Too F'n cold to ride! Better to wrench than kill myself

Seeing how this weather getting me too close to death- either by suicide or my wife killing me for my unending bitching- I decided to do something else motorcycle related.
But first a rant. F'n, F'n, F'n F'n snow just won't stop! Since last fall I had my FJR in our driveout basement for it's winter maintenance and annual deep cleaning. About 14 days ago the local weatherman said that we would be getting our first 60 degree day in over 100 days. Mind you, it's not like we ever gor anywhere CLOSE to 60 in those 100+ days. It has been well below freezing with epic snows for most of that time. I ran out and fired up our tractor and spent a few hours clearing the 20 foot long my 5 foot high snowpile that separates our basement from where the town plow piles it at the end of our road. I then got out the snowblower to clear what was left. Half way through the auger gearbox blew up. At over $350 for a replacement housing for that poorly made MTD POS it's time to spend $2K on a better built machine. Great. A few days later the snow actually did melt out of that muddy path. I got the bike out and struggled with it up the incline and thankfully didn't tip it over. By the time I reached my paved driveway the bike looked like it had gone through an enduro ride. (Why did I bother detailing it?) We had one day of riding before the next snow storm covered everything under 10 inches of snow that is still here. Forecast calls for more of the same right into April.
Now to my happy place.
I recently picked up a street legal KM100. Since I was a kid I thought that the mini G5s were cool. It's in decent shape and starts right up but needed some cleaning and tires if I was going to plate it. It was 10 degrees out in the garage, but it started first kick. I rode it through that 10 inches of snow and parked it in the heated basement to melt the snow on it.

Get a two stroke bike with screws on the tires.

No, I spent way too much time freezing my ass off outside as it is. I did that ice shit when I was a kid. Right now I'm sticking with anything warm.

Fly and ride to New Mexico.

So, that last shot was after it had melted and I was ready to take off a couple things for cleaning and beadblasting. Here's the other side:

I used to do that to SF and LV. Time and $ didn't allow it for the last few years. This spring (if it ever comes) I'll be working on a way to haul the FJR on the back of our class A so I can bring it south.

I'm not used to bikes with so few parts. Within an hour the poor thing looked like this:

It was Saturday at noon. I called my old friend Matt who owns a high performance engine shop in Rochester NY (ProFormance Auto) and asked him how long he'd be there. He said to make the 1 hour drive and have some fun. He's buried in race engines at this time of year and was looking at a full day finishing up a 588 Ford so the shop was available to me. I drove over and spent about an hour and a half back in the dungeon cleaning my parts.

I spent a little time online and found almost everything I needed at Dennis Kirk. Tires, tubes, rim strips, grips and full gasket set were only $122 shipped. Now I need to find a set of stickers and NOS rear fender. The previous owner found a NOS front fender in Canada. Luckily that came with it. Time to spray paint the pipe, swing arm and a few bits.

Here's a bunch of the cleaned parts:

Turning two sets of blinkers into one good set. The KM had extremely dryrotted stems. The fronts were missing and the backs were hanging by the wires when I bought the bike. I got a better set off a KLR250 that were the same part number but it looks like that bike was laying in mud at one point. Time to transplant some guts.

Looks good, I should send you my GT750 project bike since I haven't gotten around to it yet and don't know when I will. Should take your mind off the snow for a while

Dude, I understand entirely. This winter has dragged on way to long and way to much snow.

I did the same thing. Took a bike apart. Hope to have it done before yard work season begins.



It cost a lot less than drinking my winter away

Nice Kawi... How close are you to completion ?

That CBX is going to be one nice ride.
Here's the deloused engine.

It was another crappy day so I got quite a bit finished. I'll get some more pictures. I'm pretty much waiting on my Dennis Kirk order that will be here Thursday.

Here's the frame in the "assembly area".

Judging by the floor finish, your assembly area could carry with it some serious risks to domestic tranquility.

No my Pontiac fan. That is our old rug that is now in the basement. Degreasing the frame was in the other half of the basement. Now I have to go clean the cement floor over there.

Pontiac fan? :huh

Cool build-up, though; thanks for posting it up.

Us older gearheads hear "nailhead" and think of an older Pontiac V8. I just Googled it and it was the first thing on the list.

I signed on here when I was banging nails for a living.

Here are the wheels all polished up. UPS says the tires, tubes, and rim strips will be here tomorrow.
14 in the rear, 16 up front