The owner asked if I wanted to try and get her started. After a bit of tweaking, I had her running, put on a helmet and took her for a spin through the yard. The nice thing about old hondas is they always seem to be willing to start and ride after sitting for some time. Not all...but a surprising many. After a spin around the yard, Beard and I looked her over for corrosion, rust, serious backyard mechanic botches, missing nuts and peculiar craftsmanship. Lucikly for our checkbooks, we uncovered all of the above.
After some contemplation, we both agreed it was a promising candidate for some customization. It needed many updates and changes, few to get it road legal, but more to meet our expectations and desires for a reliable bike. We hammered out a deal with the owner taking into account the missing title, the dubious compression and a number of other nitpicking issues to arrive at $300 cash and a handshake.
Beard went to move the truck around to load it and discovered a bloodbath of ATF fluid where he had parked on the snow. NOT GOOD!
Further inspection revealed a disconnected transmission cooler line and an undercarriage coated in road salt, mud and red ATF. Some generous help from the seller, a hose clamp and some added fluid brightened our moods and we were soon loading the bike into the slushy bed and strapping her down.
We had an uneventful ride back to Alexandria and snapped a few pics of it while unloading to it's new home.
We took it for a spin up and down the street without any issues then ran it into the garage for a quick assessment before we began disassembly.
During the course of a Sierra Nevada Rye IPA, we had it down to the engine, frame and bars. Two boxes of parts and an assorted pile of seats, fenders and gas tanks marks our first steps toward progress...
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