Tuesday, May 18, 2010

So let it be written...

Ok started off buying some old abandoned 1985 yamaha virago xv700 off of craiglist back in April. $200, easy. Why a virago you ask? Why not. Pretty much it was the only one available in my price range at the time. And if you know me, and some of you do, you know that I have to have it now. Patience is total BS. Deal with it like I have for so long.

So I get the rusted abortion back to the house and Im like a dog that finally caught a car ie: I had no clue what to do next. First time and all, I just looked at it. No tank or fenders, dont know if will run. But I knew somewhat what I wanted to end up with. What would you do? Well I pulled out my cut off wheel and went to town cutting the fender rails off and making all sorts of sparks. I felt awesome. Sparks will do that to me. Metal falling on the concrete will do that to me.

Ok so if your wondering why I havent posted a picture of what I was working on yet its simple. I havent figured out how to post pictures yet. Turns out Im new to blogging.

So what we have here is a guy with no experience playing with tools he has no business playing with, on a bike he had no business buying, and bloggin about it. Which he isnt too keen on either... or is it either?  who knows.







The alleged victim.

Fatboy figured something out. Way to go me. Now we can fly.

So where was I? Oh yes, confused at what to do. So I got online and back to the bad influences that started this train wreck. Club Chopper and the Chopper Underground and started looking for chopped viragos. Not many, it turns out that the Virago is not the most popular bike, but has a cult following. I saw some stuff, read some stuff, I know where to go for questions.  So I know I need to see if it will run, and I need to clean the carbs, and get a battery and all sorts of not too exciting stuff, so I instead bought a gas tank off an old shovelhead for cheap off of Eturd. abbra kadabbra







you like?

I started taking the bike apart, old battery out, battery box out, aircleaner assembly and the fake air cleaner assembly off, dash and gauges off, head light off, blinkers off, and drained the oil. Learned something new when I drained the oil. If you take a plastic gallon milk jug, and cut the corner where the handle is, it will *almost* hold the 3+ quarts of yucky dirty oil. The concrete will take on the rest and you will have a big oil puddle. Seems so obvious now. On the plus side, you can do alot of damage to a yamaha with a 10mm socket and some allen wrenches. 

I sold the dash and some other parts on Eturd and made all but $40 back of the original "investment".

So here I am about 3 weeks into this project, and im not really any closer to wherever Im heading. I ordered the tank 3 weeks ago, it was sent to my old house, forwarded to new house but went wrong way, and now it is in transit back to old house. Love the Post Office. For mail. Not for gas tanks with BIG RED FLAMES. It took 4 days to get from Pennsylvania to Texas, 13 days + to get the 25 miles from Garland to Forney. Im goin back to G town tomorrow to rescue it, again. On another plus, I ordered some black powder coated 12 inch mini apehangers, (those are handlebars girls) from TC Bros (no relation) and got them in 3 days, UPS comes thru (shameless plug).  Also finally bagged a battery and all the cleaning junk last night and was about to tear into it, when I found out that Im missing something called a TCI module. Its like really important and costs more than the bike. Great. Lovely. But I may be in luck cuz someone on Club Chopper may have one that I can get for less than normal. We ll see. Hope so, because Im stuck until I get it.



Heres the hulk with the new bars. Its a start, a slow, excruciating start, but progress.

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