Starting it Up

So after 3 years of work it’s time to start it up. I found the bike laying in the front of a semi-trailer on a pile of old clothes and couch cushions where its owner said it had been since 1982. It was too far gone to get running when purchased, although I contemplated it.

Adding fluids & getting it ready to start. LED headlight not installed at this point. 

Before starting the bike I put on my old pipes. My plan is to tune the bike and put some miles on it before the new ones go back on. I will also coat the inside of the new pipes with high temperature header paint to keep them from bluing. I am told this will work and it seems logical but I have not tried it. After I filled up all of the oils I pushed it up and down the driveway while in gear to check oil flow through the engine. Oil returned properly to the tank telling me it was good to go from a lubrication standpoint. I added gas and no leaks appeared from the tank but when I turned on the taps gas shot out the ticklers. Oops, you are not supposed to put the needle valve holder gasket on original Monoblocs or the needle seat will not close. Lesson learned, gaskets removed and leaks gone for the most part. There was also a small oil drip coming from under the engine which I traced an oil line clamp. It was replaced with a smaller one and the drip was gone. 

The bike started on the third kick and ran quite well. I hooked it up to a battery for the initial attempt but found out it was not necessary even for cold starting. It must be kicked over with the key off to charge the capacitor in the Sparx box before attempting to start it. The timing was set close to the mark and was adjusted with a strobe light to be a couple of degrees retarded to help with spark knock. This will be adjusted once I take it on the road. The slide stops were raised about a turn to make it idle properly.

It is amazing how loud the bike is with no mufflers. I will add a pair of shorty mufflers to my road pipes to quiet it down a bit. Next step is to take it out for a spin once my registration papers arrive and work on the details that need attention. Check out the video via the link below.

https://youtu.be/z2iCDxKCLLw