I decided I needed a project bike as the XJ is getting tired and I didnt want to do it up as it is a bit heavy for me as I have a back injury (From a stack at 18 years old on a CX500 shaftie at 186 KPH or about 115 in the old currency) and I wanted a lighter bike.
Today I sealed the deal on a 1980 CB250N for AU $800 and went to pick it up. I got an unregistered vehicle permit to allow me to ride it home, this is a temp permit for moving a vehicle to a new home or to a mechanic etc for repair.
I got 1.5km or about a mile from the sellers house and that was it the needles in the carbies got shit in them and it started flooding, what to do, what to do.... I had my wife following me in the car a Ford Falcon station wagon as she had driven me down to pick it up. I was about an hours ride from home and not going anywhere fast, top speed I could get was about 20kph.
Okay pull the bike on to the verge on the side of the road and drop the few litres of fuel I had put in to ride it home it will evaporate off the road and I didn't do it on a drain or anything like that, I didn't want to but had no jerry can to collect it.
Next I had to lift the rear wheel in to the back of the wagon with a snatch strap attached to the rear wheel, the strap was so my wife could pull it from the front while I lifted the bike, with my back I could not lift the dead weight and push it in to the car at the same time. Between dropping the fuel and wrestling the bike we blew an hour on the side of the road.
The tailgate would not quite close so I strapped it closed and set off home but hey I got the bike up to 100kph. better then the 20kph it was doing earlier even if it was in the back of the car.
Well now it is home and out of the car, I forgot to take a photo of it in the car, oh well you can all imagine that. So now it all begins. The bike is not in to bad condition it has an oil weep from the rocker cover, the carbs need work and the muffler weld is cracked at the headers, oh and as I found out it starts in gear so will have to sort that out.
The course of action is to repair the small things I need for a road worthy and get it registered. Then I am going to attack it and I really do mean that.... This is my mock up of what I want to do with the bike.
It may not be exactly the same when finished but I mocked this up as a guide of what I would like it to look like when finished, I am going to do what I call a rolling resto in that I will be riding it and taking it off the road for a week here and there to do it in stages
The first photo is how it was when I picked it up, and the second is the mockup i did
Looking forward to your ideas and input on the project as it moves along
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