First ride: Successful.

So, I finally got a free afternoon and after monkeying with the idle I fired up the bike, let it warm up - idled great at right around 1200 - backed it out of the garage and turned it around, and... Immediately stalled trying to take off...

Restarted, remembered to "feather" the clutch, and took it for a couple of 15-20 MPH laps around the neighborhood. Stalled it a couple of times, but didn't dump it and didn't go flying into a tree/house/guard-rail/small child. I consider it a successful maiden voyage.

Wow. Ten years of non-riding took a lot off my experience, but some of it started to come back to me after the 2nd or 3rd lap.

Lessons (re)learned:
- I need a lot more practice before I'll get back on the road full time.
- Brakes. Need to remember to use them...
- Clutch. Need to remember to use it...
- Motorcycle engines get hot. Wear pants, not shorts... Long socks don't count.
- After initially not liking it, I'm starting to dig the 4into1 exhaust.

Problems discovered on the bike:
- Front brakes need to be adjusted in some fashion, seem to be dragging
- Clutch may need adjusting, I could feel the bike trying to move with it in gear and the clutch pulled in.
- There's a nasty surge in acceleration, not when twisting the throttle, but at part throttle steady-state, not sure what the engine speed was... Probably need to pull the carbs, I'd imagine.

No real question or anything in all this, just posting my joy at taking a ride for the first time in a while... Thanks for listening

 

The journey of 1000 miles begins in 1st gear. Ride safe and enjoy getting back on the steel pony!

 

Congrats CK!!! Wish I could have been there neighbor!

My front brake was dragging also. really nothing to pulling the caliper and cleaning it out.

 

TA-DAA!!! If that bike sat a long time (I seem to remember you said something to that effect) don't worry TOO much about the draggy clutch until you get a chance to ride it for 20-30 miles and get it completely warmed up and fresh oil into the clutch plates. But first: Go find a shopping mall with excess capacity, or a community college (or closed K-Mart) parking lot and practice STOPPING before you do flatten a neighborhood munchkin or get run over by a bus. Run it up to 20-30mph (just into second gear) and then STOP. Repeat until comfortable.

 

Thanks guys. It was an exhilarating but nerve wracking experience I have to admit - my hands were shaking when I got off the bike, half excitement half nervousness probably... Almost started it back up to go for an extended break-in, but realized I haven't registered it yet (doh!). Tomorrow hopefully...

Bigfitz, I'll definitely find a parking lot for practice, once it's registered and I'm permit'ed/licensed of course... Not sure I even remember seeing a K-Mart in the area, but there's a big Home Depot up the street... As PaulT can probably attest to though, there's generally not a lot of traffic in this area and my street has maybe 4 cars pass by on a busy day. Not making excuses for being slightly irresponsible on public roads, just giving some context.

I noticed a bit of gas odor in the oil, so I'll be changing that before going around again. There's a fuel cutoff valve (lawnmower-type) after the petcock so I'm thinking the petcock is actually shot, leaked at some point and instead of rebuilding/replacing it the PO put the cutoff in to "fix" it. Doesn't leak now, so I'll probably just leave it alone and put in an inline filter.

 

Tighten-up the Clutch Cable Length Adjustment on the Lever Perch and get rid of that "In-gear Creeping and Clutch Fight"

Once you have it so the bike don't clunk into gear and fight with you when you disengage the Clutch ... the Bike's a little easier to handle and a lot more fun to ride.

Get the Brakes right; too ... before you do anything that might get you caught out of control.

The trouble with getting back up on the horse after a number of years is the temptation to want to gallop and run before your sure that the horse knows how to "Whoa!"