I ve bought a Blackbird that s been off the road 20 years!
Discussion
Sooooooooo….
Earlier this year I decided that the two project cars I’m struggling to find time to work on just wasn’t enough. I needed a bike to make up a set
Cue lots of scouring Facebook marketplace for cheap and cheerful crap. After sending lots of messages, not getting replies, deciding some of them were just too far away and some just too far gone, a 1997 Honda Blackbird popped up. However this wasn’t just any Blackbird, this was a Blackbird that had been off the road for over 20 years. Oh and it had been stripped of all fairings, seat and fuel tank, but apparently it still started and ran.
It was only an hour down the road, so one Friday my two year old and I took a drive down in the van. The old boy selling it had owned it since it was about 6 months old and it had been his daily bike for around 7 years before he bought something else and parked this in his garage. Over the years he’d ended up selling the fairings and tank, but made a point of keeping the carbs clean and regularly starting the bike by using two syringes of fuel that he pumped down the fuel lines. So when I arrived to give it a look over he started it up for me, gave it a rev and then let it sit there idling.
Anyway, I ended up giving him £300 for it, loaded it into the van and took it home.
Earlier this year I decided that the two project cars I’m struggling to find time to work on just wasn’t enough. I needed a bike to make up a set
Cue lots of scouring Facebook marketplace for cheap and cheerful crap. After sending lots of messages, not getting replies, deciding some of them were just too far away and some just too far gone, a 1997 Honda Blackbird popped up. However this wasn’t just any Blackbird, this was a Blackbird that had been off the road for over 20 years. Oh and it had been stripped of all fairings, seat and fuel tank, but apparently it still started and ran.
It was only an hour down the road, so one Friday my two year old and I took a drive down in the van. The old boy selling it had owned it since it was about 6 months old and it had been his daily bike for around 7 years before he bought something else and parked this in his garage. Over the years he’d ended up selling the fairings and tank, but made a point of keeping the carbs clean and regularly starting the bike by using two syringes of fuel that he pumped down the fuel lines. So when I arrived to give it a look over he started it up for me, gave it a rev and then let it sit there idling.
Anyway, I ended up giving him £300 for it, loaded it into the van and took it home.
Stevemtb said:
Will be watching for updates, good luck, can't understand the logic behind this but we're all different!
I guess it depends on the reason why they're doing it.I'm on my 5th project bike and if it was looked at purely from a flipping/profit point of view... I'm hopeless and lost a bit of money.
For me, it's more of a hobby over winter when riding isn't the best and learning new skills that I can transfer onto my own bikes.
I always say it's pointless and don't suggest others do it though!
Like you say, we're all different - thankfully!
Anyway, once I’d got the wheels and forks off I also decided to remove the swingarm so I could clean off the years of grease. At this point the bike was sitting on its centre stand with my engine hoist holding it up. I started to give the frame a good scuff up and also tried to give the engine a bit of a clean up, however I just couldn’t get in to all the nooks and crannies. Soooo I took the engine out of the frame
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