So get home from work on friday. It was a decent evening, not raining, not cold. I was tired of tinkering with it and looking for more things to do to it. The '76 CB550 I bought back in July in non-running condition really didn't need anything anymore to ride so I decided it was finally time. I put on the fuel tank and hooked up the fule lines to the petcock. Put some fuel in and turned the tap to Reserve. Put the key in the ignition and turned it to on. The lights were on. I turned the choke to on, turned the thumb switch to on and hit the starter button and.......nothing! Not even a click! I rechecked everything and still.....nothing. Not deterred, I threw a leg over the seat and gave the kick start a foot down and the motor gurgled to life for a second. Gave it a second kick and Varoom! She roared to life! I let her warm up for a sec then opened the choke and gave her some throttle. She sounded and revved up nice and smooth. I let her idle for bit while I put my helmet on, pushed her off the center stand and I was off. I only drove her around the immediate neighborhood taking care at corners. Since the bike has expired, out-of-state plates I styed off the arterials but at least I got it up to third gear. She heavier than I evered ridden so that took some getting used to but she rides like a dream. I pulled her back into the driveway thinking already about riding on Saturday. Shut her off and gave it another kick, she fired right up! I think I did a pretty good job of putting her back together and tunning her just right. I was most impressed with a one kick start after initial start up.
Fast forward to Saturday morning. I was all excited to take her for another spin. Then....rain! I mean pouring rain, sidways rain, soaking rain that didn't let up all day. WTF!?!? Oh well, there is always tomorrow. I am still excited!
Now I just need to pretty her up and she will be ready to show off to the world!
