New to this forum

[b.miller123]

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm new here but have been on other bike forums for a while now. Been riding for a around 14 years now. I've owned a Honda Superhawk, a Yamaha R1, and my last bike was a Honda RC51. I'm back on a 250 this year, but will probably pick up or build a cbr600rr after the season winds down and I buy a house.

I actually started on a '98 ex250 back in '99. My parents wouldn't spend the money on a bike. So, after doing tons of research on what the best beginner bike was, the day I turned 18 I went out and bought the bike myself. I didn't know anyone that rode, so I had to have a friend ride it to another friend's house. The next morning I hopped on and figured it out as I went. I literally had to figure out what controls did what by reading in magazines. I was immediately hooked, scared and couldn't stop smiling. Of course, I dropped it as soon as I returned to my friend's gravel driveway. Nothing major, just broke the turn signal. I sold the bike about a year later to a friend because I was low on money.

He had it for a while until someone tried to steal it around 2007. He had come home one day to find the bike gone, filed a report with police and figured he would never see it again. About two months later he gets a call from the police saying that they had found the bike. Turns out they had tried to break the ignition, but probably couldn't get it started and pushed it into some bushes in a park less than 100feet from where it was parked. It sat there the whole time until someone walking by noticed it. They completely destroyed the ignition, but everything else was intact. Since the bike sat for so long, the gas had gone bad in the carbs.

At this time, I wasn't living close to my friend, and he was pretty discouraged about getting the bike running after the attempted theft. We spent a couple days here and there trying to clean the carbs, but could never get it to run right. I moved to the other side of the country for about four years, and he just left the bike to rot away under a tarp the whole time. Fast forward a while, I return to WA and he gives me the bike back for free.

I've spent some time getting it running and posted a thread on the local forum about that, so I won't copy everything over here: http://pnwriders.com/projects/171087...otorcycle.html


Here is how she looked when I picked her up for the second time:




Unfortunately, I had a little incident at the track two weeks ago. First time I've ever been down at speed (I don't count gravel driveways the first day on a motorcycle). I'm in pretty good shape for a highside at around 50-60mph. Pulled something in my hip and have a stiff right wrist. X-rays were clean, nothing broken. Bike took it pretty well too, looks like it went off into the dirt and didn't flip at all. Tank has a hole, bar is bent, rearset snapped in two, exhaust sleeve is toast from hitting the swingarm. Forks were tweaked (lower triple was bent, but the forks are straight). I bent it back just by holding the wheel with my knees and pulling the bars.

Parts are coming in, and I should have it up and running again in a few weeks, maybe a month. This will be my racebike this year in wmrra (once I get back out and do the track portion of the new racer school without crashing ). I'm also gathering parts to do the 17 inch wheel conversion, but that is on the back burner until she is back together.

[Motofool]

Speedy recovery and welcome to the site, Brett !!!

[aeroblade]

I remember seeing that avatar on some other forum... would that be you?

Welcome to the forum btw

[csmith12]

Welcome Brett!

I had to laugh that the bike was only 100ft away during the time it was missing. Bummer about the crash and heal up fast. Good luck finding your parts too.

[KJohnson21]

[Snake]

Hello and welcome.

[b.miller123]

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Originally Posted by aeroblade

I remember seeing that avatar on some other forum... would that be you?

Welcome to the forum btw

Could be, I usually use the same avatar and screen name on all the forums I frequent. I do change it from time to time though.

Originally Posted by csmith12

Welcome Brett!

I had to laugh that the bike was only 100ft away during the time it was missing. Bummer about the crash and heal up fast. Good luck finding your parts too.

Yeah, my buddy was quite surprised to get the call from the police. A shame really, as it would have been an easy fix back then. At least she is being ridden again and back together (for the most part). I haven't been able to do much on it other than order some parts. I put a new bar and master on it, and have a throttle/kill switch on the way. The lower triple was bent a little, but I just bent it back by holding the front wheel between my legs and yanking on the bars. I have a spare black tank with some rust issues that I'm attempting to fix, and some race bodywork from a new gen that I might try to fit (that will take a lot of work)

I'm still dealing with what turned out to be a "hip subluxation". Basically a partially dislocated hip. Apparently the ball of my femur momentarily came forward slightly out of the hip socket just enough to stress some of the ligaments and other crap in there. Sounds worse than it really is.

[b.miller123]

Made a little headway with my post-crash rebuild.

Here's the old master and the "new" replacement. I also have a "new" right bar installed and a new throttle housing on the way with new throttle cables coming too (the end of the cable that threads into the housing was toast). The bars will be getting replaced since they won't fit the bodywork (see below) so that was a bit of a waste of money.

[JohnnyBravo]

Welcome to the forum... thanks for the story, was a pretty good one. Glad y'all are reunited, sucks about the crash.

[b.miller123]

Started fitting up my super ugly $100 new gen race fairings. They'll get painted and repaired eventually. Lots of stuff will need to be cut and trimmed and tabs made to mount them. I had to chop the front part where the upper meets the tank quite a bit to get them to even sit on there. The bars are waaaayyyy too high and so I'll be getting some woodcraft risers.




Made some cuts (understatement) on the tail to fit it around the stock pregen seat:

[JohnnyBravo]

I like what you got goin on so far

You wearin the storm trooper suit on your bike???

[b.miller123]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBravo

I like what you got goin on so far

You wearin the storm trooper suit on your bike???

That's just a random picture off the internet. I suck at wheelies.

[JohnnyBravo]

Good pic reguardless, I leave my wheelies to the dirt bikes

[Jono]

Welcome! And nice intro. Good luck fixing your ninja back up.