Fixed The YM1

 So over the past week I dug through boxes of parts and gathered all these parts to build a couple sets of carburetors for my sweet little  1966 305cc Yamaha YM1 . 

I love this bike.It's the first motorcycle I ever restored. Did that job way back in 1989 . Before that I just rode them and fixed them when they broke. It all started when My DS6C got stolen a decade earlier.I recovered that bike a week or so later all trashed and stuck it in the corner of this garage I rented .It sat for 3 years while I fooled with the Triumph I got from my friend Richard .Finally I sold that rat and in desperation I picked up a parts bike for the DS6C and fixed the damn thing.Rode it for a bunch of years and then it needed work and I found this 1971 Yamaha R5 in 1985.Now I had two bikes . Then a month later I found a couple more DS6's and a couple R5's . Now I had all these parts bikes.Kept finding more and people used to just give them to me . I filled my garage with bikes then I dismantled them and built a parts inventory .As I was doing this I found the little blue 66 YM1 .It was a rat but all there and had compression so I dove in and fixed it up to ride and as time went on I made her real nice

She went from a rat to a show bike and was in use the entire time.

 

Now here we are in December of 2023 . I'm putting her back together with some nice fresh carbs.Started her yesterday and all seems good so this morning I'll button it all up and test ride her.If the test ride is good I'll ride her out to the shop on Wed or Thurs  and get her inspected .  This repair project has led to me beginning the job of doing an inventory and re boxing of all my parts ! I did plan on this but have been putting it off.I last did this over 20 years ago so it is going to be a real challenge .There are hundreds of boxes of parts for 6 different motorcycles that I need to sort out.

I wonder what treasures I will find that I forgot I had ! So now the fun begins .This will be my winter project. It's nice and warm down in the basement and who knows , I may even take a break from the inventory thing and do a painting or two.It's not so bad being retired. Money is always a worry but stuff like this keeps me in a positive frame of mind and moving forward .  Maybe we'll get lucky and have a warm winter again like last year.If that's the case then I'll be riding too . Riding always puts me in a good place mentally so this winter may turn out to be a good one. Tomorrow I have to service my neighbors generator so it's all ready for use if needed. I'll probably do my two  generators that  I keep here at home at the same time .  The one I keep at my camp gets serviced every time I pack up to leave so it's always ready when I arrive . Work never really ends when you retire , the only change is in the flow of money.