Enigma

And to @Steve D' s point. Everything you own of value should be documented digitally. Preferably with redundant digital and hard storage of those files offsite and kept personal.

At a minimum that info should be in the digital domain. Probably take you less than 30 minutes to take phone photos of each of those cards. Put it in a folder and upload it somewhere. Done. Safe and secure. Agree with @Doc. Digital is your friend. Scratch your notes down while shooting and then input them into your file. Add pics as well. Great for shotgun patterning too.

So that was that. August '23. He got to ride it around the block a couple times beforehand. I put it into dry storage for the winter. I m going to pull the head next week and sent it out for work. Need to rebuild the front forks. There's not much left in them. Need to find a front emblem cover. April 30th deadline. Got to get to work.

Rides #4, 5 and 6 consisted of running out of gas, the speedometer blowing up and the motor throwing the adjuster stem and nut off the number two exhaust valve.

Test rides #2 and 3 were uneventful. Got the sticker.

Side note. My son was tolerant. Pissed but tolerant and waning thin. He titled the bike in his own name. Secured the insurance. We got him a helmet and boots. But I was struggling to get it done.

Set the valve clearance per the FSM. Tightened every bolt on the bike. Road test.

Picked up a pair of side covers. The plan is to prep and then rattle can the tank and side covers the same color. "Luminous Midnight Red" was the stock color. I'm hoping the badges come off with no hassle. Get the color close. The gas tank cover had to be disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt. The petcock had been replaced but it works.

Turn signals are a work in progress. The hardware that came with the bike was not original. They function as turn signals but I need to replace the fronts with dual filament units for riding lights.

There's always a crossroads in every project. There came a point when I looked at this bike, saw a can full of gas and said "we're going to end this now". All because of the headlight. I wanted to put in a LED unit. The size was an issue. I needed 6 1/4". Not available as an insert. Had meanwhile repaired the existing bucket only to realize it wasn't original. It was 7". Too big. Ordered a plug and play 6" LED. It took forever to ship. I had to cancel the order. They refunded my money. A week later the headlight shows up at the house. I ended up using it so I ended up calling the vendor and paying him. I like it. Fits the bike nice I think.

New battery. The new plug wires came from my motorcyle. New spark plugs. All the electrical wiring was checked and in spec from the pickup to the plug.

The new grips were a hassle. The throttle grip installed ok but the left grip was oversize. Had to wrap the bar to increase the diameter before I could get the grip to adhere. I picked up a new set of mirrors, round, long stem. I thought they were awesome but was overruled by my son. Ended up using the black ones that came with it.

Back to the handle bars for a moment. Since the new bars were "standard" type bars I had to install a shorter front brake line, shorter throttle cable and shorter clutch cable. The new shorter brake line was easy to order. I had a shorter throttle cable on hand that works but it's still probably 1" too long. I ended up cutting the original clutch cable and installed a new barrel on the end that had set screws to secure it. Locktite on the set screws. Works well but I think I may have to shorten it another 1/4" to get more adjustability.

I took the back pegs off one night. No friggin riders. Solo only. Strap your stuff down and go. He understands.

Front brakes. Pulled it all off. Replaced and repaired hoses and seals as neccessary. Held pressure to the front single disc after flushing.

She had cruiser bars originally. Swept back "buck horn" bars. Awhile into it I understood why they had given up on it. Clutch for the belt drive was on the right. All the control lengths were off with straight bars.

Kinda like gunsmithing in a way. I think. Small springs and weights, washers etc. Two cylinders to sync.

Does not and will not take throttle. Fouls plugs daily. The ignition advance was frozen solid. Torched it to get it apart. Clean, hone and reassemble. Unfortunately lost the rub point cushion on each of the weights. Retrofit, renew, hone and run.

Cleaned and rebuilt the carbs with some new kits and several other donors. Most miserable bike I have ever worked on for taking the carbs on and off. Setting the float level was a chore. Stuff wasn't sealing and sliding like it was supposed too. Finally got it to idle.

Had to rebuild the ignition switch, clean up and touch up the starter clutch. Swapped out the bars. Sorry no pics.

We were short a left side bottom cover but had a replacement. We cut the screws on all the lower covers to get them off. Cleaning them sucks. New gaskets and stainless hex bolts all around. Only one pinched wire and one leak. Resolved eventually.

Side notes: 1. The garage sits on wetlands and is 50yds from the river. The mosquitoes were savage in the shop all summer. No amount of fans or smoke could keep them away. 2. I realized quickly that I did not have the exact factory service manual for this model. I had to go off the '82 model. Not great. And especially not great when it's a digital copy on your phone. 3. A couple of months into it. Snapped a pic for some reason. Carb work maybe. Looked at it sometime later and knew from that point on it was going to be a struggle of wills.

We'd moved to a new place in March '23. I brought the bike home in April. If I didn't have a new garage this project wasn't happening. Built a bike lift out of scraps, strapped it down and off we went.

Didn't really understand the scope of work when I unloaded it but the seat was flawless, the chrome was 85%. Needed new handle bars. Gas tank looked ok. Everything was straight as far as I could tell. Something I thought I could work with.