I know I said I wouldn’t get another bike for a while...however a man in Wisconsin found my kryptonite, a barn find two stroke for less than the cost of a nice date night...
I’m going to monetize my vehicle collecting. This is something I’m clearly in for the long haul, so why not turn it into a sort of business? I’ve always wanted to reboot my monetized YouTube channel and possibly go from there to develop a museum/dealership hybrid like the Volo Auto Museum here in IL. I’m thinking of being sort of a mix of Saabkyle with Mustie1, Fortnine, and maaaybe a dash of moto-vlogger. I’m more passionate about motorcycles than I am about cars (aside from smarts), and that’s saying something.
This can/will also be fueled by a career change I’m committing to this year, but that’s something I’m writing for a different day.
As for the name of this? I’m thinking Misty Motor Collection. Misty is a nickname of mine and would be less confusing than Mercedes Motor Collection.
I started out this new plan of mine by further deciding the fate of the Ruckus clone. It’s on the chopping block. As I’m heading into Gambler season it’s not unlikely that I’ll end up with some sort of dedicated car for offroading. I have no intentions on having 11 vehicles this early in the game, so something has to be disposed of.
Back to the barn find. Unlike my other projects where getting them running and legal were the names of the game, I actually want this little KE100 to be the initial flagship of my new YouTube channel with a full reconditioning.
This is a 1979 Kawasaki KE100. This bike was stored in a barn for who knows how long. Amazingly I’m actually the second owner of this bike. I was given the original title and original key. The bike was first titled to a woman in 82, rode 3k miles, then lived the rest of its life in a barn ever since. I now own one bike from each of the Japanese big 4!
The tank is in immaculate condition. The seller thought he would restore it and got started by creaming the tank. It looks better than new. The outside can be touched up and would also look new. It’s so clean you can eat soup out of it! Only missing parts so far as I can see are the brake light, rear turn indicators, and the carb cover. It has good compression and the spark plug is there, but it’s pretty weathered. Likewise, the throttle cable is unusable. But since the carb looks like it got varnished like ten years ago I can replace both the carb and throttle cable at the same time. Looks like it won’t take much to get it running! Madame DeLorean wants to make it into a mini cafe racer and that’s also something I’m happy to sign off on. After the success of the gaming computer project, building a motorcycle together will be even more fun. Now just to get it into my condo... Thankfully it only weighs like 180 lb.