Someone Else's Problem: Anesthesia's 2-wheeler...take two(?)

Anesthesia

Anesthesia

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2011
Messages
1,334
Location
Turku Finland
Car(s)
'88 Civic 1.6i-16, '05 Accord, '07 Dyna
So here is my new ride. As some might know I had a '96 yamaha XV 535 for a year and seeing as I knew I would not have it for long I didn't do a thread on it. This one though is different so I might as well.

It is a '93 Kawasaki VN1500.
Visually it has some flaws and it's not exactly clean. But the deal seemed good enough and the size being much more to my liking it made sense to change keys(I gave the prev. own. the yamaha)I plan on swapping the saddle bags to the bigger ones I have and the seat needs to be fixed. We already fixed the locking mechanism for it and now I just need to get the cover replaced since it has a small tear in it. I did get an extra seat out of a harley(so he said) but after a short fiddling around earlier today I figured it's not even close to fitting. As it is it needs a proper thorough cleaning and some other little touch ups.

Picking it up


In the garage with the old saddle bags removed.


Proof pic
 
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nice... classy two tone.
I would strip some sleekness to it by removing saddle bags, dropping the license plate under the tail light and getting some lower mirrors. But thats just me.
 
The bags I had on my yamaha will be going on. Not having anywhere to put your stuff is very unpractical. As for the plate. I look at the possibility of moving it somewhere. Under the light would be one, the other one would be to the left of the rear wheel. In both cases I would need to make a new license plate light since atm. the rear light is lighting it up.
 
Congrats, nice upgrade :)
 
Thanks. Since the winter is so mild I've been able to ride it. Definetly was worth it. :)
Later today I'm gonna stop by a shop that should be able to fix the little tear in the seat.
 
While I was in the garage I took a shot at polishing the engine side. Obviously this is not chrome but I was rather surprised that it worked fairly well. Less than two minutes of work. Rubbing the paste on and wiping it off. The forward side is not polished for comparison.
 
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Seat upholstered, the guy had it for almost 3 weeks and it took him a day to get it sorted. In good time time too, since it looks like spring is trying to happen...or was it that we never got a proper winter to begin with?
As I said before, the seat had a 10cm tear in it. The whole thing got redone at a reasonable 50? price.
 
Put the bigger bags on today, it needed a metal piece to be made so that you can't just take the bags off the back. Bolted it to the back of the license plate holder.
Coolant and oil was on the list as well.
 
Well it broke down. Or more to the point it failed to start. From the looks of things it's either the ignition switch, the kill switch or wiring to either one. All of these have been tampered with at some point. I'm gonna take it to the garage tomorrow and see what I can find. Putting it down to age or more likely the fact that PO did work on it without proper knowhow. At any rate it's probably something small and I'll sort it out tomorrow.
 
Well perhaps not. Got back in the garage, checked the ignition switch, the kill switch, battery and most of the wiring. So there's something I missed, or something I failed to realize could be wrong. Once again, more tomorrow.
 
Well it runs again. It ended up being the kill switch anyway. At the moment it's rigged so that it works as long as I don't push my luck and fiddle with it. :D
It also developed a massive fuel leak in the fuel line. Had to be dealt with as well as putting the rest of it together.
 
Oh how short lived my joy was. Today it did it again. Though this time it was the starter relay. I suppose it's good that it's doing it now, near home instead of doing it on the road somewhere.
 
You sure it's not a Harley with Kawasaki badges on it? :lol:

Sucks to hear that. Hope it doesn't turn into a nightmare. Older bikes can definitely be finicky.
 
It sat next to a harley for the rest of the winter when I got it. Could have picked up a thing or two from it. :D
I'm fairly confident that these little issues will be the worst of it. As I've been told by a few friends of mine that have had VN15's these issues are normal in these. So hopefully I'm safe.
... knock on wood. :D
 
New relay got here today. It runs!
 
Huzzah! Ride long and prosper. :cool:
 
TY :)
Let's hope that was the worst of it. As I said I'm taking a trip to south Estonia later this week. Would suck if it would have done this out there somewhere. That said, I do have some odds and ends coming in at some point. Courtesy of ebay.
 
Roadtrip over, left thursday, just got back. Nothing went wrong, everything worked like it should. I did end up pushing a motorcycle once or twice - luckily it wasn't mine. :D
Here's a shot I took at an old soviet airbase. The hangars used to house MiG-23's as I was told by our friend that was with us.

 
We started visioning some changes with a couple of friends. Now that I'm taking it apart the coming winter anyway - why not paint the tins in a different color? The front fended needs to be painted anyway since it has been painted by a monkey riding a barrel while being shot at by a baboon. Ok it's not THAT bad but bad enough for me to do something about it. :D

I was thinking of a darker shade of metallic green, possibly something from kawasaki's own models, or possibly a dark gray(gunmetal gray or something) with something copper accents. A single stripe across the tins or possibly an OEM style paintjob. Not sure yet but I would like to change it just slightly.
 
I diagnosed an intermittent failure to start with a fine tuning adjustment tool


The starter was in need of an overhaul. It turned out that the case was cracked and water had gotten in to it as well as the carbon pieces being worn down. I tore it down, cleaned it up and put it back together

out of the bike


The bit with rhe brushes. Seen some water. :D


32?


As good as new. Fixed the crack and the starter.
 
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