Get Upside Down on a Vintage Motorcycle
November 15, 2016There’s an event called the Vintage 1000 whose stated goal is to get a dozen people to ride 1000 miles of the Trans America Trail on 1981-and-older motorcycles, with an extra (optional) challenge of putting that bike together for under $1000 total. I did it. The bike was a 1972 Honda XL250, the first year … Read More
Why we stopped repairing Chinese scooters
March 1, 2016In the fall of 2014, Nashville Motorcycle Repair stopped working on Chinese-brand scooters. Here’s why. Imagine Sisyphus, sweating away in Hades, pushing his rock up the hill every day, only to watch it roll back to the bottom, where he’s forced to start over. Now imagine the rock is actually a poorly-made machine that’s always … Read More
On replacing complex parts
November 27, 2014Lots of motorcycle problems require us to replace the affected parts. Worn out tires, chains and sprockets, crash-damaged levers, leaking fork seals, etc. But there are two items people seem inclined to replace that rarely actually need it: the carburetors and the wiring harness. Both of these assemblies are pretty complicated, at least in comparison to a tire, a … Read More
Buying a used bike: Honda 599
December 28, 2013In June 2012, I bought a new-to-me Honda 599, roughly one week after finding out they’d been sold in the U.S. for two years. In The Rest of the World, it’s called a Honda Hornet 600. Here, it’s the 599, because, supposedly, somehow the old AMC Hornet has a permanent claim on the name. For … Read More
2003 Honda VFR800 running problem
April 7, 2013I’ve been making a lot of “cobbler’s son” jokes this week. Of the three motorcycles I own with unexpired tags on them right now, exactly zero are running properly. One of them is a 2003 Honda Interceptor VFR800 with 7,000 miles on it. I bought it from a friend who bought it from a coworked … Read More
1977 Kawasaki KZ400, Part 3
July 18, 2012I finished the oil and filter change at approximately 11:00 am Tuesday morning, about an hour after I’d promised Michael I’d get to his house. There, we loaded our bikes into his truck and headed out to Rogers, Arkansas for the start of the Ozark Mountain Scramble. We had agreed about three weeks earlier to … Read More
1977 Kawasaki KZ400, Part 2
June 18, 2012I’ve lost track of how long the KZ400 spent on the other side of the shop, collecting dust, before I got back around to working on it. I do know that I finally got back to it on a Monday, eight days before the event I was preparing it for. The last minute work included … Read More
1977 Kawasaki KZ400, Part 1
December 27, 2011I’ve decided to participate in the Ozark Mountain Scramble, a three-day event/ride in June that has just three simple rules: Your motorcycle must be from 1980 or earlier, 750cc or less, and cost no more than $1000 complete. This appeals to my sense of practical motoring. I’ve chosen two bikes for the OMS. (Yes, I … Read More