Da Groj

Thought I would write up something on the projects I have been messing with in the Motorcycle world. I took on a non-running little Suzuki cruiser first.

My wife has a friend she has known since high school. She got her motorcycle endorsement and began riding a little Suzuki savage that her fiance at the time had purchased. She had much more interest in it than he did. They since separated and she bought a house around the corner from us many years ago. She got herself a little Harley Davidson sportster and began riding that. She had a solo fall one day and subsequently didn't trust her ability anymore. Then one day she found someone who had a little Suzuki cruiser, a Boulevard S40 that he was selling. This bike is the exact same model as the Suzuki Savage that she began riding on, but newer. She bought this bike from him so she could ride enough to trust riding the Harley again.

Fast forward a few years and she wasn't riding either bike. The Harley gathered dust in the garage while the little Suzuki languished under a tarp in the back yard. I was helping her with something or other and she mentioned that she just needed to get rid of it. I offered to try to get it back running again. I put some wind in the flat tires and they held air. Great. I'll push it around the corner to my house. That turned out to be quite a workout because the front caliper was seized onto the rotor. It would still roll, but the brake was actively fighting that.

I tried to charge the battery, but it was having none of it. I assumed that the battery was toast, but tried my little trickle charger/desulfator anyway. Bought a new battery. Start button/starter worked, bike turned over. So far, so good. Was very little gas in it and didn't want to use that old stuff anyway so I drained that and put in some fresh gas. The lawnmower runs just fine on crappy old gas. I removed the carburetor and pulled it apart. Not too bad, but cleaned out the bowls and ensured the jets were clear. I reinstalled the carb, got the fuel line hooked up and tried to start it. After a few cranks, it fired up. Didn't run smooth, but it ran. Spark plug next. This is a single cylinder 650cc motor. Advance auto had a plug for it and the counter guy said that they are on closeout and they had 2 if I wanted a spare, and that they were a whopping $1.49. 2 plugs in hand, I set off. Fresh plug in the motor and it ran pretty well.

Wanted to take it for a spin, but there was still the issue of the sticky caliper. I was able to get the caliper off and started pulling it apart. I was able to get it free without removing the brake line. The problem was a lot of corrosion on the slider pins. There was lots of prying, spraying of the old WD40, and some harsh words were spoken, but it finally moved and I got it apart. Cleaned the piston and the pins and only needed to sand down the pads, they were not close to needing replacement, as this bike had less than 3000 miles on it. It looked like 30K but that is just from living outside in the Florida weather since 2007. Reinstalled caliper and it works like it should. A test ride proved that everything else worked as it should. Stopped for gas and when I went to leave, no start. No click, no nothing when the starter button was pushed. After a few tries, it finally worked. That turned out to be a bad starter relay, had to order one. At this point, I was pretty familiar with the little bike and I hadn't had a bike in a long time. For many years, I have had a little 50cc scooter that I use for quick trips for odds and ends, but it's not really a motorcycle and it's pretty limited. So, I offered to buy it from her cheaply, since I already had some time and money in it and it still needed new tires to replace the factory originals which were old and cracking despite having plenty of tread. After a new set of tires, the parts, and the purchase price, I had in it nearly what she paid for it originally. And, to be honest, it's not really worth much more than that, but I had a perfectly good running little runabout for less than 4 figures. Added a little tail bag to make it useful for errands.

Forgot to mention that I did change the oil and filter at some point in here. Could have been the original 15 year old oil based on the low miles.

What a cool little bike! Alex has dreams of buying a cheap bike like that and fixing it up. I'm not sure he has the mechanical skills needed to pull it off.

This just popped up on Facebook. Seemed relevant.

"It's not a big motorcycle,
Just a groovy little motorbike."

Okay it's not a Honda and the Beach Boys didn't write a song about it, but it's small and Japanese and that's close...

Very cool!

Hey, if you have any thoughts of selling this, Alex is getting close to ready to want to buy a DD bike. This would be ideal for him. It's probably a little on the powerful side for him, but he does have ample experience on scooters up to a 200.

He's looking to buy something cheap off of CL and fix it up. But, he's not got the greatest "fixer upper" skills. He's gotten pretty good with bicycles, but that's very different from something with an engine, etc.

I don't really need it. figured I would hang onto it so she can ride it when she wants to get back in the saddle. She rode it around the neighborhood a while back.

It is a great beginner bike. It's a big dopey single, so it is not as powerful as a 650 would seem. It's like 35 HP. It would be great for him if he likes the cruiser style of moto. If he has been riding 200cc scooters, this would be faster, but not a lot more. He would do fine with it.

What kind of price would you want for it? PM or email me if you want.

I'd much rather help him get into a known good bike than to buy some cheap unknown crap from CL, which is what he's planning to do.

I forgot about this. Is he still looking?

Yes and no. He still wants a bike, but money burns holes in his pockets.

He saved up $500 towards a bike. Bought an electric scooter on FB Marketplace. And that's fine. The range sucks, but it gets him to work and back, which is good.

Saved another $500... and bought a 2006 VW Beetle Convertible with a salvage title. Body work has been done (and reasonably well, it seems), but somebody stripped the entire interior out of it. Geez!

So, yeah, he wants a bike. Who knows how much he'll let this VW bury him. And he still hasn't bothered to get his license yet.

Ok. Bike will be here for the foreseeable future. Not actively trying to sell it, but as I said, I don't really need it.

Should also note that he is supposed to have moto endorsement for anything bigger than 50ccs. Even scooters.

Yeah, he's gonna do that, too. He had all that a few years ago. What happened was that he screwed around in KS with some stupid tickets that made insurance unattainable, then drove without insurance and got caught. Went without a license/car for about 5 years, then was going through the expensive "SR-22" insurance to get his license back in order. And that was okay until he couldn't afford it and quit paying it.

Then he moved here. Of course, most states are interlinked these days, so FL picked up on his status. They gave him the option of doing SR-22 for a year, or just going a year without a license to reset the clock. He opted for the latter since he didn't have a car, anyway. The caveat is that he's back to square one, has to retake his road test, and will probably have to retake the MC endorsement class. He's ready to do that, his year is up.

Why he's not done it yet is anybody's guess. Motivation is not his strong suit. I told him to schedule it and I'd take him over there, even help him practice for the silly test. Not happened yet!

Once he's got his license and endorsement in-hand, I'll remind him of your bike.

I would think the endorsement should still be valid, then. Not like they make anyone else re-certify after some time. It's just a basic rider/safety course anyway. It's a couple of hundos to take the class too, would suck to have to do it again.

Yeah, I thought the same. He's not bothered to call and ask. If they've truly "wiped his record clean", then he may have to redo it. They're making him redo the Class E road test, so who knows?