It's tough living within 20 feet of a state highway when the weather warms up, the sun comes out and your bike isn't on the road! The 1982 GS450txz that I picked up for a song in March is close to being ready to roll but not quite there. Getting parts delivered, and the RIGHT parts, has been a bit of an issue on this one.
The first setback came with the Shim Club, not the club itself but the shims where forever lost somewhere in the mail stream and never made it here. April was cold and wet so that in of itself didn't hold up overall progress but none the less I lost close to three weeks getting the engine fired up and tuned.
OK, everything worked as it should! Then it became time to order tires, the supplier got them to me quick but with one tube the wrong size. The problem was traced to a database issue with the website, the right part number was sent but wrong description appeared on the site. Damn! Another week, according to UPS it should arrive tomorrow.
The front brake master cylinder needed replacement and after sitting 19 years a new line was ordered and caliper seals as well. Took off the rear wheel to put that new tire on and found the rear shoes where within a hair of going metal to metal. New shoes will be here Wednesday, should have looked at that earlier, my bad.
Have been renting a tourist cabin and had every intention of being out of here this coming week since rent goes up starting next weekend. Going to hopefully be out in about 10 more days, if not for the bike I would have been already gone "Walkabout" for the summer heading somewhere via a combination of the shoe leather express and the Grey Dog.
Still, having some wheels with 7500 total miles on it with the rubber parts either replaced or well inspected along with wear related stuff replaced should get me a good ways down the road. Freshly rebuilt carbs, valves adjusted, new brakes front and rear, new tires, new battery, fork seals replaced, swingarm and neck bearings greased and torqued. I'll be getting my insurance and plates on Monday or Tuesday, when those rear shoes arrive Wednesday it'll be show time. Let's hope the shake down cruise goes well, the road is calling.
The first setback came with the Shim Club, not the club itself but the shims where forever lost somewhere in the mail stream and never made it here. April was cold and wet so that in of itself didn't hold up overall progress but none the less I lost close to three weeks getting the engine fired up and tuned.
OK, everything worked as it should! Then it became time to order tires, the supplier got them to me quick but with one tube the wrong size. The problem was traced to a database issue with the website, the right part number was sent but wrong description appeared on the site. Damn! Another week, according to UPS it should arrive tomorrow.
The front brake master cylinder needed replacement and after sitting 19 years a new line was ordered and caliper seals as well. Took off the rear wheel to put that new tire on and found the rear shoes where within a hair of going metal to metal. New shoes will be here Wednesday, should have looked at that earlier, my bad.
Have been renting a tourist cabin and had every intention of being out of here this coming week since rent goes up starting next weekend. Going to hopefully be out in about 10 more days, if not for the bike I would have been already gone "Walkabout" for the summer heading somewhere via a combination of the shoe leather express and the Grey Dog.
Still, having some wheels with 7500 total miles on it with the rubber parts either replaced or well inspected along with wear related stuff replaced should get me a good ways down the road. Freshly rebuilt carbs, valves adjusted, new brakes front and rear, new tires, new battery, fork seals replaced, swingarm and neck bearings greased and torqued. I'll be getting my insurance and plates on Monday or Tuesday, when those rear shoes arrive Wednesday it'll be show time. Let's hope the shake down cruise goes well, the road is calling.
