Just a postscript...
My nephew called me a couple days before I went up there to tell me he had dumped his bike. His story was that he rode it to a nearby bar, got loaded, and then walked it home and it tipped over on him. He picked it up, but then it fell over on the other side (which, honestly, would be kind of funny to see but tragic at the same time). He's 24, young and dumb. He said it wouldn't start, and gave me a litany of reasons he thought it might be, including tearing down the carburetors and a "loss of compression." He clearly is new to this and has no idea what he's talking about. I told him it was likely just a fuse that popped.
He had a little scraping damage to the bottom of the stator cover, both rear turn signals were bent down (but he thought it looked OK because they "matched"). The R front signal was smashed, and maybe worst of all he cracked the L side cover -- and can't remember if he picked up the piece. There was a little scrape on the speedo mount as well.
I tuned up his bike, showed him how to adjust valves, dress points, set the timing with a strobe, clean plugs, etc. Valves and timing were off, but we got them dialed in. He showed interest in these steps, so maybe he will do them on his own in the future. Fired it up and took it for a spin, then let him -- he said it was running better than ever.
We didn't change out the oil filter -- the bolt's head was stripped, and we didn't order a filter. So that will wait until I go back (I found him the bolt at Bob's salvage in PHX before I came home to Mexico, along with the speedo mount and shift lever to replace his bent one). He had a spare turn signal housing, but it was rear with only one wire. So I had to remove his R fork to get the headlight ear off (the wiring wouldn't come through on its own) and replace the guts of the two-wire, smashed signal with the guts of the intact one-wire signal. Got that back together, and learned that the wiring in the headlight was a little wonky. But got it figured out. A couple hours wrenching, and my 84-year-old dad looked on and kept me company.
My bike hadn't been started since December 2019, the last time I was there. I put a little oil in the cylinders and kicked it a couple times, tuned it up, changed out the gas, and it fired first kick. Needed a new battery. But I rode it around Seattle for a couple days, no problems.
I've owned this bike since '92, and for the last 20 years or so ride it in the summer and at Christmas when I visit Seattle, and it just keeps going.
