed too minor to mention in this thread. Little to no cosmetic work so the bike is still butt-ugly, but at least it's decently maintained now. Having just refreshed my newbie riding skills at the MSF course over the weekend, I myself was in as good a shape as I could hope.
I was semi-confident the engine would run right. It seemed to run great right after I rebuilt the carbs, but after messing around under the valve cover, I was hoping I didn't mess something up. It started, eventually, but I spent a fair amount of time just getting it to idle right. The choke knob kept sliding in... I had to clamp it with a pair of vice grips just so I could have both hands free to start the engine. Shut it off, checked and topped off the engine oil per the service manual.
I then spent a few minutes worrying about the clutch. Although the cable was adjusted properly, it never seemed to disengage the wheel from the engine. With the engine running, the transmission in first, and the clutch pulled in, I couldn't stop the wheel with my boot. Shut the engine off and tried to free it by rocking the bike back and forth in first. That seemed to help somewhat, but it was still dragging quite a bit. Oh well, I guess I see how it works out in the street.
Did a final inspection, threw the seat on, and went in to grab my gear. At this point, I had about 30 minutes of usable daylight left. I waddled the bike out into the street and spent a minute finding the friction zone. (The clutch finally seemed to free itself at this point.) Aight, time to fly. Rev the throttle, ease out the clutch, and away we went! Down the street, around the block. In first. Then second. Then third. Then fourth. Huh, I'd never been in fourth gear before! This is a ****load more bike than that dinky GZ250 from the MSF course.
Behind my house there's a small subdivision where they built a few roads, but hit the recession before any houses went up. There are barricades up to prevent cars from getting in (although that doesn't stop some), making it the perfect place to do a few short runs and turns. I spent a good 15 to 20 minutes tooling around back there. Wife, dog, and daughter walked back to say hi and take advantage of the warmer-than-expected evening.
So I was pleasantly surprised and happy that my cheap craigslist winter project bike runs pretty well. I didn't do any cosmetic work, so it's still ugly, but I'll try to get some kind of "after" shot up later anyway for posterity. For now, this is all I have. The photo below is very grainy, but keep in mind that it was almost completely dark at this point (the image has been brightened quite a lot just to see anything):
The good:
1. By all accounts, this is a big heavy bike but sure didn't handle like it, even at low speeds. In fact, I thought it handled pretty great. I tried not to push it though, on account of having brand-new tires.
2. I was very relieved to see the clutch work itself out.
The bad:
1. The choke knob, as mentioned above, won't stay pulled out. Just slides right back in. Do need to buy a new cable?
2. The front suspension seems awfully bouncy just pushing on it with the front brake held in. It doesn't bottom out but I feel it should be stiffer. Might have something to do with the fact that I couldn't figure out how to get 8.5psi of air //accurately// into the forks. Thankfully the forks in their current state didn't bother me at all just tooling around the neighborhood. I guess that could change at speed, particularly in curves or rough patches of road. I will probably upgrade to 20W fork oil and/or possibly swap out the fork springs with progressives in the future.
3. The throttle doesn't respond like I think it ought to. There's a very noticeable delay between twisting the throttle and and engine actually revving up in the low end. When rolling off, it takes a few seconds to come back down to idle. Mid-range seems much better but not quite perfect. Did not test high RPMs for obvious reasons. It seemed to get a little better after a few minutes of riding, but maybe I was just getting used to it at that point. Perhaps I need to adjust the carbs? Mixture? I plan to do plug chops eventually.
4. With the decade of dust and oil on the cooling fins and headers, she smokes like a chimney! I did my best to blow and wipe away what I could but I guess I still need to point the business end of a power washer at it. As well as some simple green and scrubbing.
In summary, this was a good day. From here on out, I'll just chip away at the few issues left and ride the thing. Woohoo!
this "spring", if you want to call it that. People are still ice fishing around here.....
I'll still swap on the daytonas at some point.
