Another productive day. I cleaned all the rust and gunk out of the master cylinder. A big help here was a set of dental picks I bought at Harbor Freight. The little clip that holds the rubber boot in was pretty stuck and the pics made easy work of it. Then the circlip was as fun as ever (took about a half hour). I think I need new circlip pliers.
I used a wire wheel on my dremel tool to clean all the rust out of the grooves that the washer and circlip go into. With everything cleaned up, reassembly was pretty easy. The brakes felt firm when I first got the bike so hopefully they are still firm once I get everything back on and bled.
All clean and back together
I put the final coat of paint on my caliper. Once it dries I can finish up the front brakes.
I spent some time cleaning up rust. This is one of my mirrors. It's pitted pretty bad but I'm not going to do anything about it right now. I can still see in the mirror just fine...
Last thing I did today was wire up the front blinkers. The K5/K6 are supposed to have running lights up front but this bike has the earlier style turn signals on it (I was told the bike had a fairing on it at one time, hence the missing headlight and different turn signals)
Now for the fun part of today. For those not living in the area, we've had a lot of rain which has knocked down a lot of snow and cleared the ice off of the side streets....such as the side street by my house. You all know what clear streets and warm (slightly above freezing) temps mean.... a perfect opportunity for a test ride! To do this I had to find a battery. When I first ran the bike I was jumping it off my 350 battery (you can see it on the ground in the video) so that wasn't going to work. I went and tested the battery that came with the bike and got 5.4 volts, certainly not enough. Then I went back to my friends half-dead battery that I used for the electrical test. It showed 11.4 volts, and was my only option, so I went with that. Luckily it was enough to start the bike. Since our driveway is solid wet ice I wasn't going to ride on it, so I very carefully walked the bike down the driveway and to the sidestreet. I didn't have any front brakes so I adjusted the rear bakes so I was able to at least stop. I also still don't have a headlight...or right rear blinker.....or license plate...or insurance...and the tires are a bit low. For these reasons this was going to be a simple run up and down the sidestreet.
Some observations from my short but triumphant ride ride:
1) The mufflers are loud, but the 350 is quiet so as far as I'm concerned a little noise is a good thing.
2) There is actual torque to be had which is another pleasant difference from the 350.
3) I only took it up to 35 (the speedo works!) in 3rd gear, but those first three gears shifted and worked fine.
4) Even though the road was straight (hence, no handling tests), the 750 feels so much heavier and more planted than the 350. I like that.
5) As I was preparing to turn around and head back home, a cop drove by and gave me one of those looks. Maybe next time I take a test drive I should have a headlight, a licence plate, a front brake, a rear blinker, insurance, and properly inflated tires
Note the tripodometer. That's right, a whole half mile of test ride goodness. In January in Wisconsin. Another good day today.
I had to take a picture of my trusty steed after her maiden voyage.
