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I'm on the hunt for a 'new' motorcycle..I've found a really nice Honda Nighthawk 650 that I had lusted after in my youth. Bike is in great shape for a 40 yr old bike but not perfect. Current owner has had it for 20+ years and has stockpiled a huge parts supply with the original intent of keeping it (and keeping it running) forever. I was going to go look at it today, buy it and ride it home (200+ miles) but seller called me last night saying he can't locate title, so it's on hold until he finds or gets new title.

Enough with the intro...he also called me to tell me bike has fork oil leak that he hadn't noticed when he put it away last season. With forks the leak would either come from the bolt and washer at the very bottom of from a bad seal, leaking down the fork leg, which would also probably eat the paint away. He has new fork seals in his parts stash and I would have no problem replacing seals and fluid once I get bike home.

In attached pic you can see the spot of oil on the tire. It looks like rolled forward or back, that's why oil is not under fork.
I obviously won't be able to fix this at the seller's location so I'll need to ride bike home. I know it's not the wisest move but unless the oil is pouring out it should be ok, right? I don't have the option of trailering it so it's either ride it home or forget it. What do you think?

(edit - I was all set for an adventure today, riding a 40 yr old bike home for about 5 hours on all 2 lane highways, passing through small towns on a beautiful, sunny day in the 70's...willing to take a chance and hopefully have a good story to tell about it)

dropped off my little Ninja today for tires and chain/sprockets at my local full line dealer. Was a little hesitant to bring in the bike as severe weather is predicted for this afternoon (storms, hail / tornados)...and I only have insurance on the bike if I hit or hurt someone, not if the bike gets blown over or destroyed in a tornado! They assured me they will keep the bike inside.

while wandering around looking at bikes I saw not 1, not 2, but 6 new Kymcos in stock! I have never seen more than 1 Kymco scoot there, before. They were loaded to the rafters with new bike inventory from all makes.

2 Super 50X's, 2 Agility 125s and 2 AK550s. The little scoots looked a lot 'tougher' than I remember, with wider fenders and bodywork. I've never seen an AK up close and it looked good, but smaller than I imagined. It felt good to sit on it but the seat seemed quite hard. Both AKs were gray and said 'super touring' on them.

First time I've ever brought my bike to a dealer...work estimate was $450...plus the $350 I already spent on tires, chain and sprockets. Spendy little service!

watched my Iowa Hawkeye mens basketball team lose their first round game last night to Auburn....so to work off my frustration I pulled my carb from my S200 (it was on my to do list before riding season).

There is something very satisfying to me in disassembling a carb in prep for a thorough cleaning. Of course my pilot jet was clogged...for the 22nd time. Planning on spraying all the passages with carb cleaner and also soaking the whole unit in carb cleaner (belt and suspenders?). This is the price I pay for putting very few miles on a bike with a carb.

I will be replacing 2 parts (circled in red in the pic). The o ring for the air fuel screw is kind of boogered up and the diaphragm that is on the upper side of the carb, and attached to a vacuum line has a pretty good pinch in it. Both are cheap so will be replaced.

I'll admit I have no idea what the diaphragm (about the size of a US quarter) does on the carb. Can anyone fill me in?

my little Ninja has about 14,500 miles (~23K km) and it's time for new tires, chain and sprockets. I probably should have called the shop in Jan or Feb but I waited until today to set an apt. They can get me in on April 5...about 1 month from now. I guess that's really not too bad, considering this is likely approaching their busiest time of the year.

I have all the parts and I suppose I can live without riding my bike for another month. I do have a section of chain a few links long that is a little rusty and very stiff. Very stiff. Last time I adjusted my chain I set the slack on a normal spot and not from this tight spot. When I spun my rear wheel around it actually stopped and reversed itself when it hit this tight spot. I readjusted the chain slack and it's ok now...but I will be very happy to get a new chain and sprockets to last me another 7 or so years.

Is anyone else scheduling any Springtime service with their shops?

I bought myself a Utopia backrest for my Honda Helix for Christmas. I love the comfort of the scoot but due to the cruiser-like feet forward riding position, there is no support for your back. I would describe it as sitting on a bar stool vs sitting on a chair with a back...you can only sit on the bar stool for so long!

Installation was a bit challenging..but I got it installed and will have to wait for better weather (as in March) to test it out!

my bikes, that is...showed my bikes a little love tonight with an oil and filter change and brake fluid change on the Ninja 300. Mobil 1 4T, Kawi OEM filter and Bel Ray Dot 4 fluid. I had enough brake fluid left over to also do the brake fluid on the Helix. Fluid was dark (on the Helix), even though I changed it a year and a half ago. I think I didn't clean out the reservoir well enough as last year it wasn't brake fluid in there but old, dirty brake paste! I think the fresh fluid slowly dissolved the film in the bottom of the reservoir. Oh well, new fluid all the way around.

I know not everyone like wrenching on their bikes, but I find it a Zen like experience to be in the garage working on my bikes with good music playing in the background.

as the title says...I recall questioning this when I had my motor apart earlier this year. A scooter crank has 2 sets of sprocket teeth on the stator side of the crank. The inner sprocket runs the oil pump...the outer sprocket isn't hooked up to anything. Can anyone explain why?