Greetings from Terre Haute IN

A piano tuner with a mechanical engineering degree who worked as an ASE mechanic through high school and college. How's that for a vocational background? Throw in part time preacher, father of 11, grandfather of 6 (#7 on the way), and husband of 1 for 32 years, that's my life in a short paragraph.

Politically: Christian Libertarian. Go Ron Paul!

I started riding motorcycles when I was around 10- a Honda step through 50 was my trainer. Around the yard, up and down the alley and sidewalks. Then I got a hand me down Honda 90 from the older brothers. That had enough power we could go hill climbing on the coal mine spill banks that surrounded my home town. FUN. I rode bikes all through college with my biggest and nicest being a 1978 CB750 Super Sport that I bought new. I sold it in about 1980 to raise money for the first house and that was my last motorcycle.

Until last year, that is. Mid life crisis must have hit. My son in law bought a 1984 Goldwing last year with his tax refund money. It is very sweet and I decided I "needed" another motorcycle. I searched CraigsList to see what was out there and was astounded at what could be purchased for very little money- if one has a modicum of mechanical skills.

I found a CB900C locally with a full dress Vetter complement which was important to me. I could justify doing this if I could take the bike on my piano tuning service calls, so I definitely needed bags to haul my tools. The bike was last plated in 1991 and had sat in a barn for 20 years. It was nice cosmetically, but brake fluid had turned to powder, carbs gummed up, etc, etc.



While I'm working on my 900, my son, Jared (22) decides he wants a bike this past June. We search CraigsList (love that service) and find an '81 Yamaha XS650 for $1k. Offered him $700 and he countered with $750. It was really dirty and was running on 1.25 of its 2 cylinders. Cleaned the jets, polished the chrome, touch up a couple scratches, and what a nice bike!

My CB900 finally gets running 2 weeks ago. Now my son, Jesse (20), has the bug. I found an '82 XJ550 that hadn't run in a year and needed a battery. He was asking $600, offered $325 and he took it. (I had purchased the parts bike, '81 XJ550, on a wild hair 2 months before for $125) We went to look at it, threw some jumper cables on it, shot a little ether in it, and it fired right up. That was encouraging.

I've already gotten a little help with it and advice over on the technical forum. The bike is now running very smoothly. On the agenda: more thorough brake & tire check, chain and sprocket change, fuse box rebuild, valve check.

Love these forums. The one at cb750c.com and the Yahoo CB900 email list has saved my life on restoring my CB900. And this one so far has been very helpful and nice. Kudos to the moderators!

 

Welcome from the UK, great intro and would be good to see some pics of your 550.
Al