30% of the way there...

The one thing that really bothers me the most is, the fundraiser motorcycle runs for Veterans is 99% of the reason I decided to buy the bike and start riding again. Taking care of my fellow veterans and honoring the memory of those who didn't make it home is important to me. Otherwise, my riding days were behind me.

But I don't know if I'm more disappointed with the bike not working, or my failure to get it working.

 

Take a much-needed brake from it. Do something else for a week. No fundraiser is worth your mental health. The amount of people that will work on these older bikes is down to just people that love them. Most of us do it just for the challenge and the accomplishment at the end. Finding someone in your area might be hard. I am close to 60 and not many younger people in my area will even look at an older bike.

 

The front brake is still only 50% and I still don't have properly working turn signals. But I found a blown fuse that was giving me a false positive when I tested it. It had continuity, but wasn't passing enough juice through.

But I FINALLY got a successful test run on a public road.

 

Never quit, nice one you on the road.

 

Good find on the fuse, the ones that open only under a load at rare, and hard to find. Great job sticking with the project and then getting some riding time in. Wonderful.

 

I took a longer ride yesterday, and she ran great. I don't know how well the front brake works though, I never had to use it. Many decades ago I was a truck driver, so anytime I'm driving a manual, I just automatically compression brake. So I barely even had to use the rear brake, and didn't even touch the front.

Tried yet another turn signal relay, and no dice on that one either. I didn't want to convert it all over to LED, but it's looking like I'm going to have to.

And I'm going to have to roll the dice and gamble on a fleabay speedo gear so I can hopefully get the speedometer working again.

 

Put a RAM mount on it and use the phone GPS for speed. I use WAZE ap all the time, love it. I would guess with use and riding that the front brake will get all the bubbles to the MC, and it will start to work better. When you pull the handle, does it stop before it reached the bar?

Do you have a "power probe" for test equipment? That would work great for isolating the relay. I am guessing you have a wire or something off. Do you have any other turn signals, 4 of them in a parts bin? If you do, that the time to lay them out on a table and make a working with relay turn system. Just a thought.

 

I used my Garmin GPS for a speedo, it seemed to work fine. I'm not a crazy rider, so really unless someone cuts me off, I rarely ever touch the brakes. I just go out for a casual cruise. The front brake has about 50% power after reverse bleeding it a few times. The manual rear drum works 100%, perfect.

The OEM relay allows the turn signals to turn on, but not blink, the other six relays I tried literally do nothing, at all. I've even de-pinned the leads from the connector and tried different configurations and still nothing from the aftermarket relays. I've tested voltage across the wires and they test good, 12+ volts. I've resigned myself to having to convert them to LED, which is something I was planning to do... one day. But I liked the idea that the bike still has the 42 year old factory bulbs, that still work. So I was hoping to keep them on for a year or two. But that's not looking likely. Converting to LED should be (in theory) a relatively fast and cheap upgrade.

 

Be faster and cheaper to fix the one you have?
Why not ask forum members in the states if someone has a good relay? Or post you oem one to someone to verify if it works? Are the lamps fitted the right wattage?

 

Something I've noticed while riding.

The bike struggles to do 50 MPH... in 2nd gear... because she wants to run even faster.

Seriously, you twist that grip, she wants to hook and cook!

 

Just re-fueled and took a short ride.

 

Ready for the dumpster now??

 

I've run Avgas in a few vehicles. Not one of them ever went faster.
Smoother, yes, but not faster.

 

Higher octane does in fact help to go faster. Not by much, but faster simply because it leaves more power in reserve.

The speed gain is usually only 2-5 mph, rather insignificant, but faster nonetheless.

I've tried yet another OEM turn signal relay, with no luck. I've checked the switch, it's good, I've checked voltage it's good, I've checked fuses they're good. I'm going to have to convert to LED.

Any suggestions for lighting for it?

 

Yesterday I took the bike for it's maiden voyage onto the interstate, and she ran fine. Especially in the higher RPM's...

However, because of my height (I'm very tall), I acted as a wind sail, and the bike seemed to want to rotate backwards. The front end wanted to keep coming off the ground. At 55 mph it wasn't too bad, up around 70...ish the front end got a little light.

Any thoughts on adding a fairing to negate some of that?

I did some more parking lot laps today.

 

Logical, right?

 

So, you’re saying you did a wheelie going 120mph in a 25 mph zone?

And you did it on that bike?

I’m going to need to see some proof on this one…

 

It was a hypothetical inquiry. lol

However, I have pulled a wheelie on it. I've also watched a video on YouTube of someone doing it too.

It's not an easy thing to do with this bike, and you'll shorten the lifespan of your clutch significantly.

 

Oh okay. I believe the wheelie.