'I did a thing'

First let's recap.

I sold the 1996 Ducati Monster 750 on eBay and it was picked up. I made a tidy profit on it and I hope the new owner enjoys it!

The 2003 Honda CBR954 Fireblade sold on eBay for just over $3,000. The winning bidder got a true deal on it. Especially considering I'm including everything to make it 100% again (brand new OEM upper fairing and a mint used tank.) These bikes normally sell for $3,500+ in mint shape. Oh well! Still a profit for me!

After that auction ended, I listed the 1999 Ducati Monster 900 City Edition on eBay,

It really is a nice bike like the Monster 750 but me being on two wheels in an upright riding position is uncomfortable, the auction closed at just over $2,300.

So I'm down two bikes, right?


Oh wait!

Soooo the ad was pretty poor,

Come to find out, the person listing the ad is the daughter-in-law of the owner.

After talking to her the truth is revealed! Her father in law bought it new in a crate in 1989 and according to him, a select few dealers were allowed to sell them - those select few dealers only got two of them to sell. He paid for it in October 1989 and had to wait til March 1990 to actually take delivery. When he rode it, he proclaimed it was enough bike for him and didn't do any stupid modifications to it like hack the rear fender off or install flush mount blinkers (my biggest pet peeve) or modify the exhaust or intake system (a set of ZX7 H1 flatsides would be so fucking rad.)

According to the son of the old man, the bike was an absolute powerhouse in it's day. So I went down to look at it:

She has seen better days, hasn't run in 5 years and was sitting in that same spot for 10.

So I brought it home Friday night and yesterday got to work.

First step was cleaning, she was a dirty girl!

Next step was to completely clean the carbs.

They weren't all that dirty which was nice. Nothing needed to be replaced either! 

Put it all back together and got it started. She's a good 20 foot bike that's for sure, I'm going to keep an eye out for some better body panels.

When I got it fired up, the middle two cylinders weren't running. I tested the plug and coil and both were good. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure it out.I checked all the hoses made sure there wasn't a vacuum leak or anything blatantly wrong.

I grabbed the carb sync tool just for kicks. Hooked it up, started the bike up and realized cylinder 1 was way out of adjustment. I think what was happening was cylinder 1 is on the far left and when the bike is on the kick stand, gravity works in it's favor for fuel. It was drawing so much vacuum that it was pulling fuel from the middle two cylinders. I got it equal with the rest and she runs nice and smooth.

Ignore the awful exhaust leak. Hoping to have that fixed soon. Up next is figuring out the clutch...

Until next time,
See you on the road!