the_Wife wants me to buy a bike (advice)

[Desert_Sky]

Mordeth 13 makes some good vids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOgbdwVLwt4&feature=related[/url

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Mordeth 13 makes some good vids

Wow. Just wow. By "good" I hope you mean tutorials on how NOT to ride a motorcycle. What a *******. He shouldn't bother wearing any gear at all because nothing is going to protect him from the crash that is eventually headed his way. I'm amazed that he actually sopped at the stoplights.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Wow. Just wow. By "good" I hope you mean tutorials on how NOT to ride a motorcycle. What a *******. He shouldn't bother wearing any gear at all because nothing is going to protect him from the crash that is eventually headed his way. I'm amazed that he actually sopped at the stoplights.

Dude are you kidding me? This guy knows how to ride a bike. Im sure he is well aware of the risks he takes, but some people push their love of riding to the extremes.

Now if you do a search for ghost rider on you tube......that dude is nuts

 

[Desert_Sky]

Here we go.

Ghost Rider has an actual film crew follow him around cities while he has police chase him. Awesome rider as well, but nuckin futs

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx1CkPcICaY]YouTube - Ghost Rider - **** Police[/ame]

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Dude are you kidding me? This guy knows how to ride a bike. Im sure he is well aware of the risks he takes, but some people push their love of riding to the extremes.

Now if you do a search for ghost rider on you tube......that dude is nuts

Are YOU kidding ME???? If you think that guy is a safe rider then you are nuckin' futz. I don't care if he is aware of the risks he takes- he is endangering everyone else on the road-cars and bikes. If he wants to ride like that he can go rent time on a track somehwerre.

And you guys scold me for not wearing a helmet. Yikes.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Are YOU kidding ME???? If you think that guy is a safe rider then you are nuckin' futz. I don't care if he is aware of the risks he takes- he is endangering everyone else on the road-cars and bikes. If he wants to ride like that he can go rent time on a track somehwerre.

And you guys scold me for not wearing a helmet. Yikes.

Who said anything about him being safe? I only said he's good.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Who said anything about him being safe? I only said he's good.

On a track, he'd be just dandy. On public road, safe=good. So he's NOT good. He's an idiot, a squid, an a$$hat.

 

[the_bird]

So......

Bought the Silverwing. No new pictures, it's up to my folks' house and I didn't have a camera with me. Evan rode it up for me, he says that it rides REALLY smooth (when I was on it, not quite so smooth but that's mostly because I'm still learning how to ride!)

One issue; it'll need a starter motor. He warned me about that, and it started right up when we were there - but by the time we were at my folks, and I had to start it up quite a few times (uh... again, that whole "how much throttle/how smooth on the clutch dyanamic means a lot of stalls without a lot of time for the battery to recharge), it was giving me trouble. My old man's going to throw the tickle charger on it, and he'll help install the starter I'm sure. How much are we talking? Looked quickly like $100 or so for aftermarket, that about right?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Congrats on the new (used) bike!

BikeBandit.com lists a starter for $355.71

1983 Honda Motorcycle Parts for GL650, OEM and Aftermarket at BikeBandit.com

Cyclepartsnation.com lists one for $285.35

http://www.cyclepartsnation.com/pages/parts/viewbybrand/7/Honda.aspx

Those were OEM parts, not aftermarket.
I Suggest you scour some salvage yards for a used starter. You may get lucky.

 

[beergears]

EDIT: oops, my response was too late, need to learn how to read entire thread..

But, I would recommend a one-time addition of a can of Techron concentrate gas additive- removes some of the gumminess at carbs.

 

[BierMuncher]

EDIT: oops, my response was too late, need to learn how to read entire thread..

But, I would recommend a one-time addition of a can of Techron concentrate gas additive- removes some of the gumminess at carbs.

Techron is good stuff.

I toss in an ouce or two every tank full.

But for a thorough cleaning...get a can of "Sea Foam". Strange name to be sure...but every marine craft, motorcycle and ATV technician swears it's a miracle elixir and will quick clean out the worst gum in your engines.

 

[the_bird]

He did clean the carbs not too long ago, and from Evan's report, it rides like a dream (seemed OK to me, but I wasn't going very far). He drove it up to my folks, so he did get it out on the highway for a little bit as well.

I gotta check with my old man, I'm seeing some used starter motors on ebay for $40 - $50.

 

[pen25]

forget techron. sea foam is what you want to use. seafoam rocks. i run it every spring basicly half bottle to 1 gallon. burn through it and just normal fuel until the last tank and i run the same to finish off with winterizer.

 

[Sean]

congrats, sounds like you got a solid reliable bike. BTW, what's a "tickle charger"?

 

[pen25]

congrats, sounds like you got a solid reliable bike. BTW, what's a "tickle charger"?

you dont have one? it tickels it to full charge and it laughs. just watch it so it doesnt pee all over the frame ;-)

 

[the_bird]

congrats, sounds like you got a solid reliable bike. BTW, what's a "tickle charger"?

Hey, I'm just quoting my old man, I don't ****ing know!

EDIT: Oh, I see, typo. YES, I meant "trickle charger."

 

[Sean]

It might be nice to know a local mechanic that likes home brew, and doesn't mind sharing his knowledge.

 

[the_bird]

If I didn't post a picture before, here's the bike (from the listing photo):

 

[BierMuncher]

She's a beaut Clark.

Get her tuned up.

Get your training.

Get that kickstand up baby....:rockin:

 

[beerthirty]

I'm not familiar with the Silverwing engine design. Some bikes are built with the starter in the cases. If this is so with this bike, the part is not the cost you should worry about. Splitting the cases on any bike is fairly expensive, and not something to be undertaken by the uninitiated. If it is an external mounted starter, your daughter could probably do it, no problem. In the event that it is an internal starter be prepared for other costs such as complete gasket set, crank seals, and other possible damage or wear you might want to repair during teardown. If I had to guess though I would say it has high starter wear due to frequent short trips and there would be no other parts needed other than the gaskets and seals.
Another thing you will discover is that left side parts are more expensive than right side parts. Make sure your kickstand is fully engaged and it wont roll on you before walking away from a parked bike.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I'm not familiar with the Silverwing engine design. Some bikes are built with the starter in the cases. If this is so with this bike, the part is not the cost you should worry about. Splitting the cases on any bike is fairly expensive, and not something to be undertaken by the uninitiated. If it is an external mounted starter, your daughter could probably do it, no problem. In the event that it is an internal starter be prepared for other costs such as complete gasket set, crank seals, and other possible damage or wear you might want to repair during teardown. If I had to guess though I would say it has high starter wear due to frequent short trips and there would be no other parts needed other than the gaskets and seals.
Another thing you will discover is that left side parts are more expensive than right side parts. Make sure your kickstand is fully engaged and it wont roll on you before walking away from a parked bike.

Here is a link to the schematic for the starter. I'm no expert, but i'm guessing it's external.

STARTER MOTOR - 1983 Honda GL650

 

[the_bird]

I've got a PDF of a generic service manual for all old Hondas on my office 'puter; I'll take a look-see at that today and get an idea.

 

[MMW]

Congrats! You're going to have a pile of fun with that bike...even if it turns out to be a mechanical disaster (most probably not). Working on a bike is *almost* as fun as riding it.

 

[beergears]

I once considered buying a GL500 (was painted pink..!), and I can vaguely recall a jnown minor problem with it, maybe carbs.

There is a GL club on the net somewhere and they had the info on the fixes. I may have that on one of my archive hard drives in an older pc...

The GL500 also has a nickname, forget what it is.

 

[the_bird]

I found this forum, joined last week but haven't done much lurking yet.

 

[TXCrash]

Congrats! The silverwings are supposed to be good bikes.

 

[Desert_Sky]

If I didn't post a picture before, here's the bike (from the listing photo):

nice looking scoot

 

[z987k]

interesting survey on gear. Now I know the vast majority of the people surveyed are not you're average rider.(92% on the surveyed riders wear a full face) It's more of your I ride every day of the year regardless of weather type person and is aimed at giving information to manufacturers. Still I think it's interesting.

http://www.gearupproject.org/survey/results.html

 

[Desert_Sky]

What have I done? I feel so dirty and comforming.......


It's bike night tonight, and before I gave it any thought I washed my VStrom. I feel like one of those pansy ass pirate cruiser guys right now polishing their chrome up before bike night even though they only put 10 miles on it last week.


God....I need to take the bike back to the mountains and put a nice coat of mud back on it. Its too clean!

I am seriously the anti-chrome

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I found this forum, joined last week but haven't done much lurking yet.

Nice! I'm a member of This one. Same kinda thing, but for yamaha triples.