"Nobody expected it. They said it couldn't happen! ... Eraser Head."
no. wait. scratch that. i mean, "...JAP BIKE."

the broken superchicken that's been hanging in my garage and mocking me for over five years now finally had it's rubber hit the road for real this morning. it took me out to Darien, IL (ANL) and back. after letting it age for 3 years i took a deep breath and started rebuilding a front end i'd picked up on ebay not long after i crashed it. Race Tech springs, compression and rebound valves, tapered bearings. the 'aggressive street' valve stacks and preload gave me a front end that was hard as a rock and i also discovered that the fork bottom bridge had been slightly bent in the accident. pulled it all off and let it age some more until last spring. i back-jetting the carbs to the Factory needle shim level, main and slow jet settings that were spot on before i decided to screw them up by vainly attempting to tweak in that 3rd gear power wheelie.
current setup:
Main Front #178K
Main Rear #180K
Slow Jets #48 Front and Rear
Needles Shimmed 3 from top
don't ask me about the pilot screw settings.
please feel free to correct me on this setup.

while the carbs were sitting dry in my basement one of the diaphragms actually shrunk. it would not seat properly no matter how may hours a tried to coax it into place. i had to replace it.

after every set-back (and there were many) i'd tell my friends that the bike was jinxed. the bike wasn't jinxed. my mechanical approach to it was jinxed. that's a generous way to say that i kept f**king up. seriously, there were a couple of times when i considered rolling it out into the alley and dumping a gallon of kerosine over it and torching it. all of the mishaps sometimes had me wondering about how maybe i shouldn't ride this bike ever again.

anyway, to make a long story short (too late), i'd plastic epoxied the salvageable plastic, sanded primed and painted it with my favorite high-quality Rustoleum(tm) brand spray paint. i decided on Kanji character stencils back in October. i find cutting stencils to be a very enjoyable and relaxing activity. applying the tack acetate to curved plastic surfaces is another thing altogether. stressful is an understatement.

she runs good. i picked up a bottle of Herradura Double Barrel Reposado to mark the occasion. i still need to set the front static and dynamic sag ...something i've heard is not quite do-able with the junk rear shock. i'm working on convincing my wife to hold the bike up while i sit in riding position and attempt to take measurements. heh. we'll both go down with serious injuries and a scratched up bike with broken mirrors and lights.

here's a couple pictures. it's dark. i'll post some more taken out in the sun when i get to it.

--fred