So I bought this bike back in February. It was the coldest day of the year. I gave the bike a good looking over. It looked clean and wanted to start, but at -35 it wasn't going anywhere. So... For the first time in my life.... I took a chance and bought a vehicle without hearing it run. Granted, the price was cheap.
A couple weeks ago, I tried to start the bike. It cranked and cranked and cranked. Finally she lit and came to life... for about 10 seconds. The bike sounded like 2 carbs were plugged and only ran on 2 cylinders. I pushed it back into the garage, and parked it for a day with more time.
Tonight, I finally got some time. I spent the approximately 4 hours pulling the carbs, dismantling , cleaning and re-installing them. All the jets came out and got a solvent bath. The orifices got a scrub and the everything was blown out to make sure there was no fluffies from a rag on anything when I finished. I put the tank back on, connected the carbs, wheeled the bike over to the boosting station (no battery yet.) and gave her a crank.
The bike lit up instantly. She started a little rough but within about 15-20 seconds she smoothed out to a slow idle.....then stalled. A slight idle adjustment and she purred away. I let the bike warm up. All four pipes got hot relatively quickly. I smiled :-) . It's just after midnight, so I figured, no cops out, lets see how it drives. Just once up and down the road to see what it needs for a safety. I walk behind the bike to disconnect my booster cables and look down... I see blue smoke spewing out the left pipe. The right appeared fine.
Looks like my goal of riding by June 1st isn't materializing. I am not riding a bike that is burning oil that's a rule. When it comes to vehicles... I'll drive rusty, I'll drive old, I'll drive ugly.. I won't drive something that belches blue smoke out the pipe. (unless it's a drive to the shop or scrapyard) Over the next few days I'll need to weigh the options on selling the bike, buying a different motor, or fixing this one. I'm pretty confident that right now, that if I sell it, all I can lose on this bike is the 5 hours work I put into it. It's unlikely that I would lose money if I sell it.
I must admit, I am a little deflated. Let's see what the classifieds have to offer.
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