82' Honda XL185s rebuild

[G2mk3]

So for quite a while I have avoided the whole motorcycle thing. I always tend to have a few too many hobbies at one time, and i always saw motorcycles as being the straw that would break the camel's back. I graduated college in December, perfect timing to start looking for jobs that don't exist. With no income since June, I haven't been able to feed money into my subaru wrx and golf GTI rally car. Since every time I think about working on those cars the numbers are three, if not four digits, it was time to find a cheap project to keep my hands busy. ahhhh I remember there was a bike tucked away in a barn at my girlfriends parent's hobby farm, it turns out to be a 1982 Honda XL185s, a few questions later I was told that if I got it running he'd sign the title over to me . Here it is in a deep slumber:

pulled it out to blow some of the dust off and get a better assessment of the situtation:


Looks to be mostly there. One of the GF's brothers pulled the lights off a while back to make it look more like a dirt bike, tires are rotted, chain looks bad, seat cover needs to be replaced, fork and bars are a little twisted from being droped... give it a kick over and it's seems to be decent inside seems like a good project. In the end I can have a bike that is good enough to cruise around on some county roads for adventures, but more importantly will be a decent first bike as well as being basically the best moped ever for around the cities

Last saturday my friend Brian (captianpegs) and I decided to get it started. Poured the old gas out of the tank, cleaned the carb out and poked a blocked jet out with a needle. with a little starter fluid it fired up and we were able to give it a spin:

The engine seems strong, but both of us were unable to get 5 gears. 0 down and 4 up... looks like all those years as chasing cows as a farm bike took it's toll on 1st gear. We figured it was best to quit running the bike and drop the oil to see what the scoop is:


and so begins the project