Introduction

Not really sure what to write in here. If you're reading this thanks I guess.
I made this blog to sort of chronicle my adventures of owning and fixing 1980s motorcycles.

It started with a 1989 Suzuki GS500e that I paid a measly $250 for.
The day I brought it home in January:

The tires were absolute junk but I didn't care. I rode the hell out of it for a season. Bought a Vance & Hines exhaust and broke a stud in the head and parked it while I acquired other bikes.

My parents went to Texas to move my sister into college. I took this time to pick up two bikes:
1990 Kawasaki EX500

1986 Yamaha FZ600

The owner of the EX500 was unloading it because it didn't start at the start of the season so he went and bought a new bike. I gave him $400. Brought it home. The next day on lunch break I drained the fuel from the carbs and it fired up! With the GS500 down, I decided to register it and ride it for a bit. At the end of the season I put it up for $1,000 and that same day a feller came down and bought it from me for $950. Not bad. 

Ah, the FZ600. Time has forgotten this bike I think. It was Yamaha's first attempt at a "race replica" or what are now incorrectly dubbed as "street bikes." The FZ was a fully faired replacement for the aging FJ600. With a 599cc DOHC air cooled inline 4 powerplant mated to a 6 speed pumping out 68BHP and weighing in at just 440lbs, it earned praise from almost all publications of the day with quick steering and effortless handling. It was down 20 pounds from the previous FJ600 and 33 pounds less than the Ninja 600 (which I later owned).

  I paid $250 for it, smoked like a freight train upon start-up and didn't charge. But it did have a nice set of Airtech Streamlining fiberglass body work and a super rare Cobra F1R slip on.
 After the fact I sold it I realized just how rare it was. Been looking for one ever since.

So now I had 3 bikes. Is that enough? Hell no!
The girl I was dating at the time worked in Boston at a laundromat. I picked her up one night to have a date in the city and I noticed a CBR sitting behind the place, directly under the exhaust duct! At this point, I had not owned a "modern" sport bike so it fascinated me.

I inquired as to who owned it and she said the alcoholic who ran the computer system. I asked if she knew if it was for sale and she asked the guy. He said "Yea, $1,000." I shrugged it off because that was too much for a bike that's been laid up for 3 years behind a laundromat.
One day he texted her and said "$400, need it gone" so I said "$300 cash tonight" and he agreed and paid him when I picked her up from work that night.
The next day me and a friend went and picked it up.

The tank was dented, it had no windscreen and the left fairing was cracked. But it had a nice D&D Exhaust system!
I put some fresh fuel in it and cranked it a bit and it roared to life. A used condom wrapper spit out of the exhaust which was a pleasant surprise.
The previous owner confessed to me it needed the stator replaced as it did not charge the battery.
Upon further research and testing, I found that 90s Hondas are notorious for bad voltage regulators. I tested the coil windings and all of them put out the required 40V so it was just a bad regulator. Score one for me.
Sourced an early 2000s Suzuki GSX-R regulator as it has a wider base and large heatsink fins which makes it ideal for any conventional 5 wire 12 volt charging system.

While replacing the regulator, I found there was lint EVERYWHERE. Which contributed to it's surprisingly clean and rust free condition for being subjected to Boston weather for a few years.
The plus side to this was when the bike was running and the exhaust got hot, it smelt like fresh laundry.
Ultimately I sourced a used set of OE Yellow fairings for the bike and sold it to a friend for what I had into it.