One Week Later

  No title for the CX from the owner. I'll call and collect my reimbursement soon. I popped back on Craigslist during the week and found a guy selling a bunch of old CX500's. Stopped by and had a peek. I really only needed another parts bike. A frame, a straight gas tank, possibly a better running motor, and of course a clean title. He had some complete bikes and some parts bikes and said he had titles for most of them. 

  It was dark and with a flashlight I picked out a '79  for $150 and said I'd come back with a truck for it later in the week. It didn't have any wheels, but it had a straight tank and good front forks and a motor. Not sure how well it would run if at all but for $150 I was getting what I needed. 

  I came back for it and he started looking through his stack of pink slips and we could not find one for this bike. Ugh. There was a 1980 CX500 Deluxe that was wrecked in the front and a smashed tank that actually looked VERY clean under all the dust and a clear title. The motor looked super clean with a nice smooth finished casing. I saw this one before but didn't ask about it the first time because I assumed he would want much more for it and I only had enough cash for the stripped down parts bike. To my surprise, he offered it to me for the same price and he gave me the straight tank from the other one as well! Maybe he felt bad about not having the title for the other one. No matter. Did the deal and rolled it into the back of the truck with help from my Dad. Success!

  I immediately went through the process of getting the motor running. I was having difficulty. I could only get the left cylinder to fire. the right pipe was staying cold. I had spark, compression, fuel but no bang. I listened more carefully and I could hear air being sucked in near the intake manifold. I sprayed some carb cleaner in the area and it started running smooth with no abnormal noises from the motor. Yay! The cylinder head crash bar had been bent down on top of the hard rubber intake tube on the right side and cracked it. It was sucking in too much air and leaning it out too much to fire. Easy fix. I have another from the other bike. 

  The frame looks like it will clean up nicely. I was thinking I would have to get it powder coated again, but I think I'll pass and save the time and money of stripping the bike completely down. This is going to speed up the project immensely. I'm getting really excited about this now. Next I need to tear down the first bike and make room in the garage. It's getting crowded in here!